ESSAY #1 [NOTES]
“CONTINENTAL THEORY”
POV & Tone
Anecdotal, conversation starter for discussion groups, expanding influences to include democratization of art.
Issues
§ The theorist/critic seeks to determine the artist’s role in the culture.
§ The Marxist critic opposes the canon, push socio-political agenda masquerading as human interest activism
§ 50,000 art students graduate every year (Coagula)
§ Jurist for Kinetic Sculpture Race, Tattoo Convention, high school art fairs
§ Outsider Art
§ “The Art Business”, what qualifies as an “art gallery”, market forces that play out in the success of guys like Marc Kostabi & Thomas Kincaid
§ Bob Ross
§ The befuddling success of Cloaca, von Hagens’s “Body Worlds”, Marc Quinn, etc.
§ “Everything is art”
§ Hippie at RSAP who fingerpainted on Fredrix canvas
§ Rural arts organizations
§ The devaluation of the artist
§ Lack of respect for collections
§ Marginalizing of traditional artistic pursuits in favor of commercial “art”, the kind that is sold at Tower, Blockbuster or any Cineplex, for under $20.
§ “The Art of ….”
From www.importanceofphilosophy.com
The surest way to destroy a concept is to expand it to mean everything. Over the last century, art has been the victim of such a practice. The new belief is that anything intended to be “art” is art. Is this circular? Of course it is. It is also the only possible definition left, since toilets, blank canvasses, fire engine sirens, and people urinating on stage have been accepted as art.
Andy Warhol: “Everything is art,” he told Newsweek in 1964, “and nothing is art. Because I think everything is beautiful — if it’s right.”
Joseph Beuys Statement:
“Creativity isn’t the monopoly of artists. This is the crucial fact I’ve come to realise, and this broader concept of creativity is my concept of art. When I say everybody is an artist, I mean everybody can determine the content of life in his particular sphere, whether in painting, music, engineering, caring for the sick, the economy or whatever. All around us the fundamentals of life are crying out to be shaped or created. But our idea of culture is severely restricted because we’ve always applied it to art. The dilemma of museums and other cultural institutions stems from the fact that culture is such an isolated field, and that art is even more isolated: an ivory tower in the field of culture surrounded first by the whole complex of culture and education, and then by the media which are also part of culture. We have a restricted idea of culture which debases everything; and it is the debased concept of art that has forced museums into their present weak and isolated position. Our concept of art must be universal and have the interdisciplinary nature of a university, and there must be a university department with a new concept of art and science”.
1979, From an interview with Frans Hak
The art of living
…the mix
…unix programming
…communicating effectively
calculating with beads
eating
electronics
kissing
motion control
questioning
peace
driving
project management
insults,
fire
divination
