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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:
>
> Phone conversation overheard the night before a Minimalist Art Exhibit:
> Minimalist Artist: "Yeah, I'm showing a piece at tomorrow's opening. Here's
> what I want. You go into the corner where my piece is to be displayed and
> take a crap on the floor. Put a cherry on top of it and label it 'The demise
> of Mankind.'"
> Curator: "VERY good, sir! And might I say it's an honor to have you show at
> our exhibit!"
That's pretty good, but I think a real Minimalist would've called it "Cherry
on Crap #7" or something similar. 8^)
> I think you hit upon an important aspect of defining art-- the artist's
> intentions. Art created to be controversial or iconoclastic would be defined
> by me as political expression. Art as I would define it cannot be used to
> forward an agenda. Illustration or free speech can.
Oh no! You've opened a whole new lithographed soupcan of worms with this
one! If the artist has to stand beside the work and say "This is what I was
saying..." then she didn't "say" it at all. The artist's intention is almost
wholly irrelevant to the work, precisely because the viewer has no access to
that intention! Or, at any rate, the intention is subordinate to the viewer's
interpretation.
I confess, before I get further out of my depth here, that I'm more
comfortable with this argument as it pertains to writing, but it still applies
to painting or sculpture, as well--I'm just not as familiar with the
"language" of the visual arts.
Dave!
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Swearing?
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| (...) Welcome! The more opinions, the better, IMO (...) Ahh. I was an art major in college. (...) Interesting. Although I think that a lot of beautiful things have been created since the end of the abstract expressionists, perhaps the concept of (...) (24 years ago, 5-Jan-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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