Motivation to paint
Introduction
Explaining the unexplainable
Existence
I think therefore I am
Impressionalism
Visualise the feeling
Self-portraits
Who am I?
Art that I like
Australia
Beauty in the wasteland
Europe
The underbelly
Iconography
Picture writing
Chinese Art
Traditional and modern
Death of a Clown, by Chad
The Critic's Role
Although art creation is very much an individualistic pursuit, art without an audience is a bit like a software program that is never used. Whatever value the software program has, that value can only be realised when people are using it. If it is never used, it is useless. Art is no different. Art needs an audience to define its value, purpose, and function. It needs an audience to give it life. It needs testers that can find problems in the art and so help the artist further develop their skills. When art lacks an audience, the art is dead.
While the audience has an important role to play, I've always been struck by how reluctant they are to play it. At most art galleries around the world, the level of activity going on is comparable to a funeral parlour. In my idyll world, art galleries would be full of exclamations, criticisms, suggestions, ideas, arguments, and discussions. If art turns people in zombies, then there is either something wrong with the art, or something wrong with the audience. I liken the situation to giving a child a computer game, only to then see the child stare at the screen as if there were nothing on it. Either the game is a failure, or the child is in need of psychological help.
I think part of the problem is that there has developed a cultural value within the arts community that there is no such thing as bad art. As long as such a value is maintained, people will refrain from making their judgements. While it is debateable as to whether there is such a thing as bad art, what is not debateable is that certain issues can be ranked as more meaningful than others, and artists often concern themselves with issues that are simply not meaningful and important. For example, I went to a function showing the latest acquisitions of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. One piece was an artist's name in italic letters. While the artist obviously thought this was an interesting subject matter, I thought listening to someone talk about a ruminating cow would have been more gratifying.
Although that kind of art is acceptable to artists that believe there is no such thing as bad art, it is not acceptable to normal society. In days past, it would not have been acceptable to artists either. For example, if Leonardo De Vinci had tried to tried to sell artwork that was nothing more than his name in Italic letters, he would have ended up as a bum on the street. Due to government funding; however, artists can make a living producing crap that few people like. Consequently, the Australian art world gets flooded with crap, and populated by post-modern space cadets who just stare at it.
One of the things that I like about Australia is that, art galleries aside, there is quite a strong culture of expressing opinions - even when those opinions aren't particularly insightful or shared by others. Admitedly, in wider Australian society the criticism is often mixplaced and comes at the cost of respect, but in the art world I think it is a cultural trait that is desperately needed.
The youtube skit below about Chopper Reid insulting the great art of the world illustrates a cultural confidence that is relatively lacking in other countries. Although I wouldn't personally agree with most of the comments made by the Chopper character, and I don't think they are particularly enlightened, I would much prefer a gallery full of such characters than a gallery full of the jellyfish.
Chopper Reid selling art, and insulting art
In addition to the Chopper skit, I was pleased to recently read a forum by journalist Andrew Bolt that took aim at at the Melbourne International Arts Festival because its performances were terminally trivial or meaningless. The acts included an Arab Jew who sang a prayer for going to the toilet and then chewed an apple into the microphone, a Goth dressed as an Orthodox nun who wailed a 90-minute "chant for the dead" in Armenian, Greek and Turkish, a room with the lights switched off, and Japanese dancers prancing around a dull-eyed cow. The forum brought out a lot of likeminded opinions regarding the poor standard of art, and art patrons in Australia. For example:
"I took my then 5 year old son to look at Watermark, an event in Brisbane River Festival a few years back. It included such things as ballet dancers spinning around in little wading pools. My son and I walked along the riverside checking out these various ‘interdisciplinary performance pieces’ and finally my son said to me, “That’s silly, Dad”.
"There is now an “arts bureaucracy” comprised of people who have lucrative careers as seat warmers in various arts organizations. Check out how many people are required to run taxpayer funded arts organizations around Australia and the count would fill a large stadium. From my experience what they know about the arts you could writeon the head of a pin. The result is that they present the nonsense perpetrated as “art” is art and the sceptical public is comprised of dark and ignorant forces that do not know what is good for them. Unfortunately, we also have Arts Ministers who know absolutely nothing about the Arts, show only a token interest and think that throwing money at things like the appalling Melbourne Festival is supporting the arts when, in fact, it is degrading them."
"I had a great bit for the festival - but my wife made me flush it away. The world has lost another masterpiece, werribee poo farm has to crank up a new generator and lost my govt grant."
Judging Art