Real Art | Peter Bagge
http://www.reason.com/0408/bagge.shtml
“Mr. Grumpy Goes to an art museum and comes out belaboring the obvious […] Rather than try to ‘teach’ people to appreciate art that has no meaning or relevance to their lives, we should instead be marvelling at the countless inspired man-made objects that litteraly surround us, both inside and outside our own homes. So who needs modern art museums? !?” [Online comic]

The graphic grab | Rick Poynor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1291320,00.html
“Valli isn’t alone in believing that the intense visual pleasures offered by graphic culture are beginning to usurp the place of fine art. In recent years, many artists have emphasised the conceptual, rather than the aesthetic, content of their work. Design, on the other hand, has often been unashamedly retinal, intent on creating a new visual form. […] Both Anderson and Valli argue that it is graphic culture, not art, that reflects the mentality and concerns of our time. Graphic expression connects with people because its fundamental purpose is communication, and this applies to even the most esoteric forms of message-making, such as TDR’s. If it doesn’t communicate, it fails. ‘I don’t think contemporary art is ever going to come back,’ says Valli. ‘The people who are going to change things visually are people who are working in a more graphic way. As art installations became more three-dimensional and conceptual, graphic designers just took over.’ If we were to remake Robert Hughes’s Shock Of The New documentary in 30 years’ time, Valli suggests, its focus would be graphic culture. ”