Art Thots Stimulated by Recent Readings

"Thus the figural distortion of German expressionist painters is not dismissed as an inept attempt at verisimilitude and, therefore, as defective or pseudo art, but as an intelligible and well-precedented artistic response – a revolt – against realism for the sake of securing a widely and antecedently acknowledged artistic value, namely expressivity.

"It is an expectation of artists that they be concerned to make original contributions to the tradition within which they work. These contributions can range along the creative scale from slight variations in established genres to wholesale revolutions. ... However, as in conversation, the contribution must also have some relevance to what has gone before – otherwise there simply is no conversation."

Noel Carroll, Art In Three Dimensions 

Thoughts in response...

1. This is why teaching art history is important.
2. This is what made Dylan a significant songwriter when he emerged in the 60’s. He had immersed himself in the history of folk music; its roots, its themes, its modes of expression. He was also aware of the cultural situation of his time. He wasn’t just writing love songs. He was responding to the “great conversation.”
3. No philosopher worth his or her salt would skip the study of classic philosophy before undertaking the development of a contemporary voice.
4. Yet in art, we often want to suggest it is just a matter of being creative and learning techniques. To some extent this can be said to be so, but to make significant art, to be a serious artist, one needs to understand historical context, and be aware of what has already been done, is being done in our time… not so we can drop a few names but so we can understand how our “voice” and vision fits into the grand scheme of things.

"From the start, the strongest and most bitter energies of the book were directed against the idea that art should serve a political cause, an idea that Auden had alternately embraced and rejected since 1932."

Edward Mendelson, Preface to W.H. Auden’s The Prolific and the Devourer

In response...

1. Auden embraced the idea of art for art's sake, yet also took the opposing position at times. When we look at an author or artist's life work we get a better picture of the man or woman than were we to just grab a few quotes from a volume of essays written at a specific moment of time.
2. The human soul is not fixed, but ever in flux. Personality has its recurring themes that remain the same, like fingerprints, but we are not the same.
3. I agree with Auden, yet at times Auden did not agree with Auden.

Of these things much more could be said, and I must start my day. What are you reading and thinking about?

Sunday Morning Thoughts On Art

“You know that what you eat you are, but what is sweet now turns so sour…”
~George Harrison 

By Emma Rustan at Washington Galleries

As much as we dislike making judgments about things, we make them constantly. We place things in categories. Good/bad, useful/useless, important/unimportant, essential/irrelevant, playful/serious.... In the realm of art as a young student I wrestled extensively with the question, "What is art?" I had no idea how big a question it was at the time and now, in the second half of my life I find that question still awaits me.

Many of my interviews with artists have been roundabout ways of getting at this question through new eyes. And in some ways they are an attempt to unearth all the corollary questions that it seems tangled up with, most significantly, "What is good art?"

There it is, that "judgment call" that we shy away from. Is it "good" because it was executed with a certainly level of technical skill? I have seen work that is technically good, but felt heartless to me. 

A collection of essays by Noel Carroll is the catalyst behind some of my rambling here this morning. The book is titled Art in Three Dimensions, and it offers a small feast of mental nourishment every time I chew on it.

During last night's nibble Carroll pointed out that Arthur Danto made a distinction between Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes as art and the actual Brillo boxes in a store as "not art." This is a bold statement in some circles, but it seemed to be a defining moment in Danto's life when Warhol brought the elements of popular culture into the austere museum sanctuaries.

Morgan Pease show at the Ochre Ghost opening Friday.

We all make distinctions. "I like this. I don't like that." Even the artists themselves are perpetually making distinctions. "This is good, this is worth keeping. That is something I will paint over when I need another surface."

Noel Carroll address the issues behind the issues, like when is a pile of sticks more than a pile of sticks? When is it art and when is it just a pile of sticks? He is in a position to make assessments because he has spent a lifetime studying and thinking about what other art philosophers have been writing and saying.

The questions circle back over themselves. What gives art its importance? And why do we try so hard to define what art is and whether it should be defined?

John Heino displayed at the PROVE

James O. Young, in his review of Art in Three Dimensions writes, "Carroll argues that philosophers of art need to refocus their attention on the ways in which art enters the life of culture and the lives of individual audience members."

This statement brought to mind comments that artist and critic Ann Klefstad recently made in a Reader interview.

Not everyone is "an artist," in the way that "artist" has been understood for millennia—that is, someone whose primary job, whose chosen role, is to make stuff in the world (whether temporal like music or physical like sculpture) that is imbued with mind or spirit. But everyone is creative, and every human being is a maker. When that's choked off people die a little. Or a lot. And they stop caring about whether the day or the place is alive or beautiful.

This last statement is really potent to me. Once we stop caring about what kind of places or spaces we live in, we've lost a portion of our humanity, nobility and dignity.

Much more can be said, but it's time again to start my day. A little food for thought from the mind farm.