Artistic Dyspepsia
... synopsis of Jean Baudrillard "The Conspiracy of Art"
“The Conspiracy of Art” by Jean Baudrillard is a critical examination of contemporary art’s transformation in the hyperreal age. Baudrillard argues that art has lost its desire for illusion and now feeds endlessly on itself, turning its own vanishing into an artistic strategy. Rather than lamenting the "death of art," he identifies its new role in the military-industrial complex of the art market, where aesthetic nihilism spirals into a commercial frenzy of added-value. Art has thus become trans-aesthetic, making it indistinguishable from the broader socioeconomic conditions of exploitation, banality, and the spectacle. The book critiques contemporary art claims of insignificance and meaninglessness while simultaneously justifying its existence through discourse and market mechanisms, creating a conspiracy of emptiness. A central piece, "War Porn," analyzes the Abu Ghraib prison images as a new genre of reality TV, revealing how the violence of war is both virtual and real, exposing art’s complicity in sadistic spectacle. Ultimately, Baudrillard questions the very nature of radical thought in a world where truth is no longer verifiable but is instead a product of hyperreal simulation.
... the title is provocative given the publication date of 1996 and therefore within the time-frame of contemporary controversy over “conspiracy” in fact and as metaphor
The title “The Conspiracy of Art”, published in 1996, is indeed provocative, as Baudrillard uses conspiracy not in the traditional sense of a secret plot, but as a metaphor for the complicit system sustaining contemporary art. He argues that art no longer exists as a distinct, meaningful practice but persists through a shared illusion—a conspiracy among artists, critics, curators, and the market, to sustain art’s significance despite its aesthetic nullity and personal vacancy. It is an alleged plot—or conspiracy—that thrives on critical irony, insider complicity, and the commercialization of social marginalization, where claiming insignificance becomes a strategy for value creation. Far from a literal accusation, Baudrillard’s term captures the self-referential, hyperreal condition of art in a media-saturated, market-driven world, making the title “The Conspiracy of Art” a sharply satirical commentary on the socioeconomic forces driving the 1990s art scene.
... Baudrillard’s use of the buzzword conspiracy is intended to characterize art in the 1990s not as an exclusive club so much as an idiosyncratic self-reinforcing economy
Baudrillard’s use of “conspiracy” characterizes contemporary art not as deliberate discrimination, but as a self-reinforcing, trans-aesthetic economy sustained by complicity among artists, institutions, and the wider market for goods. Art no longer transcends reality but collapses into it, functioning as a system of insider trading where aesthetic nullity is commodified and inflated into value. The conspiracy, of the title, lies in the collective pretense by artists, critics, and audiences alike, that art still holds value, when in fact it thrives on its own absence, using irony, discourse, and spectacle to perpetuate its existence within a hyperreal, market-driven logic.
... "complicity" is the synonym I was searching for, suggesting an ethical conflict, if not in fact illegal conflict-of-interest
Baudrillard himself uses “complicity” to describe the ethical entanglement between artists, institutions, and audiences in sustaining the illusion of art’s significance -despite its aesthetic and symbolic emptiness. This complicity is not a legal matter, but reflects a shared resignation, of a silent agreement to uphold art’s value through hyperbole, discourse, and market performance, even as it collapses into banality and self-parody. The “conspiracy” is this collective participation in a system where nullity is commodified, and irony masks the absence of critical resistance, making everyone—from creators to consumers—accomplices in art’s self-consuming spectacle.
... which newsworthy event or events in the art world prompted Baudrillard's publication, given its extensive critical commentary
Baudrillard’s 1996 essay “The Art Conspiracy,” later expanded into “The Conspiracy of Art,” was not prompted by a single newsworthy event, but by his growing critique of the institutionalization and commodification of art in the 1980s and 1990s. Key influences include:
- His participation in major art events, notably the 1993 Venice Biennale, where he exhibited his photographs. This firsthand experience gave him exposure to the spectacle and excess of the global art world, reinforcing his view of art as self-consuming and devoid of critical meaning.
- The expansion of the art market, with skyrocketing prices and the rise of art as a financial-ized commodity, which he saw as evidence of art’s “trans-aesthetic” state—where aesthetic value collapses into commercial value.
- His earlier adoption by the New York art scene following the 1983 English publication of Simulations, and the subsequent sense of betrayal when he turned against the very institutions that celebrated him.
Rather than reacting to a specific scandal, Baudrillard’s essay was a deliberate provocation against the art world’s complicity in its own irrelevance, a “conspiracy” of silence and pretense that art still mattered.
... it was rather Baudrillard's personal reaction to the bloated market for art, analogous to a food critic's critique of a new restaurant's excess or misuse of ingredients -the result being in both cases a critical objection in matters of taste
In Baudrillard’s “The Conspiracy of Art” parallels can be seen with a food critic’s condemnation of culinary excess—not as moral judgment, but as a diagnosis of systemic inflation and loss of authenticity. Just as a critic might decry a dish overloaded with unnecessary ingredients, Baudrillard saw the art world of the 1980s–90s as bloated by market hype, spectacle, and self-referential discourse, where aesthetic value had been replaced by signal value and commercial performance. His reaction was not to a single event, but to the excessive institutionalization of art, where the boundary between art and commerce collapsed, and taste became indistinguishable from financial speculation—a condition he framed as a conspiracy of complicity among all participants.
... extending the food review metaphor Baudrillard's objection to the excesses of the contemporary market for art might be compared to the dilemma of a food buffet offering too many choices than the individual can enjoy
Baudrillard’s critique of the contemporary art market—like a buffet overwhelmed with choices—captures the excess and exhaustion of a system where abundance nullifies pleasure. Just as a diner is paralyzed by too many dishes, the art world is flooded with works, styles, and discourses that no longer offer meaning or distinction. This hyperabundance reflects what Baudrillard calls transaesthetics, by which is meant art has lost its critical edge, and becomes a self-referential loop, where voidness of content is masked by spectacle. The market doesn’t satisfy aesthetic hunger—it simulates it, turning art into a ritual of consumption without fulfillment, where choice is an illusion and value is inflated through complicity, not substance.