![]() ![]() They continue to create historical or cultural upheaval. Reigning American icons do a number of things well. The most bent, in turn, become cultural icons. The prevailing works of the past century are those bent most by commodification. To be viable in the commercial era, art works need social and technological currency: they must court controversy to fuel their sales they must seek publicity to supplant their merit and they must be reborn, where apt, in another medium. The art work’s preeminent worth today lies in that cuddly American euphemism, its commercial appeal. Shares in its intrinsic value continue to fall. Not until the mid-twentieth century, when mass production of art and mass audiences for its consumption arose, was art’s intrinsic value exchanged for commodity value. Art had not yet been tainted by its earning power. ![]() In those pre-modern societies, the value of art was based on its creator’s mastery and its national or religious cast. Review: Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited by Molly HaskellĮvery culture has its enduring art-Rome The Aeneid, Italy The Last Supper, Russia the Pathetique Symphony. ![]()
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