Replies: 26 Comments
on Monday, March 31st, steven said
"Nothing is New under the Sun", ... I don't believe that cliche. Actually, if you look at it, the saying would be more appropriately put... "Everything is New under the Sun". This extends from each individual blade of grass to art expression. The broad context of schools that manipulate artists into isms has come to a head. People wonder what the next ism can possibly be, as if there's a vacuum. Where shall we go in our 21st century 'school'? Are there any classes with fresh subjects? Perhaps the decline in quality is a good indication that art has oftentimes veered far away from its own territory. The question of those boundaries have overpowered art itself. As a matter of fact, philosophy has suffocated the artistic expression for decades. While there is philosophy in art, and art in philosophy, there remains a distinction. To ask a question such as, how do you paint without using paint?, shows the dominance of philosophy. It's a valuable question as an abstraction. But it has wounded generations of voiceless creators because they are not recognized as contemporary thinkers. It's an oxygen rich conformity which makes an allegedly complete puzzle float around us. But for the artists who love paint, or stone, or other materials, they are told that beauty resides in craft, and that meaningful art doesn't go there. That art is an entity hovering above the deep pit of the observer's psyche, readying itself to fall in and fill the mind with the storm or stun that conforms to their essence. I love it. But that's not art. It's philosophy. Fortunately, new ideas are always around, they just aren't brought to the public because of the lack of respect for their work, and therefore no networking. In vogue philosophers have successfully learned to use ideas to illustrate their politics of non-art. At the expense of artists. I believe that reallocating the territory between these two lands is in order for the 21st century. To challenge the existence of art is not an artistic sentiment. To hold the breath until one dies, is not an expression of life. Though a philosopher would tell you it is. Therein lies the distinction.
on Tuesday, March 25th, abraham dayan said
"Not to acknowledge talent it is to make easier the success of the mediocre."
Albert Einstein
on Monday, March 24th, Abraham Dayan said
" ne pas reconnaitre le talent c'est faciliter la réussite des médiocres "
Albert Einstein
on Monday, March 17th, walt said
Harry, I don't have anything against the original French deconstructionists. They actually had a bone to pick with historical evidence. But what it has lead to in the arts is another thing altogether since it is not an analog kind of conversion in thinking. The artists who re-thought much of the theory certainly skewed the thinking based on much work done by early modernists from Dada and other later -isms.
And you're right when speaking about quality...quality is an abstract concept and is always among the first things to go. The problem with quality is that it must be constructed based on a deep knowledge of the arts. Once you have that knowledge you do begin to recognize quality even in work that may not look good to the uneducated. And you also realize that some of the educated work has skill but not much more to say. It puts you on defense facing two ways. One reason nobody wants to write strongly worded reviews any more is that they will be attacked by both sides. The other reason is that there is money to be made saying stupid things to stupid people. Watch TV news and see what I mean.
William, not sure I follow you on all of this (Florence is an amazing city of art) and the early modernists in Paris knew things most of us have never understood. They decoded the two dimensional surface for the first time. Color was also finally defined around the beginning of the 1900's. Both generations were quite amazing for things most of us don't remember today.
But I do like what you have to say about culture which includes, science, philosophy,religion, iconography, symbolism...art is a kind of link between them all. And I agree that as artists one of our main jobs is to be open to and educated about those ideas.
on Sunday, March 16th, Harry said
NO WRONG- invention is not over its QUALITY that is over- manifesting in "DECONSTRUCTIONISM" from the FRENCH! DECONSTRUCTIONISM= NO good or bad, NO right or wrong, everything and everyone is equal! a conceptual art 20 FOOT LENGTH OF ROPE IN A MAJOR NEW YORK ART GALLERY IS AS GREAT A PIECE OF 3 D/ SCULPTURE ART AS GREAT AS MICHAELANGELO'S PIETA - WROOOONG !
DOES ANYONE READ ART REVIEWS ANYMORE IN ART MAGAZINES-?
