Do We Perceive Beauty in an Unexpected Context (art/context)

[Scott Hansen <evanpeewee@gmail.com>]

from mark's original post, i would say "it appears that we went to grad school together and never saw each other". ha!

re-his post below-art cannot exist w/o a context (generally). there maybe one person who changed this just a bit in the 20th century when talking about goldsworthy (who i never loved, but i had a friend in grad school who loved his work).
the person who changed it all (and some say RUINED art) is: Marcel Duchamp. he was the person who said that "art is anything an artist says it is" & "an artist is anyone who calls him/herself one".
-the example of the 1st premise-is his "Fountain", what he called a readymade-the idea that an artist can choose any readymade/premade object (something that can be manufactured) and call it art. of course the big part of this was that he (Duchamp)
was a trained artist (he was a pretty good painter), did the naming, entered the work to be exhibited, it was rejected, and of course being rejected became more famous.
-his 2nd premise was "anyone can call themselves an artist", of course this one gets a bit blown out of proportion. of course you don't have to go to school to be an artist (which some think) or you don't have to study w/ a master (which is the old school Renaissance
model), but the thing that folks forget was DUCHAMP was a pretty major artist in the 2D mode who moved into new realms and really changed things in the 20th century (it's been argued that he was more important than Picasso-of course some say he was a hack)

what Goldsworthy is coming out of is all DUCHAMP! as is most conceptual art (and all types that come out of conceptual art: site specific, earthworks, etc). goldsworthy going out into the forest and sewing leaves, he's an artist, and he's calling that "his art". (as opposed to painting, drawing, sculpture...) then what he does-instead of taking the actual objects (leaves of course would eventually degrade) is photograph it. most conceptual art is photo based or document based, since the idea is more important than the actual object....
and for Goldsworthy-it's hard to sell sewn leaves, but photos of sown leaves, he can make a limited # of photo prints, sign them, and "instant-sellable art!" (yes, his name is big in the conceptual world)

so to finalize: you cannot have "Art" w/o a context....
fun discussion.
s---




re:

• From: mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com>
• Subject: Re: Do We Perceive Beauty in an Unexpected Context
• Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:34:42 +0100

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Ahh.. I love his stuff, simple and natural.. have to say I dont know 
much about him.. which I just showed rather well, but I hope my point 
still stands? That Art exists even without context. I think context, 
makes a lot of Art work, but as a pretty staunch Hater of so called 
public or corporate Art, sometimes it ruins Art too!