On Mar 29, 2008, at 10:10 AM, William Conger wrote:
I think skill is greatly undervalued. Enormous skill is usually evident in great artworks in any medium. Obviously, there are many different kinds of skill. As for Derek's favorite artists to hate, they indeed were skillful, but so was Van Gogh, or Matisse, or thousands of others.
As H.L. Mencken observed after reviewing badly written newspaper copy in the newswroom, "The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology." <g>
Somehow, in the past 100 years (blame Duchamp) skill of whatever type was distinguished from honesty of expression (no one knows what that is but it's broadly assumed) and thus any artist who demonstrates high skill is regarded by some hipsters to be dishonest, inexpressive, and unoriginal, etc. This is a very false distinction/separation.
Duchamp might have catalyzed the detaching of the trained and skilled artist from the artwork, but I'd look to Breton and the Surrealists for elevating and incorporating randomness into art production. And it's precisely that fact, that randomness, that many perceive as the sine qua non of anti-skill in modern art. Many people assume that an abstract painter "can't draw," i.e., has no artistic skill, and they conflate artistic skills, such as draftsmanship, with artistic **discipline**.
Now, to most people, "discipline" means [pace, Cheerskep: it provokes the notion of] rigor and adherence to rules and principles. It's useful to look behind that word to its root, "disciple," a follower, an adherent, and understand that one who practices the discipline of art strives to follow its norms ... even when some of those norms have been breached or overturned. The Surrealists introduced randomness by means of hallucinatory states, "automatic" practices, or uncontrolled events (drippings or splatters). Later artists adopted some of those strategies and techniques as good and proper, meet indeed for making art.
Skill is deeply interwoven with all other (mysterious) features of genuine artworks. Examining it is a good place to start (perhaps the only place to start) in experiencing art.
Consider how varied are the cityscapes of different artists with different "skill sets": the hillsides of Wayne Thiebaud, the Bay views of Diebenkorn, the pools of Hockney, and the vistas and train yards of Rackstraw Downes. No Bierstadts or Poussins, there, but wonderful landscapes nonetheless.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady [EMAIL PROTECTED]
