Where Are All The Patrons?
A Rant
For as long as humans have existed, we have sought to create art. As our societies grew, so too did the scope of our experiences and as a result, the need to document them through art. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of museums filled with sculptures and paintings that hold the stories and visions of millions of people. The creation of art is one of the most important things we can do as humans. The artists of the 15th century renaissance understood that and their works inspired social change that laid the groundwork for our societies today. However, as capitalistic greed grew alongside human society, it became more and more impractical to devote yourself to the creation of art for art’s sake. Even painters have to eat. Miraculously, the rich people of the time acknowledged this and funded the lives of these artists as they worked, gifting the world with works such as Primavera by Sandro Botticelli.
As corrupt and messy as the Medici’s were, they at least had enough goodness in them to fund the arts. They knew when to take a break from scheming and pay the painter down the road so that the works of their time could live on. No one could accuse them of not having foresight (well maybe some). They also had the good sense to know that looking at beautiful art makes people happy. Makes them think of their country and the people in it with more fondness, even if their present conditions aren’t the best. And as a result, they ensured that their family would stay influential and relevant throughout time. That their impact on humanity would be a net positive and their efforts are well documented. What I have to wonder is, what makes the billionaires of today think they are above this playbook?
The greatest artist you will never know is currently toiling away at a cash register right now. That symphony they’re composing in their head was just interrupted by a Karen complaining that the store is out of her organic beet juice because apparently that’s the responsibility of the cashier to fix. That singer that’ll write your future favorite song just spent her entire 8 hour day in a meeting and she’s come home to lay down and not get up until the next day.
In a proper society, those among us that have talent and work ethic should be able to create the art they want to. Instead, every talented person I know if perpetually burnt out, unable to complete the vast majority of the projects they start. They work multiple jobs and have just enough energy to either do the laundry, or cook, or try and see their families after work. Meanwhile, the rich people of today are racing to see who can be the most depraved at any given time. They’re getting bad plastic surgery and destroying jobs. Burning down rainforests and dropping their satellites on residential areas.
Elon Musk. Pay attention to the way your stomach just churned. Hold on to that because it’s that reaction that Elon has been fighting his whole life to avoid inspiring in people. Trying and failing miserable. First, he spent over a decade trying to paint himself as some Tony Stark-esque figure. He forgot Tony was charismatic and the moment he started speaking in interviews, the entire world experienced a collective ick. Then he started dating Grimes publicly, likely thinking that some of her cool would rub off on him. He only succeeded in making Grimes demonstrably less cool than she was before. Completely stunk up her name and then was horrible to her after. Finally, he got mad that we spent 40 days and 40 nights laughing at him on twitter and decided to punish us by buying the app and destroying it. Now it barely works and when it does, it’s basically mid 2010’s 4chan.
Today, he’s turned toward doing the most damage to as many people as possible as punishment for us not liking him. Throwing an extended tantrum with millions of lives hanging in the balance and somehow. What blows me is, it never once occurred to him to become a patron of the arts. To fund art projects or create an endowment. If he needs to satisfy his immense ego he can slap his name all over it. But he doesn’t. And neither does HGH Jeffrey or masculinity Mark. Instead they want to bully and cajole us into tolerating them. Because that has always worked so well for the bourgeoisie.
I thought keeping the masses happy was something they taught in rich school. Don’t flaunt you wealth and when the masses get rowdy, build them a library. Now we get mad and they do mass layoffs, handing our jobs off to AI. Is the goal unrest? I’m starting to think is it. There’s no way y’all are destroying lives, sitting on billions, not doing anything for anyone, and expecting this to continue forever. Sense must have fled the coup because everyday we drift closer and closer to Les Mis.
April and I were literally just talking about the death of patronage a few weeks ago while strolling through the National Gallery in London…people really used to be personally, individually sponsored for the sole purpose of making art. What a novel concept.
I think we’re currently in an era of such unmitigated ego and selfishness that no multimillionaire/billionaire is actually capable of the earnest humility it takes to say “I can’t do or make that really cool thing, but instead of becoming a whiny brat and ruining it for everyone, I’m just going to give money to the people who can do it. Because I’d rather it exist without my name on it than never exist at all.” You couldn’t get that out of Elon for all the emeralds in Zambia.