Philip Morris's Artworld Fix

Abstract

If Jesse Helms succeeds in destroying public funding for avantgarde art, there will be none. Without public support, artists, alternative spaces, and museums will have to go to private foundations for funding. Since other private foundation support is also disappearing, ultimately they will have to go to Philip Morris. Then Philip Morris will become virtually the sole arbiter of what avantgarde work gets funded, exhibited, and performed. If Philip Morris refuses to fund political art that criticizes, protests, or undermines its corporate interests, then, since there is no public alternative source of funding, that art is less likely to be made, exhibited, or performed. And Philip Morris will be able to buy the silence of artists who want the opportunities afforded by their funding. As a condition of receiving money, Philip Morris will, in effect, require artists to abstain from producing work that protests, criticizes, or undermines its policies. Since Philip Morris's policies legitimate the promotion of drug addiction and death for profit, they are clearly very vulnerable to criticism and protest. And, as both Philip Morris and Helms are fully aware, avantgarde art is an extremely powerful and potent voice of criticism and protest; silencing that voice through deprivation of support on the one hand and bribery on the other is no small achievement. In effect, Philip Morris will have succeeded in addicting not only smokers but also the artworld: we'll all get our fix from Philip Morris. What Philip Morris fails to understand is that the artworld does not need a fix from Philip Morris to make, exhibit, or perform avantgarde art. We managed for decades without Philip Morris and we will continue to manage. Artists can abandon the idiotic and self-defeating myth that they're not successful unless their work is supporting them and can get satisfying day jobs to pay for its production. Artists can also reject the high-concept chrome-plated packaging of the i980s and rediscover the funky conceptual aesthetic of the I960s, which valorized scavenging and humble materials. They can form cooperatives to exhibit or perform their work in their studios, apartments, or rented' storefronts, as we did in the 1950s, '6os, and '70s. They can rediscover the deep satisfaction of saying whatever they want in their work because they have nothing to lose. In short, by rejecting the drug addict's delusion that we cannot survive without our fix from Philip Morris, we can reclaim the creative independence