What Is Art Good For? Seven Artists Respond.

All artists have wrestled with the question of why they make art. The endeavor can sometimes feel impotent or indulgent, or perhaps motivated by compulsion alone. Yet here we are, continuing a tradition that has spanned the entirety of human history. My ears always perk up when an artist offers or even implies an answer to art’s purpose, with their words or with their work, so I posed the question to seven artists with evident opinions. Some responded with words to live by; others turned the prompt into a creative or conceptual challenge—as artists are wont to do. (Still others not included declined to answer, emailing simply, “I don’t know.”) The responses below range, as might be expected, from cynical to sincere, with some managing neat answers and others leaning into the open-endedness that the question—and that art—engenders. —As told to Emily Watlington

Via Art in America

‘Free art, with strings attached’: Zero Art Fair’s first edition in New York City puts a new spin on the old fair format

Zero Art Fair appears normal enough. Held last week in a white-walled gallery towering above Chelsea at the Flag Art Foundation’s ninth-floor headquarters, collectors perused paintings, sculptures and other works last week. But after finding something they liked, instead of handing over bank details, buyers presented a paper card and took their art home with no money changing hands. Under that system, 179 works were placed with a total retail value of $537,500, with 14 additional works on hold, fair organisers said on Monday (14 July).

The Art Newspaper

How ‘Gay’ Became an Identity in Art

When did homosexuality change from a description of what people do to a definition of who they are? How was an act transformed into an identity? In this precarious moment, as White House pronouncements, court decisions and public polling indicate backsliding support for gay rights in this country, such questions, long chewed over by scholars of sociology, philosophy and gender studies, are addressed in two impressive art exhibitions in Chicago.

Via NYT

Thumbnail image: Andreas Andersen, “Interior with Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence,” 1894, from “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939” at Wrightwood 659 gallery in Chicago. Credit: Direzione Musei Statali della Città di Roma; via Wrightwood 659

Man in Kilt Breaks Glass Protecting the Stone of Destiny at Museum

 35-year-old man wearing a kilt was arrested in the Scottish city of Perth after he allegedly broke the glass protecting an artifact that has been key to U.K. history for centuries.

Via Artnet