An end to ‘I could have made that’ art?

Lots of interesting ideas were bounced around in tonight’s Where is Modern Art Now, presented by Gus Casely-Hayford (former Arts Council exec). This hour long documentary explored the state of British art today, in the light of the recent collapse of the contemporary art market. He talked to a range of artists from Grayson Perry (surprisingly conservative, normal and intelligent) to Michael Landy (shy, surprisingly cute) to more low key artists such as the sculptor Tom Price, to find out what they are making, where and why.

For too long art has been in the shadows of the Sensation crowd. The YBAs opened up everything so that now anything goes, but in this world of infinite possibilities, so much choice can be stultying. Art of the last ten years has lacked tradition and focus. A trip to a rather uninspired exhibition at Goldsmith’s brings this home. The desire to shock is no longer shocking. It has just become formulaic and besides, arguably nothing much shocks us anymore anyway, or at least not when we are expecting it, as we do in the gallery. Art needs to be challenging and controversial but it is not entertainment, argued Casely-Hayford. I quite agree and yet despite what he said, I couldn't help getting that feeling that he was struggling to emerge from that 'shock' mindset that has dictated contemporary art for so long. Its a fine line between 'art that you can hang in your dining room'(and what's so wrong with that anyway?), sensational but shallow shock pieces and really thoughtful and challenging pieces. Grayson Perry is right: The most shocking thing you can be in art today is conservative.

Thank goodness things are changing. Casely-Hayford makes a compelling case for a new era that he believes to be dawning in contemporary art. We are so used to hearing about how the recession is leading us all to be more self-reflective, tighten up our purse strings, make do and mend and return to traditional values. (This Christmas, I bet you anything the magazine’s will be selling copy based upon telling us how to sit around the fireplace knitting stockings and playing Blind Man’s Bluff with the family with not an Xbox bought on credit in sight.) Anyway, it seems art is likewise becoming more reflective. Finally, it seems, we are moving away from that over confident, mass-produced, commodified art whose runaway prices are out of kilter with the more thoughtful art-world (the endless dot pictures produced by Damian Hirst’s little dwarfs in Damian warehouseland comes to mind) towards more challenging, thoughtful and thought-provoking pieces that are not produced to satisfy the market, but which are genuine and first and foremost reflect the ideas and feelings of the artists. As Casely-Hayford puts it, 'the market should come to the artist and not the other way around'.

This new kind of modern art takes time to produce. Though just as likely to be produced in a few strokes and splatters as anything Jackson Pollock or the YBAs made, these works will typically be the distillation of years of deep thought and research, as well as great concentration and skill. Casely-Hayford sees the end of the age of the bright young things, fresh out of college, achieving great success. It is the chance for the slow-burners to come to the boil, as their artworks and ideas reach a new maturity. One such slow-burner is the sculptor Tom Price, whose portrait heads and figurines of black men as individuals rather than racial types, are uncomfortable reminders of our colonial history of anthropology. These are not radically shocking, but instead thought-provoking, informed and challenging pieces.

A new kind of art is going to require a new kind of viewer. These works will not satisfy the ‘pop in, pop out’ approach to art viewing that Tate Modern’s basic themed hangs promote. Rather, they take time to look at and understand. Grayson Perry feels that this new kind of art is going to require a new type of audience, or rather a return to an older more connoisseural viewer whom appreciates that learning to look at and understand art is like learning a language, a long slow process that takes time to develop. ‘To be soaked in art’, he says, ‘takes a long time.’ His argument that we undervalue the visual and think that looking is easypeasy and second nature struck me as fascinating. Although visual literacy is a skill I am still learning a decade on from first beginning my studies in art history, the idea that we undervalue sight is so different from my own arguments about the celebration of ocularcentricism and the neglect of the sense of smell.

Finally, this new dawn in modern art is to see a new kind of artist. Finally, it seems that the new generation will not be the attention seekers of the YBAs, but a rather more modest crowd. And about time too. Celebrity culture has never felt cheaper. Has Jordan brought down the cult of celebrity? Can this really be the end of the Tracey Emin-ses?