What Looks Good Today May Not Look Good Tomorrow 2000

Michel Majerus made this painting, "What Looks Good Today May Not Look Good Tomorrow," using acrylic paint on canvas. He’s working in the tradition of painting, a field with a long and celebrated history, but bringing elements from the everyday world into the picture. The processes involved are quite straightforward: stretching the canvas, applying layers of paint, and adding text, perhaps with stencils. Yet, the flat areas of color and the superimposed words create a distinctly graphic sensibility, as if a billboard has come to life. Majerus is referencing the rapid cycles of fashion and consumer culture, suggesting that taste is a moving target. By using such accessible techniques, he blurs the lines between ‘high’ art and the visual language of advertising, pushing us to think about how these different realms of image-making influence one another. This piece suggests that what we value today may quickly become obsolete, a commentary on the relentless pace of change in a consumer-driven society.