Support for the unpopular?

I am happy to adapt my artistic approach to the response of the audience. And I often prefer works of art myself that were tweaked to appeal more to a larger audience. But is this ultimately a good thing?

There’s a lot to say in favor of an artist being pushed to please his audience. The most obvious is that there is no point in the creation of something that brings joy to people if it, well, if it doesn’t. If one tries to make something beautiful and nobody likes it, one should probably try something else. The other important advantage, in my opinion, is that it offers an escape from the modernist cult of the personal, of extreme individualism, the artists as hero, etc. This trend has produced such astounding ugliness paired with unbelievable arrogance, that sacrificing the few exceptions feels completely justified.

There is still a strong tendency in popular opinion that argues in favor of originality: “One should just make what one really wants to make, what one is personally driven to make.” This theory is not supported by practice, however. When it is time for the proletarian preachers to put their money where their mouths are, they often opt out and choose to invest in the easier, less experimental, less original. Perhaps those pieces were still created in all honesty. People with a popular personality will create work that is popular. People with a less popular personality are still encouraged to make personal work. They just should not expect anyone to actually appreciate it. In a way, this could be interpreted as an aversion towards craft: only do what you are already good at.

Before the internet, it was a lot easier to travel one’s own path. One didn’t know if people liked or disliked one’s work. One could always blame one’s lack of success on many external factors. But the internet gave artists direct access to the opinions of their audience. And humans being what they are, negative opinions often have greater impact than positive ones.

I do believe that this is not necessarily a completely bad situation. I believe many artists’ work even improves when it is made with its audience in mind. I believe I might be one of those artists. But I can’t help but feel that there should be more support for the Einzelgängers, for people who stubbornly do what they believe in, without much support from the audience. We may be losing a lot of good ideas if, as a society, we cannot find a way to support and encourage unpopular creativity. Not everything should be decided by the market.