07/27/2005: "Who Needs Art?" by Michael Corbin

It's really a thrill to love what many consider a frill. Art. Do I actually need it to live? No, but I'm glad I don't have to live without it.

It seems to be a primal calling. Not just for me, but also for societies that go way back. Sketchings found on ancient, unearthed walls. Carvings on old trees and rocks. The trump card argument for art is that the human urge to create and express pre-date reason and criticism. Artists were at work before anyone had a clue ... or cared.

While I was a kid visiting museums in New York City, I had no idea what art was doing to me or for me. Now, decades later, I see that the field trips paid off (if I do say so myself). What art did for me was E-X-P-A-N-D my mind. It gave me greater vision and helped me to realize that there was a WHOLE W-O-R-L-D that existed beyond my own existence. Looking at paintings, sculpture and photography gives me a greater sense of humanity and connectedness. I also feel that I know myself better and can relate to others better. In large part because of art.

You don't have to be what some call "cultured" to see the signs of the art famine. Art is selling like hotcakes to the well-heeled, but the masses aren't eating. Many don't want to. We're all too busy cutting budgets, counting money, playing politics, watching sports, surfing the web and being otherwise occupied.

As I have gotten older, I have seen first hand how declining public art funding has affected us as a society. We've become less tolerant, more narrow minded, less creative, more rushed, less compassionate and more angry. We're losing our compass on humanity. Individually and collectively. In large part, because we consider "doodling" on paper ... a "frill."

Who needs art? The guy who looked inside one of my art magazines recently and asked, shaking his head, "That's art?" Who needs art? The "soccer mom" who has never taken her kids to the museum because, she says, "Oh, they won't like that." Who needs art? The urban kid who is THISCLOSE to getting involved with a bad crowd. Who needs art? The corporate businessman who attends art functions only because it's, "Good P.R!"

I could go on and on. Look, I'm not trying to create more art collectors, although that would be nice, despite the competition it would present for me. I'm just stepping up to the canvas.

Whenever I leave an art museum or gallery, I feel like I've been baptized. Reborn, reconnected, reinvigorated. Ready to take on something new. Ready to relate and ready to create my own painting. Well, maybe not. You catch my drift.

Who needs art? WE ALL DO.

MICHAEL CORBIN IS A WRITER AND AVID ART COLLECTOR

Replies: 5 Comments

on Friday, August 5th, Clint said

I think the turning point for many people, particularly younger people is when they finally move out of their parents' homes and into their first houses. If they do not own any art, they find themselves looking at blank walls of their new homes. Unless they want to put up their teen posters they had at their parents', they will suddenly realize that they better discover this thing called art.

on Friday, July 29th, Gabe Langholtz said

Art is invigorating. It does move people emotionaly, while at the same time detaching them (the artists). As an artist, I am often confronted with the idea that what I am doing, what I am creating serves no real purpose but to allow me to escape a world I can no longer relate to. I look at my collection of works as they are closing in on me, and think that maybe I am just a desperate soul, struggling to keep myself intact. Perhaps this comes across in my art, or perhaps it is the complete opposite. Good technique and originality is a great disguise for one's incompetence and lack of self-assurance. Art has given me a means of escape and another reason to question myself; catch 22. Society holds the answer to my question in the palm of its greedy hands... am I worth a damn. If nobody is looking I am essentially invisible, and unfortunately most heads turn in the wrong direction, towards gadgets and other things that are continuously outdated, nothing more than fleeting satisfaction which most of us continue to chase until we have a collection of electronic crap, but nothing original.

on Friday, July 29th, Paul said

Michael, good points,sort of art lovers and the rest.Something that has also concerned me over the years,my position as an artist to society or the community,where I stand,and the feeling of being an outsider is never really far away,because as artists we stand somewhat outside of whats going on and observe it and in our work, art is after all basically a criticism of that society,and many questions revolve around it,including our 'worth'as members of a community,and valued members,which is often in doubt.
Its why I have said before and still feel really and that is artists are not respectable people,nor should they be,the position of an artist is an odd one,standing outside,yet wanting inclusion in the way of acceptance of ones work.
Half weird,half ordinairy,after all one must be somewhat weird to follow the path of art,and of course most people think its a waste of time,yet at the same time people do appreciate art in some way or form,but it varies.
Altough in general the world does appreciate art,and thats what we as artists must keep in mind,especially when down in the dumps about negative attitudes,from others or ourselves.

on Wednesday, July 27th, Alejandro said

Time. God. Soul. Body. Mind. Inside, outside. The bestial market sings to the birds & piano.
The castle is hot for a homage to menu of colours.
Mercenary reveal things & facts.
If I remember quite clear- that´s what you should do- nothing disappears.
But what happens when oblivion comes, go to gallery, or market.

Now the lines are blue-but the clouds discolor- heavy tv market.
What we need is show the drummer of wheels into a paper.
If I see the frame I could sleep, If I see the level over limit you rest is unrepeatable love.

At the botton line you walk in your crowds.

Human spit sparks underpants precisely about toothed torture.

Left me down beauty of solitary tortoise, said the scientific to the broom scape stairs.

In case of scepticism wait portable diary.

on Wednesday, July 27th, andrew said

Declining public art funding is a cyclical phenomenon. Funding went up in the seventies, and then down again. Why? Because individual judgement of what ought to be sponsored went against what the majority wanted to see at that time. That's bad for election results. The public at large doesn't want to see their tax dollars spent on massaging the tastes of the few. I remember the theatre crowds roaring when Eddie Murphy walked into that snotty art gallery in Beverly Hills Cop. That is the vision most Americans have of art, and it's due to calling things that have more appropriate descriptive definitions, 'art'. The public will come back when the art draws them back.
Art is not selling like hotcakes to the well heeled. That's where the current crisis is at it's worst.
I feel reinvigorated too, when I leave a museum, but not always. Only if the show was good!

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07/27/2005: "Who Needs Art?" by Michael Corbin