If you want to understand art then understanding the economic and political relationships that commissioned it isn't really that crazy.
Just because the video games I grew up with were consumer products doesn't mean those experiences were somehow less important for my life or the people they connect me with.
Art doesn't just pop up out of thin air and the power relationships that affect our daily lives absolutely explains why the artists of a given time makes certain artistic choices.
If you'd rather preserve some kind of Romantic notion that art is somehow outside of the society that makes it then I guess that's your choice, but I'm not out here making much art for free now that I'm an adult with bills to pay just saying. Even the art I make free is with the goal of finding clients and absolutely a product of how that market is organized.
Just because the video games I grew up with were consumer products doesn't mean those experiences were somehow less important for my life or the people they connect me with.
Art doesn't just pop up out of thin air and the power relationships that affect our daily lives absolutely explains why the artists of a given time makes certain artistic choices.
If you'd rather preserve some kind of Romantic notion that art is somehow outside of the society that makes it then I guess that's your choice, but I'm not out here making much art for free now that I'm an adult with bills to pay just saying. Even the art I make free is with the goal of finding clients and absolutely a product of how that market is organized.