Art

Carlos Paiva (11/11/2022)

It should be mandatory for art schools to provide an information leaflet to potential future students explaining that 90% of the population is not interested in art. 90% of the population gets their bellies full with football, televised debauchery, spectacle politics and, religion. Of the remaining 10%, those interested in art, 90% only care about the art of fashion. Successful art, with visibility. Art for the masses. Of the remaining 10% of the 10% interested in non-commercial, underground, niche art, the art that requires an active search to find, only 10% are interested in experimental art, innovative art, avant-garde art.

Thus, potential future students, if they successfully passed the entire pedagogical training process and became legitimate artists, duly covered, would know that their most sincere and genuine intentions of throwing a stone into the pond would reach, in a good hypothesis, 0, 1% of the population. Of those 0.1%, only 10% would truly understand the artistic object produced. Of those 10%, maybe, and just maybe, that artistic object would be liked by... 10%?

The artist who produces art for the delight of 0.001% of potential consumers (in a good hypothesis, reinforcement), is a normal human being (although not apparent), with survival needs identical to those of the 90% of the population that does not care about art. He also has bills to pay, he also has to put bread on the table. To achieve this, the artist has to resort to the market of government subsidies. Which, is even more competitive than the commercial art market. There are a thousand dogs to a bone, many have pedigree and attended a school with more credibility (read: institutional weight, at the limit: fame) than his. In these competitions, he also risks meeting the teachers of the school where he graduated. Despite the obvious conflict of interests, everything is coated in a healthy camaraderie and spirit of collaboration between artists. Misfortune shared, costs less.

A leaflet explaining that the two possible career paths for the potential future student, an artist to be, boil down to Operário Submisso or Sacana Filho-da-Puta, or both, the so-called multifaceted artist, would save immense frustrations, hours of therapy, rivers of money on drugs, cirrhosis of the liver, acute pancreatitis and sleepless nights.

I leave the caveat that I do not intend to influence, much less mislead, with the optimism expressed in this text. I strongly advise prudence, weighting, discernment, in decision-making. Regardless of the passion, "taste for" or "knack for" that the reader may eventually judge to have.

If schools lack available funds, the brochure could be sponsored by fast-food chains or supermarket chains. Because Kikas Bar would look bad.