No, Cheerskep, I don't really believe that "all the art schools ever teach is
"taste"" -- but everything they do teach is the consequence of specific tastes
-- so taste is very important -- maybe the most important -- no -- I'll go
even farther and say -- only taste is important -- since whatever technical
stuff is required can be self-taught or picked up along the way.
(as one might pick up techniques from your helpful book -- if, indeed, one
wants to write books that are suitable for contemporary tastes)
And the word "technical" deserves the scare quotes as well -- since that can
also "cover damn near anything" -- from how to build armatures -- to how to
how to develop a composition -- to how to monitor/cultivate ones personal
psychic energy so that the moments of greatest awareness and power coincide
with the making of the biggest decisions.
*************
Regarding perspective: Can "linear perspective be better described as a
learned model for encoding and decoding visual images rather than a matter of
taste"?
That sounds like a much better description for the industrial use of isometric
projections.
Encode/decode ? Isn't that operation restricted to the communication of
discrete, verifiable bits of information --like credit card numbers used on
the internet ? Is that really comparable to why paintings are made and
enjoyed ? Do we really care whether Constable's painting of Salisbury
Cathedral has anything in common with the original ?
***************
Regarding anatomy: I really can't believe that Boris or any art teacher would
say that "correcting anatomy of the hand drawn -- is just mechanics." -- or
--- to put it more accurately -- that the art involved is one that would
interest me at all.
Although I realize -- that this kind of art is widely practiced today --
especially in neo-academic figure sculpture -- and I hate it like death --
which is how the resulting statues appear to me. (take a look at the grand
prize winner at Artrenewal.org -- it reeks of formaldehyde )
*****************
Regarding compositional theory: perhaps there are statements that evidence no
specific taste -- like -- "if you make all the shapes the same size and
distribute them uniformly you will produce a lack of an easily-discerned
hierarchy in shape" -- but isn't this a truism ?
No - wait -- it's not even true. What if all the evenly distributed shapes
look like ink-stains - and one looks exactly like an erect penis ? Wouldn't
that produce an "easily-discerned hierarchy in shape"? Perhaps even the
logical Brady is capable of a little fallacio ?
More likely, however, comments about composition are not just presented as
general theories -- but are applied to specific student work. Something looks
wrong (as a matter of taste) -- and the teacher points to some compositional
principle to explain it. But maybe the student didn't want to suggest a
hierarchy of shapes -- maybe the student was getting exactly the effect that
she wanted.
This is an issue that frequently occurs to me regarding many of my fellow
artists at the art club. There are some people who make things that violate
every principle of my taste -- and they don't just do it once --- they do it
year after year after year -- they do it, in fact, with the same dedication
that I apply to my own humble efforts. Hands that look like flippers - no
even worse - flippers that have been run over by a truck. And yet -- often
they are proud of their work -- and peacefully, and happily continue to pursue
it.
Just like that weird Chicago janitor, Henry Darger, who spent his life
cutting and pasting cartoonish images of bisexual little girls into fantasy
landscapes.
And now he's so famous -- the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is about to perform a
musical composition dedicated to his memory.
But, curiously, William and I agree that "cultures can and do go bad when a
gulf develops between the enduring ideals that humankind always
claims for itself and the efforts, the desire, to symbolize them in art." ---
and the arts that try to do that -- are the ones that really interest me. (if
only William could not be expected to contradict this statement tomorrow - if
not sooner)
_____________________________________________________________
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