THE CRITICS today simply describe the physical aspects of the work - color size shape etc and ABSOULUTE NO GUTS FOR COMMENTARY- shame shame shame-- accept if its a Major article that needs to defend the work being exhibited ---
then they read the art like a phsyocologist reads a rorshacht test - what do i see in the inkblot ?
on Wednesday, March 12th, william coulthard said
Walt,you're right,here in Miami the art scene is pathetic,figuration is unskilled,offensive or just
plain stupid,we have had nearly three generations of liars,cheats and bullshitters who could not be bothered to learn or teach their subjects,the naturalists have been so unchallenged that they are producing kitch,mediocre and boring work.With a lack of serious critisism for years in Miami,Fl. anything goes,now we have to suffer chinese crap too. Bring back art vandalism ! anyway in a few years modernism will be landfill and the exponents will have to get real jobs.We lost symbols,we were ment to study them but our craft is over run by bipolar egoists whose families could find nothing else for them to do. If we ran an American Idol style show for artists most of the famous people now wouldn't participate for fear of exposing their ineptitude in public. We were ment to study all culture ,all beleifs,all symbols,ours was a vast subject linked to science and inteligence.now our link is poverty and disrespect. read ecosymbolism by ana bikic.She has poets and scholars,marine scientists and teachers supporting a fresh directive,a challenge for painters and scultors to find new solutions to iconographic symbolism. 'Eco' means house of.from greek echos. and unlike the french symbolism's flat and boring attempts she demands/challenges/commands the artists to really perform/produce a wow factor ...look back to Hudson River group.They were environmentalists too ,until the 'Absenthe' minded french brought their vagueness asthetic.
The renaissance was demanded by a political hierarchy beset on itself,the homosexuality expressed on the Florence walls could easily be a Miami bordello interior,anyway the priesthood scandals have proven this all to well.No, not everyone is an artist,they might perform but so does a poodle in a dress! content/content/content...william
on Wednesday, March 12th, BradMM said
Walt, Then I am happy to be where I am - of course, here, we have had a summer with 69 days over 100 degrees...
on Monday, March 10th, walt said
Brad, the blizzard was not the most memorable of Ohio blizzards. There is about 20 inches of snow on the ground at the moment. But it was as gentle a blizzard as memory recalls.
on Sunday, March 9th, Brad Michael Moore said
Long live Art or I'll throw a bucket of snow on your head...
Seriously, I am surprised the servers stayed up during the storms in Ohio...
on Sunday, March 9th, walt said
"Art is dead! Art is dead! Long live art!"
on Sunday, March 9th, Brad Michael Moore said
One can always retire if one believes nothing can ever again be created that is, unique. Or, one can get off their arse and disprove such an erroneous belief born of the unimaginators...
on Saturday, March 8th, walt said
"The time of invention is over. We live in times of repetition, quoting, recycling and appropriation."
This is the period between every great invention or discovery in which how to use it becomes the point. It happens all the time in science. As Luciano says it has been perhaps only a little over 100 years since the beginning of modernism in art (150 if one includes the precursors of Imppressionism) which is merely a hiccup in the history of art. Modernism was itself an iconoclastic controversy. Such controversies have been traditionally shortlived, some have lasted only the lifetime of the iconoclast (Aman Ra) while some have managed to go a little over a century (the Byzantine controversey) before the blanket of history overlapped the controversy. Some argue that todays controversy is the failed humanist argument begun at the turn of the previous century following the fading edge of the Protestant reformation begun in the 1500's. There was an iconoclastic development in which all imagery was stripped from churches during the beginning of the reformation in parts of Europe during this time. Music was allowed but visual work was not, with the exception of architecture and a kind of abstract decoration. Stylization and abstract imagery (often decorative) prevails during these periods.
