In Distinction (1979), a thorough study of “taste” in mid-20th-century France, Pierre Bourdieu laments that the primary activity of artists and academics today is to reproduce their own privileged cultural status. Peter Burger, in his Theory of the Avant-Garde (1974), contrasts the historical avant-gardes of Europe at the turn of the 20th century—led by artists who were actively involved in reshaping society’s norms—with later forms of modern art such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop art, which merely reframed the idea of revolution as esthetic transformation. These findings continue to be my reality check, preventing me from considering art as some kind of moral good in and of itself.
— Erin Sickler, “Art and the 99%”, Art in America, Jan 2012
