The only viable strategy for salvaging painting's prestige is through a commitment toward unrealized and unrealizable projects. Only the unfinished, the impractical, the chimerical, or the unmade can elude the death knell of commodification. My book of sketches for unbuildable monuments is a flagrant exercise in hypocrisy.
Titian had no qualms about working for the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Today's most sought after painters seem equally untroubled as they abet Russian oligarchs in concealing their assets. Painting has a long history as does patronage. Tradition is a governing principle in the arts. Corruption and culture have always been accomplices.
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