In honor of Independence day, I thought I’d throw out a topic sure to cause some fire works. I’ll remind folks that while passion is fine and, in careful contexts, encouraged, boorish behavior directed at specific individuals who comment here or their art is off limits and will result in your comment being ruthlessly deleted without explanation or apology.
And with that nanny-state introduction, let’s get the ball rolling with a comment Donna left on the Studio Visit Strategies thread:
here’s how to get the art world to come clamoring to your studio… you say out loud in a mocking/taunting voice- why all the pointless, craftless, work that makes you think- how did they get in this show? that is long on the dialectic and short on something to look at? why is everyone so afraid of craft? because craft involves history and the fervor with which the art world avoids embracing history is like when you put a cat in a bath and all the fleas mob its head…
The knee-jerk conceptualism-loving art viewer in me wants to dismiss this question out of hand: “It’s not that anyone is afraid of craft so much as no longer as impressed by craft alone as they once may have been. In an age with a bounty of photo realistic painters and technology-guided sculptors making work so convincing you can’t imagine improving upon them…in an age with more sensitive abstractionists cranking out more personal interpretations than there are days in one’s life to see them all…in an age where the line between craft as “craft” and craft in the service of “fine art” has blurred to the point of being nearly meaningless…how can anyone expect craft unto itself to be seen as important as it once had been?”
Once I get all that out of my system, though, I slow down and think about the subject again. Does there exist a fear of “craft”? There is no doubt that craft took a backseat for many during the 60’s and 70’s, and I suspect that led to skepticism about craft-based work that may linger in certain quarters today, but from Grayson Perry to Josiah McElheny, from Oliver Herring (at least his earlier knitting works) to Louise Bourgeois, traditional craft is a serious part of the dialog.
But I suspect Louise Bourgeois’ sewing-based sculptures are not what some people mean by “craft.” What some people mean is craft employed toward the end of traditional ideals of beauty. Why is everyone so afraid of Beauty? is how I interpret that original question after some reflection.
The knee-jerk conceptualism-loving art viewer in me wants to dismiss this question out of hand: “It’s not that anyone is afraid of beauty so much as no longer as impressed by the more traditional ideas about beauty as they once may have been. In an age in which, via globalization, we’re being exposed to more and more images of people and places where our Western sense of beauty is perhaps seen as too sterile or contrived or oversimplified…in an age of air-brushing, plastic surgery, Disneyfied Times Square, Second Life, and eco-tourism…in an age in which heroes disappoint like clockwork, McMansions and Trump towers pass as luxury, and even the oceans are now polluted with continent sized island of plastic crap..how can anyone expect “beauty” unto itself to be seen as synonymous with “truth” as it once had been and thus as relevant?”
Once I get all that out of my system, though, I slow down and think about the subject again. Does there exist a fear of “beauty”? In so much as beauty equals truth, perhaps there exists a healthy skepticism of that idea, yes.
Consider this an open thread.
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