Figuration was ignored for perhaps a total of only 10 to 15 years during this most recent controversy. Interestingly enough Picasso prevailed through this period if only because he never quite left off figuration exactly. The figure is the most pregnant metaphor for humans. His work nearly always refered back to the figure.
But back to the issue of invention...there is a difference between composers/inventors and performing artists/conductors. It is like the difference between physicists and engineers. They both deal with the physical world. Yet one envisions light bending around planets while another designs a better sewage system. We are at this moment swamped in what I call performing artists. Why? Because the composers have so overwhelmed us over the last century that we need to understand what has come of the arts in between. During this time it is the performing artists and the conductors...those who use the ideas, explain them, capitolize on them even if they create nothing new... yet they often play it for the rest of us perhaps for the first time. Meanwhile this summary of the last century or more has its own momentum, its own effect on the arts and artists. It is a great pause in the breathing, or a kind of exhaled moment before the deep breath is taken once again... Inhaled or inspired then exhaled or expired.
During the exhaled moment we seem to die. But it is only an illusion. If one lives long enough to see beyond the momentary effect one will become wise. And one will live long enough if one doesn't burn down the barn to kill the owl. In fact-- eventually... one becomes the owl.
on Saturday, March 8th, Murilo Damasceno said
I see so many possibility under yhe sun,i do believe at this time ofour history,we have the fellings of the conectivity of the elements,specially after electricity.....but the inventions just starter to get into the invisible line,where line start their on line from gases of the envirement,society e and and global reality....maybe in natural world there's not to manny inventions ,but in a higher level,in a spiritual concept invention has a bigger flow than we can imagine
on Saturday, March 8th, Sala said
I feel very different. Those who have said there will be nothing new, and that everything has been said or done, have been proven wrong again and again, be it art or science.
I hope not too many artists feel this way, because the only consequence would be stop making art, and that would be horrible.
on Saturday, March 8th, jose said
If invention appears to be over it is only to the powers that be and it is primarily because they have forgotten how and where to look – o feitiço se virou contra o próprio feiticeiro [the spell has turned upon the magician himself]. Art and invention continue pretty much alive as far as I can tell.
on Saturday, March 8th, marjan said
Walty, I rather like that tip about the tip and sponge.(can be applied to so many things.) Thanks.
on Saturday, March 8th, Mark said
Infiniti maybe right about the future and all that science can give an artist. Where does that leave an old warhorse like me who still works with brush and paint? It leaves me in a wonderful place. A place where I can reach deep and look far and create something of worth, without worring about, is it new, inovative or groundbreaking. It is me, us, what more can one ask for.
on Saturday, March 8th, lumadi7@gmail.com">Infiniti said
Invention is happening every second. Invention is as fluid and widespread as is space radiation. Just because a Picasso does not spring up at every corner and at every art class does not mean that new inventions in art are not brewing for future absorption. There is definitely a rhyme and a reason for how our global community has been developing over the millenia and art evolution too has its natural order of breakthroughs and inventive expressions. Give it time. We are in the midst of a super scientific and technological transformation that will greatly change the way artists express themselves using technologies such as nano, rapid-prototyping, 3D image projection, and internet-based art, to name a few. The emergence of 21st century Picassos, Duchamps, and Warhols is just moments away, if not already here. They are perhaps working away in some art school studio as you read this.
on Friday, March 7th, walt said
Marjan, think of history as an iceberg. 90 percent is always below water because it is the big end of the chunk that creates the balast. No matter how far the top tips in heavy seas the berg always rights itself, heavy end down, lighter end up. There is a weight of history that is being arrogantly ignored today. The taller the history the wider the base. The tall end melts faster because it has less mass. It is the base that eventually absorbs the rest in the end.
on Friday, March 7th, marjan said
This all seems like lamenting for 'art movements'. Individual artists are just a little more dispersed location wise.
