Subject: I'm gonna kick your art
From: georges aron (georges.aron@libertysurf.fr)
Date: Sat Jul 28 2001 - 07:40:56 GMT
Hi Zazie,
I just had a talk about art last week, so I'm going to sum it up: it appears
that there is not one absolute and definitive definition of Art . Moreover,
Art with a big A didn't exist 2 centuries ago. Most of us 'think' Art in a
XIXth-century way (remember: XVIth century: religious liberation, XVII th
c.: intellectual and scientific liberation, XVIII th c.: politic liberation
(french revolution, and so on), XIXth c.: liberation of the
'feelings'(Romantic movement), so, as a consequence, liberation of art; XXth
c.: (pseudo) sexual liberation). So: The XIX the c. embodies Art as a
quasi-sacred superior activity, because it had just been freed. The whole
past artists became 'academic'. (so distinction between creative art and
academic art is quite modern). But of course, you don't free yourself once
in a row, so the Idea of the 'Beau' (the cult of the Beautiful) is still
alive at this time: let's see Monet, Manet, .... I think many of us are
still attached to this conception of art, as a fusion of freedom (the artist
expresses his feelings) and aestheticism (you will enjoy having his paint in
your living room). But, badaboum! welcome into the XXth c.! the requirement
of Beauty became too oppressive and conservative, so too 'bourgeois'. The
artists got rid of it: here is freedom! Let's see Malevich and his totally
white paint (MOMA, in New York), Kandinsky, or Marcel Duchamps and his
"Fountain". And the main point is coming: when the "Beau" was still
required, Art was a sensitive activity (you were able to enjoy it ( maybe
not to understand) just with your eyes). But when it disappeared, it became
an intelligible activity; example: Malevich wrote a 1000 pages-book to
explain his white paint. And, of course, intelligible activity is not within
the reach of the commonplace museum-visitor, at the opposite of sensitive
activity. So, when you (and I) say 'IT is not art', you 're just
conservative and refer to...academic art. Warning: I don't assert that your
way of thinking is stupid (we all know how dangerous it can be to assert
something on this list...), I just try to give a bit of light... So, the
final question is: is freedom always a benefit?
Well, I hope it helps.
Valérie
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