Art & Creativity Quote by Matthew Barney

Barney’s anecdote is a neat inversion of the romantic myth that the art world rewards pure vision on its own timetable. His “interesting thing” isn’t inspiration striking; it’s capital breaking. The 1989 crash (the aftershock of Black Monday’s late-’80s volatility and a cooling market) didn’t just trim collectors’ appetites, it forced a recalibration of taste. When money tightens, galleries get jumpy about selling what they already know; paradoxically, they also go hunting for the next narrative that can justify risk, attention, and eventually higher margins. Barney is describing that pivot with the cool pragmatism of someone who understands the ecosystem he’s entering.

The subtext is blunt: “interesting” is not an intrinsic property of the work; it’s a designation assigned by institutions under pressure. A downturn doesn’t merely change what gets bought, it changes what gets legible. Work that might have looked too strange, too costly to explain, or too hard to place in the existing market suddenly becomes useful - as a signal of seriousness, avant-gardism, or future value. In that sense, the crash operates like a curator: it edits the field by altering incentives.

There’s also a quiet self-positioning here. Barney casts his early practice as ahead of the room, waiting for external conditions to catch up. It’s not bragging so much as a claim about timing: careers can be made not only by talent and hustle, but by macroeconomics reshuffling the gatekeepers’ definitions of relevance.