The mantra that “life imitates art,” primarily attributed to Oscar Wilde, is more true than many care to credit.
If art does what it is meant to do, one walks away with a sense of inspiration — possibly a new outlook on the world.
Art’s forceful influence is powerful, especially in the digital age, where one can stream their favorite music anytime, or Google whatever artwork or artist someone may refer them to.
Readied access to art doesn’t point to a more artistic world. Mass proliferation of imitative and similar art seems an incontrovertible fact — a fact that directly antagonizes the very reason the arts are important.
Art museums are not hasty to adopt new and revolutionary styles of painting. A perpetual hesitance persists, as some of the highest-regarded museums continue with blasé selections from a shallow pool of consistently similar artists.
If our highest institutes of art refuse to exhibit a diverse group of artists, can it be said that diversity is even valued in the art world?
Though few involve themselves with arts outside primary education, the hidden reverence for similarity seems to bleed into arts more popularly consumed by the public.
It is not incidental that 48 percent of the Whitney Museum’s 2014 collection was created by white males.
It may also seem coincidental that of the 260 designers in New York Fashion Week last year, three were African-American — it is not. There is a systemic problem with racism in all art.
Acknowledging the elusive and underlying Western-centric tone of the arts community allows for a better understanding that some prejudices are expressed subtly.
Modern Western society exhibits a proliferate desire for diversity and individuality, but some bureaucrats of the art world imperceptibly inhibit the active practice of diverse selection in the art industry.
For centuries, art has been cherished, and has survived as the primary form of expression for humans.
There is nowhere better to ensure that various groups of people have the opportunity to achieve such creativity and expression to share with the public.
If art has such a strong impression on our daily lives, it is abhorrent that the sole selectors of the art we see are those who have acquired their position in a prejudicial system.
How can change occur if the root cause of the problem is not addressed?
Art cultivates perspective, and a narrow cultivation does not promote an open mind.
As our culture continues to evolve, it is these prejudices which must be confronted.
Acknowledgment of the prejudicial community and their selective practices will help the continued fight for equality in areas where diverse cultures have failed to be represented.
Will Meyer
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