In a message dated 9/8/99 9:40:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> what is art? an artist friend of mine has the following quote hanging
> in her house: "art is art as art. everything else is everything
> else"
>
xcto:
Wow, I just got through housecleaning 187 emails, and I wanted to put my two
cents in:
The main reason Pirsig wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was
the fact that the subjectiveness of art was not divorced from the
objectiveness of science, or rather it was a false separation.
30 years ago comic books were not considered art.
Now there are major exhibitions of comic art, and a comic book has even won
the Pulitzer Prize ('Maus' by Art Speigelmann). And I would say that the
Pulitzer is one of the highest honors for Literature (considered an Art form).
The mistake about art, I think, comes from the idea that art is an either/or
question.
******
I picked up an interesting book about comics ("Understanding Comics" by Scott
McCloud) that presents the idea that art exists in any human endeavor that is
not for the purpose of survival or reproduction. Now there is obvious high
and low quality in these endeavors, but he believes Art exists in all of
them. The question of what is art disappears into the simple expression of
human individuality.
McCloud goes on and says:
...Rare is the person in ANY [his stresses] occupation who expresses
NOTHING...and rare is the Artist who cares nothing for Success, i.e.,
Survival! But the IDEAL of the latter is alive in the hearts of many artists
who may hope for success, but won't alter their work to obtain it.
The...PURE Artist says to the world: "I didn't do this for money! I
didn't do this to match the color of your couches! I didn't do this to get
laid!...I did this for ART!
In other words: "MY ART HAS NO PRACTICAL VALUE WHATSOEVER!"
"But it's important!"
So in my own thinking Art is always the chase for Dynamic Quality and the
payoff of success is mostly determined by the Artists' own desires. You can
pay that Spanish dude all the gold you want but he will still paint an ugly
patron ugly...what's that guys name?
But at the same time Art resides in the farmer that ties together his hay
into whimsical shapes, or the mechanic who cleans off greasy hoses.
Now the question at hand seems to be the Art Critics (the PRIZE givers) and
Audiences ... but that is such a static social issue that I don't want to get
into it.
What do you think?
xcto
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