5. The end of the end of History

‘The end to the end of history’ assesses how, since the rise of the avant-garde, only art viewed from a historical distance has appeared to have direction and coherence, while the present always seems clouded in confusion. The rise of antagonistic art and street art are both part of this, which points to a deep shift in the constitution of the contemporary art world. The shift is partly caused by the increasing use of art as pure investment. In the early 2000s, the years of the art investment boom were also those of the unfolding ‘war on terror’. One direct response in the art world was a marked revival of a great variety of documentary forms.

2. New world order

‘New world order’ examines globalized art production and consumption. Just as business executives circled the earth in search of new markets, so a breed of nomadic global curators began to do the same, shuttling from one biennial or transnational art event to another. At first, the filtering of local material through the art system produced homogeneity. The contemporary art produced by the shock of exposure to neoliberal economic forces, in Russia and Scandinavia and the contemporary art from communist governments, China and Cuba, are important parts of the new world order. As other powers emerged to challenge the US, and as neoliberalism fell into disrepair, new worlds were revealed.

6. Fracture

‘Fracture’ explains that in contemporary art, a profound rift has opened up between the marketized art directed at the super-rich, extravagantly expensive, and often familiarly standardized, and a world of artistic social activism. The restless, global, event-driven art world has become ever more environmentally damaging. It is thus unsurprising that art fairs have occasionally been the site of protest. One response was found in increasingly activist art practices of online art or Internet art. In digital art, the use of new technological means to make and distribute work came into conflict with the craft-based practice, patronage, and elitism of the art world.

4. Uses and prices of art

‘Uses and prices of art’ details how, since the early 2000s, strong modernizing forces in the contemporary art market brought money into clear view and unabashed discussion. The prices of art and the forces that threaten art’s autonomy are all part of the story. These include the modernization of the art market, and the competing demands, promulgated by the state and business, that art should be put to use. Corporate art collecting has had a massive impact on the art world and this has been driven by the growing number of the super-rich who buy contemporary art. Ultimately, art has become a standard investment, part of the portfolio of the super-rich, used to spread risk and engage in tax avoidance.

1. A zone of freedom?

‘A zone of freedom?’ discusses how contemporary art seems to exist in a zone of freedom, set apart from the mundane and functional character of everyday life, and from its rules, conventions, and bureaucratic procedures. The relationship between free trade and free art is an important consideration here, in that the economy of art closely reflects the economy of finance capital. As financial power has shifted between nations, so has the art market. It is important to note how the current face of the contemporary art world was forged by the global events of 1989 and after, this has resulted in the emergence of political art and the rise of ‘installation art’.

3. Consuming culture

‘Consuming culture’ evaluates contemporary art’s relationship with consumerism and mass culture. The issue of art’s separation from or mergence with commodity culture has a long history. However, during the 1990s, there was an intensification of the forces involved, many of them old features of capitalism, which contributed to the dominance of a triumphant consumer culture not just over art but over all other cultural production. Branding, used by both artists and museums, is an important aspect of the consumer culture of art. In addition, the rise of social media has brought about a transforming, and intensely modernizing, turn, opening art up to quantifiable and manipulable instant feedback.