Some crumpled newspaper, an empty beer can, and a banana peel on a wall in an art museum. Is it art? The disinterested observer will agree that the creator of this assemblage is gifted with a certain sense of form and an ability to present the commonplace in an uncommon way.
The great con artist is an artist in his own way. The con man has the intellectual powers to create in his mind a situation which does not exist and the uncommon power to maintain that image throughout the course of his work -- a feat of no mean accomplishment. He is able also to communicate this image to his audience and to bring them to participate in the illusion with him. Such an accomplishment is both characteristic and essential to the very essence of art.
There was some years ago a painting, by (I believe) a Russian artist, on the wall of an art museum. It is a seascape, with the green-cast waves, lit by a pale sky, so transparent that even from a few feet away the observer is convinced that the water is remarkably clear. Of course, it is not transparent. It is not even water, but opaque paint on a static canvas. Surely that was art.
There is beauty in all things, and it takes a perceptive eye and an open mind to perceive the beauty. But we are in a sorry state if those few who do see are thereby acclaimed artists. 'I am an artist, not because I have created beauty, but because I have seen it.' I am reminded of the story from some time back of a man who had his left hand amputated and proposed to display it (packed in ice) as a work of art. There is certainly beauty in a human hand, a most remarkable work of design and utility. To recognize the beauty of a human hand is not to be an artist.
So I deny the creator of that assemblage of garbage the title of artist, just as I deny it to the con man and to the amputee. He has not created what he displays, but only recognized and arranged it. I grant an admirable power of mind, to be able to see and hold on to the sense of what has been seen, and I grant some discernment in finding a more essential beauty where other see a superficial ugliness. But I deny that he has the artistic breadth and depth of artistic vision that would not cut off a corner of a master's work and procalim it as his own, and I deny the creative powers which go beyond mere recognition of what exists to create new beauty.
It is not art.
11/16/79 151638
This page is valid HTML 5.