The most famous artist in the world is called Matty Mo, and he is on Instagram. Or at least, that is what he has self proclaimed to be. @themostfamousartist has amassed a following of 145,000 people by spray painting luxury brand logos over canvases found in flea markets, and creating what he calls ‘experience’ pieces, such as a fake private jet interior inside a retail store in Los Angeles, where anyone can take a selfie and live like a true jet-setter even if it’s just for a moment before the camera. He commented on the work by saying, “With The Private Jet Experience, we are purposefully commoditizing a symbol of excess, ultimately nullifying the status boost people receive from posting photos on real private planes, thereby forcing everyone to be more creative and seek out the next great symbol of influence.”Because of his status as a viral Instagram artist he was even able to sell ten stacks of what were supposed to be one thousand $100 bills, sealed together so that there was no way to possibly determine the actual monetary value before buying them. Each piece retailed for 5,000 dollars and he sold his first one 20 minutes after he posted it on Instagram. Through this platform, he no longer has to go through a dealer to show and sell the work for him, he represents himself and does every transaction directly with the collector, and is able to collaborate with famous brands or other artists simply because of his social media exposure.But should Instagram followers and likes actually be considered as a valid determinant of fame and, most importantly, talent? Does a large following entitle you to better visibility and more opportunities, regardless of whether your work is ‘good’ or not?When it comes to ‘fame’ in the art world, in a very general sense you can come up with various names: Da Vinci for the Mona Lisa, Picasso for his name recognition, Banksy for his rebellion against art itself. But when it comes to the world of Instagram, followers and likes, it is the platform where photographers, painters and illustrators have realized that in order to appeal to a large audience and increase exposure to their work, the ‘instagrammability’ of an artwork comes before the actual quality or thought process behind it. Like a blog post whose title is “How to Make Money as an Artist on Instagram” states,“When people are wowed by your work on Instagram, they follow you, share it, and get others to follow you, too.”Examples of this phenomenon are everywhere. There is the artist Yung Jake,who creates portraits of celebrities made entirely out of emojis, who has self-declared to having been ‘Born on the Internet’, who has performed at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and at South by Southwest. He refuses to be interviewed if its not done exclusively through text messaging; it is something that might sound outrageous to anyone who would try to interview him, but he isn't “most people”, he’s Yung Jake, the artist, the persona of the real person.Then there is artist Ashley Longshore, that with 2,000 Instagram followers in 2014 was already selling her pop art canvases covered in crystals to celebrities like Blake Lively for more than 30,000 dollars each. Four years later she has now 153,000 followers on Instagram, is collaborating with Gucci in their new campaign, and is the artist in residence at Bergdorf Goodman.The creation of these ‘personas’, the outrageousness of the works, and the incredible demand for everything that these artists put out corroborates the idea that in this day and age, actual quality or craftsmanship aren't necessarily the things that add value to an artwork. This isn't to say that the artists haven't put thought or effort into the works, but that doesn't take center stage if it comes to how shareable a work can be. You want to consider shock value, like what Jeff Koons did in his infamous ‘Made in Heaven’ series. Or you could want to make the work interactive, like Felix Gonzalez Torres and his ‘Untitled’ works, inviting the viewer to take a piece of candy from a pile and therefore including them in the creation and endurance of the artwork.Maybe what these artist are doing is simply taking cues from their predecessors, and applying them to this new platform.
