![[Unlocking the Air]](/unlock/perm-images/1332banner700x103.jpg "gold creek, golden ears provincial park, bc")
The things that drop e'er so daintily into my mailbox... Is modern art off its head?
Back in grad school, my co-conspirators and I once spent a few days on the always-timely question: what is Art? We kept it simple, of course. Art, we decided,
In light of the hoo-ha as described by the linked article, I have to say our definition has weathered the test of time.
Art confounds artists at least as much as it does the public at large. We keep expecting it to be bigger than it is, more complicated, more moving pieces. Louder. Less self-effacing. Something. And there it sits (glides, sounds, whatever), being exactly what it is, saturated with the power of clarity even as it seems to be nothing at all. It's like a week-long climb to the top of a mountain to seek wisdom from its guru, struggling over gorges and through blizzards and nightly camps where you notice afresh that your partner forgot the hot chocolate powder and brought the nasty soup, and you get there, scratched and bruised and stinking, and there's the guru. And she looks so ordinary. She doesn't even notice you. And you dump your stuff and sit down and after awhile, that's enough.
Art just is. It is itself, more purely than most of us can hope to be. It is a mirror and a window, all in the same plane. It is purpose and happenstance colliding. It is a bone on a plinth.
* pressed to justify this, its contributor explained that she felt threatened by so-called Art that was taller than she, and felt that Art shouldn't be threatening. I have not yet, in the years intervening, found a reason to drop the height requirement from the list.
comments [2]
I have not yet, in the years intervening, found a reason to drop the height requirement from the list.
Here’s one (they’re all taller than I am, so considerably taller than 5’4”). Surely everyone must have one favourite, or at least acknowledged-as-Art work that’s taller than 5’4”? Michelangelo’s David? Rothko’s ginormous canvases? Something funky by Gaudi?
Surely everyone must have one favourite, or at least acknowledged-as-Art work that’s taller than 5’4”?
Yes. :) That’s the point of leaving that criterium in the list. Without it, the list is almost plausible as is. Its presence underscores the absurdity of that list, which renders it a true statement.
