The New Freedom

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007...6:02 pm

The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto

I found this 80s hippy art poster in the basement of my new house. I like it. It reads:

the WHY CHEAP ART? manifesto

PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that
ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the
RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS !
It does not belong to banks and fancy investors
ART IS FOOD . You can’t EAT it BUT it FEEDS
you . ART has to be CHEAP & available to
EVERYBODY. It needs to be EVERYWHERE
because it is INSIDE of the
WORLD.
ART SOOTHES PAIN!
Art wakes up sleepers!
ART FIGHTS AGAINST WAR & STUPIDITY!
ART SINGS HALLELUJA!
ART IS FOR KITCHENS!
ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD!
Art is like green trees!
Art is like white clouds in the blue sky !
ART IS CHEAP!
HURRAH!

Bread & Puppet Glover, Vermot, 1984

The Bread and Puppet Theater (Official site) still exists in Vermont.

I wonder how they’d feel about The Splasher, the New York City vandal who destroys free street art, claiming that it, like every other goddamn thing, been co-opted by corporations to sell t-shirts and cell phones and other crap.