[Jewelry making - Article 01603] - Re: [Orchid] Hubris and the artist

[David L. Huffman]

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Hi Lisa and others;

    I figured, if I threw out the dare, somebody would tip over that
    rock. Foucault, eh? Here we go, subtleties abound. I'm going to have
    a little fun with this. I have an abbreviation I made up that I like
    to use. It's "No Mo Po Mo!" for "no more post modernism". I feel a
    rant or sorts coming on. What did Betty Davis say? Hold on it's going
    to be a bumpy ride. 

    Let me try and explain what Art is. Here's my analysis of what is
    going on the "art world" of the cognoscenti. 

    Art is anything that blurs the line between what is non-art and what
    is historically art. Historically qualified art is the stuff in
    museums, art history books, and hanging on the walls of those
    oh-so-pedestrian galleries that sell "stuff" like paintings,
    sculpture, drawings, prints, etc. Non-art is everything else that
    hasn't been presented as art... yet. 

    All new art must engage in the debate about the relevance of
    historically established art to some mysterious collective societal
    battlefield of ideas. It must find a way to declare it's own
    relevance to historical art without falling into the trap of being
    merely a repetition of some example of historical art, as it can't
    actually be an historical artwork itself.. It often does this by
    actually posing as a copy of an historical artwork, as long as the
    words "referential" or "derivative" get dropped. The other option is
    to be something that disturbs everyone's sensibilities. Since that is
    getting very hard to do anymore, it often takes the form of a cliche
    of offensiveness and carries it off with a very artful political
    maneuver, such as drawing the ire of a right-wing power broker, like
    the Mayor of New York. 

    For example, one could paint a portrait of Osama Bin Laden, in the
    style of some forgotten French painter from the Rococo period (and
    dressing him in Louis XIV regalia), using the blood of an endangered
    species and finagling grants from both the Sierra Club and the
    Daughters of the American Revolution to pay for it to be installed
    somewhere, oh, say across from a certain New York fire station or
    anywhere near the 9/11 memorial. 

    Now sitting at a card table in the kitchen, away from the adults,
    are the two children, craft and craft-that-wants-to-be-art. They are
    imitating the debate being held at the big peoples table. That's us
    folks, sitting at the kiddies table. And those people doing the
    deliberately weird things will let you sit with them but the price is
    very dear. You'll need to become very cynical and manipulative. I
    know some of them, and I think they have sold their souls. I don't
    know about you, but, after decades of this topic I'm getting bored
    and would rather think about getting some more of that jellied
    cranberry sauce. I'm also saving room for the pumpkin pie (with the
    real whip cream). Meanwhile, whatever anyone says, Art is big
    business, for a very few. Craft is more like a job, without the
    security, that is. 

David L. Huffman
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