IM differing HO
Da Vinci never made a statement about the Mona Lisa. the very enigmatic
quality is part of the reason for its stature. He made many paintings on
Christian themes on commission. He was clearly not a Christian, and
these paintings contain lots of references that a real Christian would
not have put in. Nonetheless, many of them are considered great
masterpieces. I make no judgment about Da Vinci or his works, only that
much great art either has no "artist's statement", capitalized or not,
and a fair amount has artist stated material about it that is either no
longer meaningful outside of its milieu or outright contradictory to
what most others see in the art, but the art lives on because of its own
intrinsic qualities.
I recently went to an exhibit of medieval Italian illuminated
manuscripts. All were certainly works of art, and most were stunning
works of craftsmanship as well. All were meant (artists purpose) to
convey catholic spiritual themes and, more specifically, to illustrate
and amplify the text and/or music on the pages they adorned. I am very
far removed in time, knowledge, spiritual state, etc. from the origins
of these works and several of them had been excised from the original
pages, so there was no context at all outside their borders. And yet, 2
or 3, and one especially, spoke to me directly, such that I was not the
same after viewing it as I was before. There are certainly pieces of
'art' (that's not what the creators understood it to be) from
precivilized cultures that stand out as having the special quality of
affect on the viewer where little or nothing is known of the maker or
his/her culture.
Nothing wrong with Artists Statements, but they are not a meaningful way
to distinguish art from anything else. In fact, I'm pretty sure there is
no consistently meaningful way to do so. Such a statement simply becomes
part of the work of art as a whole, modifying it in the process. One
can, of course, argue about this forever, and artists, philosophers and
many others have done so and will continue to do so.
I'm aware of the part these things play in judged competitions. I
started to read your statement. It looks fine, well written and
informative, but I started losing interest pretty soon. I want to see
for myself how I react to a photograph, without being told how to
process and understand it. Then, if the subject interests me apart from
the image of it, I would be interested in reading more about the
subject. I'm not commenting on your photographic or writing skills, just
on the idea that a statement of purpose is a necessary part of a piece
of art or can in any way distinguish between art and anything else.
(Don't get me wrong, I think you are a very talented photographerand
enjoy seeing your work. Your documentary photos of the glass works are
first rate. I don't recall seeing the artistic ones??)
Moose
John A. Lind wrote:
Wayne,
At 11:25 PM 9/20/03, Wayne Shumaker wrote (in part):
So I'm caught up in 'what is art?' maybe to figure out if I am doing
art or can I see art?
IMHO:
What separates "art" from whatever the rest can be called is ability
of the artist to make an "Artist's Statement" about the work. If
you've been to a gallery that features multiple works from a
particular artist, there should be one on the wall somewhere (it's
usually small). This is an important part of the exhibit. It is
usually a one-page (or less) statement in which the artist introduces
the collection and explains what its purpose is . . . why it was done,
and something about the "message" it's intended to convey to others.
The ability to explain *why* the work is being done indicates the
artist not only has a "vision" of what is to be accomplished, but can
articulate it in writing. If you can put into words what it is you're
trying to do and what it is intended to convey to others, it's "art."
It doesn't have to contain esoteric "deep meaning," abstractions or a
high level of intellectual complexity; it can be straightforward, very
simple and direct too.
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