curatage

One definition, as it relates to the visual arts, is the practice of curating a display of visual art. Thus:Curatage: (syn. curatorship, curating): In the visual arts, the act of using a curator to remove or prevent the propagation of art material that does not properly commodify or monetize. In an ideal world curatage is performed by a trained and competent aesthetician, but the ballooning academicism, obscurantism and insularity of the high art world and the common currency of terms such as “gatekeeper”, “gallerist” or “sheep” attest to the fact that this is not always the case. Indeed, with the decline of traditional media, brick and mortar marketing and the dilution of academic and professional credentials the traditional reliance on curatage in some areas of the visual arts may be waning.

The gallery director's curatage, informed by entrepreneurial instinct and natural salesmanship, avoided the near disaster of displaying a collection of one-off pieces that lacked sufficient fungibility to support successful marketing and promotion.

by artmarcoux July 30, 2013

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