MY BRAIN HURTS !!
Have been thinking deep thoughts at home today after talking to Marcella yesterday. We both realised that there were very few of us just painting. A bit worrying… I gave it some serious thought and wrote a piece on Word. Hope my technical skills are up to transferring it!!!
Hmm! Can’t transfer my Word Doc. so will have to type it all out – what a bore.
Here goes ……As I hurtle towards the end of my Degree, I observe that many of my fellow-students have resorted to making ‘Conceptual Art’. A feeling that somehow my own practice of ‘just painting’, is inferior and old-fashioned has constantly worried me. So I decided today to properly address the subject of what exactly is conceptual art and is it real art? In my distant school days, I remember the great debate on is craft art? …a similar idea perhaps… why does everything have to have a label? Anyway, I began by looking for a dictionary definition online and found this ….
an art form in which the artist’s intent is to convey a concept rather than create an object….any of various artforms in which the idea for a work of art is considered more important than the finished product (Merrian Webster free dictionary)
This raise another question … that of the object in art Leaving that aside, it must next be considered that if Conceptual Art is based solely on ideas, then conversely does that mean that traditional art i.e. sculpture & painting is devoid of ideas? Clearly this is complete nonsense. Before expanding on this staement I wish to backtrack to write about the art/craft argument. An article on Artnet – ‘In Defence of Concepts’ by Ben Davis, quotes an article by Denis Dutton entitled ‘Has Contemporary Art Jumped the Shark Tank’ an obvious reference to Damian Hirst. Davis summarisesDutton’s words thus….
Dutton believes that “Arguably, the modern definition of an artist comes alive exactly at the point where art is elevated above mere craftsmanship – the birth of the artist-as-intellect is the thrust of Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists”. This indicates that the argument has been raging for quite a while!
Davis goes on to say that, Dutton maintains that human beings have an innate taste for virtuoso display in art and that this is what fuels the somewhat reidiculous cult following of the YBA’s. The artist Mark Leckey backed this opinion too. Saying that he was not against Conceptual Art as such, but the rather pop version of it as displayed by the YBA’s who apparently sought monetary gain rather too blatently at the expense of their art.
Returning to my worries about whether conceptual art, being based on ideas is somehow more valuable than the more traditional versions of art such as painting and sculpture, I am beginning to see that this is not the case. The idea that painting is devoid of ideas is ridiculous. The act of putting paint onto a surface involves a myriad of intellectual thoughts, decisions and considerations. Even the decision to start a painting has to be preceded by an idea. Most, if not all artists, have a concept of what the painting will convey to the viewer even if that concept arrives after the painting has begun. The painter uses his craft to create the image just as the conceptual artist uses his craft (siteing Josh here with his welding !!)to create the object. It is, admittedly, harder to understand a conceptual piece which results in the absence of an object, but I do believe that the passage of time will judge what is valid or not in these cases.
There is one last essential and important element to be considered. That is the philosophical and aesthetic quality of the work. Personally, I feel that a work must speak to the emotions. It does not have to be aesthetically beautiful, although this is often a cause of instant attraction, but it must appeal to the senses and the intellect in some way, as Joan Eardley’s work recently appealed to me and as the horror of Picasso’s Geurnica appealed to me when I stood before it back in the 60’s
I conclude that there is integrity in both good Conceptual and good Traditional artwork. Establishing what is meant by good is another matter for another day.
