Art Reboot

55 9 the medium, the message and the marketplace We will find it much easier to understand the overall process of art if we separate it into three separate aspects: the medium, the message and the marketplace. The medium is the physical entity, the art object itself; the message is the meaning to be commu- nicated between artist and audience, embodied in the physical entity; and the marketplace is where medium and message are dealt with thereafter, culturally, academically and commercially. The simplest aspect is the medium, the work of art itself. It is made up of certain material components that can usually be identified and understood as precisely as any physical object can be measured. With the fruits of science increasingly at our disposal, we can now figure out a great deal more about its makeup than ever before, right down to the source and age of some of the components and whether there is another image beneath the surface painting, for example. The message is more complex. At the simplest level, the message can be read as whatever the artist knowingly included, such as representational subject matter and its symbolism. That might also include any personal or institutional agenda that prompted the artist or patron to choose a particular subject.