“as art” art - for example “the blog post as art” is it art?
This started as a comment on a museum blog where they were discussing how to define modern art now that modern art has been around for decades and decades. One thing that has defined the modern art world is the way people have an opinion on it, often a very strong one.
I think the reason why so many people feel so strongly negative against certain ‘contemporary/modern art’ is that they don’t or can’t understand it and it makes them feel vulnerable and somehow lacking, perhaps in an intellectual or subjectively un-fashionable way.
I like to use the “David Byrne” approach when exposed to art that I don’t ‘get’. David Byrne (from what I’ve read) tends to like art that isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s David Byrne, you don’t get more ‘artsy’ than him, if it’s art he would know and I trust him to be able to distinguish art from non-art, and so because there is a David Byrne it means the Emperor isn’t naked, just that I see can’t see his clothes.
People use the term “as art” to legitimize something that really isn’t physically creative but put in context of the art world can be original and even amazing, after all, Yoko Ono put an apple on a ladder “as art” and the rest is history. Duchamp presented a urinal “as art” and museums all over the world adore Duchamp!
But “as art” can be sickening, Like starving a dog to death “as art” or watching a man die “as art”. Are snuff films (films that show an actual murder) “art”? Are voyeur cameras in bathrooms making “art”? Were the battles in the Roman Colosseum art or just orchestrated mass murder “as art”?
What is essential, especially to bloggers is to have your own opinion on what is art. What kind of “as art” have you made?
This is a charcoal sketch on a little canvas, I will probably re-use this motif in a larger more complicated painting, I’ve got some huge canvases I’m working on!!!
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April 28th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I don’t have a good answer for this. I know that in my heart, I don’t define random acts of violence as art and I am offended by using the term art as an excuse to be cruel.
I also know that others disagree with me. I forget who she is, or where I read it but there is a woman out there getting abortions “as art” OK, but don’t expect me to watch.
I don’t think I have done anything too out in left field “as art”
My art is my writing, drama, my painting, my dance even my garden …all the ways of expression that I have. For me- and I realize that I own this thought for just my art- I want my art to be about beauty.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
This is a very interesting philosophical conundrum, Darren. I suppose I view art as something that inspires you. Mass murder doesn’t inspire me. Suffering and violence do not inspire me. Kindness and emotional courage and honesty inspire me. I agree with Wendi, don’t watch it if you don’t like it. You can screen yourself. But that shouldn’t be an excuse for evil or hatred either.
Actually I feel kind of irritated I can’t resolve this Darren. It’s not nice and tidy, is it? Damn you! Ha!
April 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
“art” seems to be too esoteric to be confined by such bourgeois concepts as good and bad or right and wrong, perhaps that one of the secrets of life, creating something (period) is the whole point, not to create something merely good or gentile just simply to do something and deem it art and mean it!
April 29th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I don’t know if good or bad and right and wrong are completely bourgeois concepts. Yeah, creating something period is the whole point, and people will react to it according to their conditioning.
My dad was an artist, by the way. And then he went back to being a frustrated engineer. And Jung says we live the unlived life of our parent.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
hehe yeah, maybe I meant human instead of bourgeois, after all, who are we to say that dolphins don’t splash around “as art” or termites make particular mounds “as art”, we assume that creativity is so special but it may be an underlying principle in what life is!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I know that play is an underlying principle in self expression. And the holding the backbone of play is creativity.
You know, I like the little charcoal creature you made. It reminds me of an embryo in a womb with a women observing it. I have something similiar I drew hanging in my closet. It’s kind of private and womb like. I like it. The birth of Ellen.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
thanks Ellen, that’s my ‘true’ style of art, when i doodle i make organic shapes like that, it seems to be the most natural thing for me to draw…
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
[...] thoughtful blogger who often makes me think about my own views on art and its place in my life. This week’s post was no different: What is essential, especially to bloggers is to have your own opinion on what is [...]
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 am
Ellen, having a blog dedicated to being playful, I enjoyed your comment on art as being playful.
With regards to violent, I think art can display violence but I don’t think genuine acts of violence can be art.
This is because violence is always the result of the closing down of the imagination rather than the opening up of the imagination. We resort to violence when we cannot imagine any other option.
It’s a shame that in today’s world violence is so often the first response - often people (especially in politics) don’t even try to imagine a different response.
Thank you Darren for a thought provoking post.
David
June 12th, 2008 at 6:00 am
[...] thoughtful blogger who often makes me think about my own views on art and its place in my life. This week’s post was no different: What is essential, especially to bloggers is to have your own opinion on what is [...]