Painting by Su Xinping, courtesy Stux Gallery. I used this in an earlier post and don't know if it's a Chinese guy going up or a white guy going down, but it seems to illustrate the moment."Holy shit," son Matt writes in an email this morning, "this New York Times piece by Roger Cohen ['It's the end of the era of the white man'] so captures what I experienced in China." As well as what I felt after hearing about his trip, perusing Chinese art in Chelsea, visiting the Asian Art Fair, and doing research on Chinese artists for TIME. So when I read David Brook's column in December about how the Chinese with their dictatorship can't possible compete with us culturally and creatively I thought, "You ninny, it's already over." And here we are in the academic bubble that is our art world, rehashing ideas that were invented by white guys over almost half a century ago. Pul-lease.
Matt, son of Carol, here. First off, I wrote Roger Cohen last night and told him how great/perceptive his article was. This morning, he wrote me back with a cool note! What a great guy/writer! Anyways, like mother like son: I wrote to him as well that China/Asia isn't just beating the U.S. economically, but from my experience gaining on us culturally. I wrote: "One aspect of China I felt that you didn't address in your column (and didn't necessarily need to) was how not only is the Asian world gaining on us economically, but also culturally. From my own experience, I discovered when I was in China/HK that so much Asian creative culture - from street fashion to contemporary art to even an uncynical hunger for avant-garde music - was eclipsing the United
ReplyDeleteStates' likeminded gambits. Other than some analysis of Japan's pop culture, I hadn't really read anything about this phenomenon before my
trip, which completely opened my eyes. From my view on the ground, Hollywood's status as the world's preeminent myth factory and Milan's as the fashion capital seem pretty dead in the water compared to the stealth of their Asian counterparts. Culture often typically follows finance's lead, and when that goes it
will truly be the death knell for the white man's era."
I also collaborated with my friend Anthony Bozza on an article for the Guardian (U.K.) based on a similar topic. Here's the link:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/electronic/story/0,,2241676,00.html