Any art work that exists outside of its creation is dead. Art does not exist physically in any form. It exists as a spirit that moves from host to host, inspiring them to capture it. What we ultimately experience in a painting or a sculpture or a novel or a song is the now empty host of what one was art.
A still warm artwork will sell for more money than a colder artwork. This is not limited to Art Dealers, the type who buy paintings and sell them for too much money- this goes for anyone who wishes to bottle and sell emotion, passion, inspiration and observation. Music Company executives and Hollywood producers are perhaps more relevant examples, as, honestly, not a lot of people seem to care about paintings any more since the 60s successfully bottled and sold its own spirit back to the world. Painters like to paint, and a handfull of us like to look at their paintings, but most of Earth would prefer to see Rango. They would have probably preferred to see Rango in Degas' world too, or Di Vinci's world. Its not a desire limited to time period. If they had Rango in the early 1600, the Pope would go check out Rango and tell Michelangelos, ceiling to go fuck itself. Most people want to see realistic beauty captured as perfectly as possible, personal style comes as a second, unless it helps contribute to capture the beauty. And I think this is where the cause of confusion lies.
We now believe our own lie. So now thru a thousand years of conditioning, increasingly effective means by which we can record and recreate beauty, beauty being too loose a word, but I think the most appropriate. The lie of a painting or of a book or a song is this- A moment once existed that created harmony of emotions as perfect as the painting, book, song, etc is presenting us with. When in actuality what we are experiencing by observing a painting, book or song is the personality of the author, and perhaps little sprinkles here and there of the true moment or emotion. Artists are confused because they believe their own lie that they are able to capture beauty. And either thru wanting it to be true, or being tricked, all non-artists are deep in the illusion that artists are able to present them with beauty. (again, artist/non-artist are terms too loose yet appropriate... best left for another paper).
What we have instead been experiencing all along is memory triggers. Nothing more. A painting, book or song will evoke millions of memories at once and the best suited ones will rise above the crowd and harmonize with each-other to create a overwhelming emotion. Therefore it is not the artist who present you with beauty, but it is you who presents you with beauty. We are just inducing it. Were bringing something to your attention, under the impression that we have physically captured beauty. This confusion is better titled "Artistic merit".
There is only one time where any physical work of art contains any sort of artistic merit, and that is during its conception. When a painting is finished, and the spirit of art leaves it, the painting becomes a dead body, void of a soul. Art dealers swoop in to try and salvage what little warmth the artwork will have left, and will sell it based on its temperature.
Tho it can be argued that once an inspiration has worked its way thru an artist and onto a canvas or book or what have you, that it becomes part of a much larger scale of change. While the artist may think they are done with a piece of art, the world is not. The artist dies, but the dust and hairs and spilled drinks and moving damages of the world are not finished with the artwork. Over time every art work is changed, be it something added like the wine stain of a patron, or something taken away like the slow decay of fresco or acrylic.. an art work, much like everything else on earth, is always being changed, in a constant state of Heraclitus -esq flux, and if that is the case, then the spirit of art never leaves an artwork, as long as it remains in flux.
This is why to destroy an art work is such a crime, because the artwork wasn't even finished yet. No artwork may ever be finished, the Mona Lisa is barely halfway done.
0 comments:
Post a Comment