Image 1 of 1
Contribution to Parkett vol. 100/101
“In the early 80s Maria Thereza Alves and I were living in Manhattan. (we left in 87 for mexico) It was the beginning days of a big change in art systems; on one hand art fairs (which I predicted would not last) were starting up and money from the newly rich was coming in to some parts of artists’ circles. On the other hand, artists who were not white were forcing the systems to open up. This marvelous phenomenon was made possible by women artists who themselves made the art world change.
I remember so much from those days but what looked from the outside as the lightning bolt of Jean Michel Basquiat looked from minority artists’ groups as a kind of suspicious gesture on the part of some people in power positions. Basquiat did something beautiful, delightful. But we mostly saw it as one pretty guy using the racism and fear of the establishment of his own advantage.
Time slithered on and suddenly a new century. Just like the beginnings of the last one, it really did look new and different. The internet was about to connect us all and create freedoms of all sorts.
Events and situations rose and sank, crises came and went and now after much waste and posturing there seems to be some solid changes just on the horizon.
I complained for years about the proliferation of art fairs; until Maria Thereza returned from Sharjah with stories of artists from almost forbidden places doing brilliant work and showing it in places hardly considered real before.
We live in hard times. People are responding well, and whether or not we make it through it is a good time to make art.”
-Jimmie Durham
Parkett Text
Read a selected text on Jimmie Durham
