ARTIST-ART

It no doubt sounds a bit mundane to talk today about artistic vision. World events dictate the need for something much more utilitarian. It seems, however, that for a good long while moralistic political economic concerns have contained the limits of dialogue. And within those limits we move from one crisis or war to the next. It has been said that without a vision people perish. How true. Moving through life from one goal to the next is in fact crisis management. It is not the full engagement of life.

Moralistic dribble? I think not. Ever since Louis Phillip’s “juste milieu”? the vast majority of the art community has moved from one zeitgeist to the next: a never ending parade of progress. The goal always remains the same: to find the next big improvement. Meanwhile artistic vision becomes dimmer and dimmer. It has become a faint flicker.

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In the artistic realm of things we turn our gaze towards higher values. Or, so we tell ourselves. Humanity has for millennium turned towards the future for meaning and salvation. I mention this because I find myself endlessly amazed at how some things always remain the same in spite of all the professed advancement. Nowhere is this more evident these days than in the artistic domain.

To the casual observer there appears to have been a tremendous advance artistically speaking after the Reformation and the so called Renaissance. And there was in fact. But it had all been done before. Looking back to the Greeks for guidance and inspiration was not exactly a mark of originality. The period separating them are glibly call the “Dark Ages?. So, was this just another of humanities return to values movements? As in most cases, it seems to have been largely an exercise in the renaming of things. This time they coined the word culture. And with this word began the elite’s modern propaganda campaign which continues to this day.

Read the rest of "Work, Consume and Shut-Up"

If, what we are loosely calling contemporary art demands that the artist be free, can he arrive at some point to liberate himself? Today this painting animal is the most un-free of individuals. His only choice is to which of the latest zeitgeists he shall temporarily conform. Yes the artist painter is in most respects an animal like everyone else. But we must note that he (or she) is in contact with natural forces of a refined order. Society forgets this simple fact to their peril.

Most people I think agree that we are talking animals. Ask them what is the nature of this basic attribute and large differences of opinions emerge. Many, however, express that our intellectual capacity, the ability to reason is simply a refinement of the world habit. They also think that art is a bag of tricks that slick people manipulate. If they were to see reasoning as well as art as an inexplicable gift (from a God or otherwise) then art and reason would be seen to have value. It follows that if here you find no value then life itself has no value.

Art as well as life is, in my view, purely a game which we play well or poorly. And when we imply a progressive principle we invoke ethical standards. This often leads society to support tricksters and allow true artists to starve. The moralist is never universal enough in his thinking from my view. Questions about art are closely tied to the question of how man should live. And if the artist does not exercise a freedom to choose, the question of how man should live becomes as interesting or as uninteresting as how ants should live. At that point we would have a world inhabited with artistic ants.

Published in french as Fourmis artistes

I spent the last month along the Mediterranean away from my computer. I was also removed from the normal run of activity that parallels my painting. During this month I went for walks and painted. It is during times like this that I get outside my box (see outside the box thinking).

None of us easily admit to having been wrong. It is much easier to turn the spotlight on others: the injustices and mistakes of our society for example. While we are doing this we are not examining closely our complicity.

Throughout the twentieth century we have artists and critics making depreciating statements about the value of aesthetics in painting. Ugliness and magical qualities were cited as the justification. What utter hogwash. Somewhere along the line artists have lost the ability to honestly question their work.

Objectivity, for obvious reasons, is not an activity that artists easily enter into. Too much objectivity and you no longer have the audaciousness necessary to creativity. Artists allowed writers and critics to do their thinking for them. These critics became for artists what opinion pools have become for voters.

Most painters can look at a painting and tell you if it is an honest work. But they forget that great work results when we turn the spotlight on ourselves. Only by doing this is the basic ingredient of humility produced. Honest, audacious, humility.

Denis.

Published in french as Humilité, honnêteté et audace