What is Art and who decides?

“Art has no use, if it has a use it’s not art because it’s compromised.”

Okay today’s post should annoy a lot of people, which is always good.  I found the above quote, I believe in Art News, although I wouldn’t swear to it.  It so annoyed me that I wrote it down to discuss it later on the blog.  I do remember the context, some artist was being interviewed and discussing his art and then talking about what one of his teacher’s had told him, which is the above quote.  The above quote is of course, possibly the stupidest statement about art I have ever come across and, trust me, there are many.  This statement is right up there with Nicole Kidman’s statement at the Academy Awards, of “Art is important, ….because it is.”  No Nicole that is NOT why art is important.  Art is important because it takes, the viewer, or the watcher or the reader, to a world that he would not be able to access by himself and thereby he learns something about himself.  That is why art is important, because it takes the viewer on a journey of self discovery.

I can’t say how other artists make art or why, but I do not make art to say something.  I make the art I make because I get some internal pressure that something needs to burst forth.  I usually get some kind of mental picture of the finished piece, out of the blue, and then my job is to give it passage.  Then I have to figure out what it means,  just like a viewer.

This idea that for something to be art, it has to have no use, is a uniquely western idea.  Ancient cultures fashioned art while making everyday functional items.  All nomadic cultures make functional art.

I am close to completion on a book about West African tribal art.  Here is the question to consider for this week:  What do you consider is art?  If something has a function is it still art?

Did Tiffany not make vases, that were not only functional but art?  When looking at them, did you not fall into some other reality.  There are a million examples of this in almost any museum.  Do you think this teacher helped his student or impeded the student’s self expression?  Okay over to you, I think I have been pretty clear where I stand on the issue.

Next Week:  Back from the holidays and in the studio, facing the terror work.