The most significant change in the art world over the past two decades has not been the evolution of a new style or movement but in how art is promoted and marketed. After prices accelerated in the 1980s, today's art world is beginning to look more like a multi-national corporation than a cultural institution.
Acclaimed critic, poet, and historian Robert C. Morgan argues for a new qualitative standard in art, not only in painting and sculpture, but also in literature, music, video, photography, conceptual art, and installations. Poignantly and powerfully written, he calls for an end to the art world as we know it, a world governed by the trends of fashion, media, and popular entertainment, and proposes a return to aesthetics and a new inner-directedness in art.