As for institutions, I'm ignoring them at the moment - they are always decades behind anyway.
on Friday, March 7th, Ellen said
Right, Mark, Walt, Cassandra & C: Where there's life there's hope. Otherwise we might as well pack it in. Although there was a lot of repetition and amateurish and commercial art at Art Expo, there were still some wonderful pieces that reflected a creativity that survives and thrives. There were several unique styles, as well. I often ask myself why I go through all the angst of what I do and then I begin working and I know.
on Thursday, March 6th, Mark said
Make no mistake, traditon has brought us to this point. What becomes history is what forms the future before it is contemporary. Movements, manifestos, traditions, whatever you wish to call them are the seed of what is. It may look like we are lost, but are we? Maybe we we are just looking in different directions, that on the surface, seem like old ones. Museums hanging inoffensive, sterile work, why must it offend, and being inoffensive does not equate into sterility. Beside the museums tend to show the old traditons to a point of extream. New and reletive. What is that? Painting a new image, one never painted before? Or, painting that which has been painted again and again with a new eye, emotion and deep feeling. Is there schlock art out there? You bet there is. But then even in the Renaissance there was bad art, created to only to be sold, and I dare say the same may be true for all historical times. What is important here is to stop worring about, and wringing our hands over what seems to be a lost time, beside you can never go back, so we must look forward. How one does that is to be true and honest to one's self and create the best emotion filled work that you can and be damned if it does not appears to be new, groundbreaking and offensive. Create what is honestly inside you and good will come of it. Perhaps society is maturing. As teenagers we push, explore and try new things weekly. When we mature we see things in a calmer clearer light. That does not mean we are becoming boring or doing just for the buck, that does not mean we don't continue to grow, but we feel and know differently. The new water rushing down a rain swollen stream may seem exciting and dangerous, but would you drink it? The water that flows from underground, a trickle cleaned by nature, not very exciting to look at, not very dangerous looking, perhaps it is even boring, aahhh! but what a taste.
on Thursday, March 6th, walt said
You know that Picasso has been dead barely 30 years. He and cubism did have a tremendous influence on everything that occurred during the last century. 30 years is a hiccup in historical terms. One can look at the last few years as a review, a summarizing, in a sense it has been a way for a generation who do not believe in history to become aquainted with it by appropriation, repetition and deconstruction. The real irony may be that this generation matures and becomes very inventive contrary to their own beliefs.
I think there are a lot of generalizations, overstatements, sweeping statements, comments painted with overly large brushes when it comes to the history as stated above.
There has been a lot of denial... artists who deny this or that tradition, this or that skill, this or that medium or form or philosophy...but very little willingness to take a chance on something believed in rather than something cynical. It does take faith. And not that much really. Enough to make the first stroke.
on Thursday, March 6th, cassandra said
Complacency replaced original thought. We as a cultural society stopped thinking and creating because technology began creating and thinking for us. We could create our personal cocoons and never touch another, we began to have less of a need to communicate as individuals, we became the masses, we learned to live in fear. Repetition, copying, duplicating, and more repetition is much easier than actually doing the work of real art. When everyone gets to play, when everyone is an artist, when everyone looks for the quick buck, mediocrity and sensationalism’s and gimmickry take over. Be not surprised or disappointed, we have been on this path since the late 1950’s. There were many of us that yelled, screamed, and protested in vain. We lost critical thinking, we lost critical thought, and we sold our souls and lost ourselves. Weep not, for the path is a global one and we can only hope and pray that someday soon a small group of “greats” will re-emerge, re-enlighten and teach us again the true value of art.
on Thursday, March 6th, walt said
The Renaissance began when artists rediscovered the lost sculptures of ancient Greece. Looking back is not always a bad thing. But finding the right catalyst from the past is important. And it may not be exactly what we expect.
Niether invention nor experiment deny each other. It is in denial that we loose direction.
on Thursday, March 6th, C said
We can not look at today in the same manner, or with the same eyes, as we do the past. When in a backward progression such as today, the past looks better and vice versa.
