Michele Dantini on Art's Symbolic Crisis and the Curator's Role

In an essay for Artribune Magazine #33, art historian Michele Dantini argues that contemporary art has lost its symbolic depth and the 'magic of the effigy,' a quality still upheld by painters like Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Neo Rauch, Peter Doig, Luc Tuymans, and Daniel Richter. Dantini contrasts this with the dominance of site-specificity, relational art, public art, performance, and digital dissemination, which he sees as denying the transcendence of the image. He invokes a conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Michael Baxandall, where Baxandall contends that the real obstacle to creativity is not the market but the curator, who has replaced the patron. Dantini suggests that curators, often semi-educated, impose second-hand cultural agendas, potentially reducing artists to mere artisans executing luxury goods. He references Aby Warburg's theory of visual memory and the archetypal image, and cites the pamphlet 'Kulturinfarkt' to argue that society's major problems are solved by researchers and scientists, not artists. Dantini advocates for periodic disconnection and contemplation, echoing Warburg's 'pauses for reflection,' and aligns with writers Jonathan Franzen and Dave Hickey on the value of solitude. He concludes by noting David Hockney's recent painting 'A Bigger Message' (2010) as an allegory of art-for-art's-sake and eternal life.