ABSTRACT
The settings within which art is made, selected, circulated, interpreted, valued, and integrated into wider cultures have, in recent decades, expanded greatly in size, scope, and complexity. In many cities throughout the world, what we might call (building on Tony Bennett’s concept) visual arts exhibitionary complexes have come into being as definitive of such settings. Rooted in European models, they are anchored by venues, such as the metropolitan museums in the world’s global cities, which aim to transcend their own usually rapacious histories to be accepted as ‘universal’ repositories of the world’s art. In major cities, these are surrounded by a host of mid-size and smaller public museums and galleries that have more specialized foci on the arts of places, periods, mediums, or individual artists. They are complemented by commercial operations such as galleries, auction houses, art fairs, and, increasingly, by private collections and foundations. These institutions depend for much of their vitality on the work of supplementary, ‘alternative’ spaces of all kinds: kunsthallen, contemporary art spaces, artist-run initiatives, pop ups, and online sites. Meanwhile, bienniales have proliferated globally, creating a dense field of mobility between artists, curators, gallerists, critics, collectors, and viewers. All elements of the art exhibitionary complex interact with each other, creating volatile but deeply rooted local ecologies, as well as regional, and now global networks that stimulate artistic creativity, disseminate or discard it, and attract viewers who are turned into engaged publics or turned off. This chapter will outline the operations of the complex as a social machine for the generation, testing and sustaining of cultural value, with particular reference to its Australian formations. The current sense of crisis in the Australian art world is, it will be argued, based in concern that social division is fragmenting the art exhibitionary complex, endangering its ability to serve as the enabling framework for the generation and consumption of the arts of today, and for achieving a rich understanding of the arts of the past.
