Jambereen Think's Thoughts

What I like is to look at things and to make things to look at. Pictures made by other people are among the things I like to look at. So are other people. But I get a bit shy just gawking at the unsuspecting, so I suppose I should pay models to allow me to gawk. Anyway, the visual world provides many thrills, but what is this thing called "art"? Does the word really mean much of anything? And if it does mean something, how does one go about making art rather than merely making more stuff to look at? Or is more stuff to look at all that is needed?

Here's what some people think:

As long as "art" is a term that confers value on an object (and there's no reason to have the term at all if it doesn't), people will mean something by it, whether or not they are willing to say so in the Times. There is no exit from concepts.__Louis Menand in The New Yorker, February 9, 1998

The rule in the art world is: you cater to the masses or you kowtow to the elite; you can't have both.__Ben Hecht

I don't know about art. But I do know what makes me say "Three thousand dollars for that piece of crap? Are you nuts?"

The Social Stance of the Artist by the Black Tightrope Walker__Max Beckman, 1927

The talent for self-promotion is a prerequisite for those inclined to pursue the artistic calling.
The budding genius must learn above all else to respect money and power.
A reverence for critical authority must dominate his life. He must strictly adhere to his subservient standing and never forget that art is merely an object, the purpose of which is to facilitate the critic's realization of his critical potential.
The riskiest thing an artist can have is too strong a backbone. Woe betide that miserable creatively inclined creature who is unable to subdue his obdurate spinal column in the course of daily bowing and scraping.
Let him therefore take cognizance of the fact that he is a subservient member of society. His demands can, of course, be taken under consideration only when society's more essential needs for a family car and a vacation trip to the Pyramids have been satisfied.
The artist may take quiet pleasure in his craft. Let him not, however, forget that fashion changes every five years. He would therefore do well no to indulge in all that much ``quiet pleasure'' and to stay well informed of every new set of marching orders.
Aside from the talent for self-promotion, the most important asset an artist can have is girlfriend or beautiful wife. Her utility can be imagined in a variety of ways. Who other than the artist's beloved could better soothe the transaction-riddled, multi-national-takeover-scheme-saturated, cosmic thunder-stricken brain of the champagne manufacturer or leather dealer? With her gentle hand she can stroke the mighty one's chaotic brow and, resting him against her soft body, induct him into the mysteries of dreaming and art.
The artist can know nothing of religion, politics, and life. He must not forget the sylph-like presence that he is, his only purpose consisting in sprinkling the world with brightly colored pollen. The ``merry little artist folk'' had best keep in mind their humble limitations. It is therefore advised that should the unfortunate artist have been endowed by nature with a little sense and a modicum of critical faculty he keep these qualities to himself. Only insofar as he maintains an aura of artlessness can the artist expect to be recognized by the public.
The best thing an artist can do, of course, is to die. Only when the last living vestige of this bothersome personality has disintegrated in his grave can his fellow men take pleasure in his work. Only then does the artist's work truly belong to his contemporaries, for if they buy it at the right time it is as good as if they had made it. The artist is therefore strongly advised to die at the right time. Only thereby can he put the finishing touches on his work.
The artist who follows these fundamental precepts will have a good life. His fellow men will gladly accord this well-respected and untroublesome element in the fabric of the state all the love and recognition he deserves.

"[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered."__Al Capp

"I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time."__Orson Welles:

"That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art."__John A. Locke

"True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist"__Albert Einstein

"Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life."__Oscar Wilde

ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related as follows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J.
One day a wag--what would the wretch be at?--
Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT,
And said it was a god's name! Straight arose
Fantastic priests and postulants (with shows,
And mysteries, and mummeries, and hymns,
And disputations dire that lamed their limbs)
To serve his temple and maintain the fires,
Expound the law, manipulate the wires.
Amazed, the populace that rites attend,
Believe whate'er they cannot comprehend,
And, only edified to learn that two
Half-hairs joined so and so (as Art can do)
Have sweeter values and a grace more fit
Than Nature's hairs that never have been split,
Bring cates and wines for sacrificial feasts,
And sell their garments to support the priests.
__Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911

PAINTING, n. The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic. Formerly, painting and sculpture were combined in the same work: the ancients painted their statues. The only present alliance between the two arts is that the modern painter chisels his patrons.__Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.__Tom Stoppard

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.__Jules Feiffer

If you can't find your inspiration by walking around the block one time, go around two blocks--but never three.__Robert Motherwell

I don't mind being miserable as long as I'm painting well.__Grace Hartigan

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing underfunded, understaffed, and without the proper permits.__Megan Hamilton in Links

If you can't laugh at yourself you need to move to a stuffier town. If you take your art seriously in the sense that you require devout silence for its appreciation, convoluted and obscure text for its analysis, flawless white walls for its display, and high price tags for its legitimation, you should leave Baltimore immediately.__Megan Hamilton

Not making your point (or even knowing what it is) can be effective.__Megan Hamilton

Stuff goes wrong. This is not a problem. The obsessive polish of corporate America is a sure sign of excessive greed and too many days missed playing in the sun.__Megan Hamilton

The title 'artist' is optional. In my experience, artists are people leading a considered existence which integrates a joy in sensory perception with a commitment to ethical principles. Other people do this as well. We are on the same team, so what we call each other is irrelevant.__Megan Hamilton

Recently I was at American University in D.C. and I asked a member of the theater faculty about the arts programs on campus and in the curriculum. He replied that the arts programs were drying up, but that the arts management program was going strong.__Kirby Malone

If you hear a voice within saying "You are not a painter," then by all means paint . . . and that voice will be silenced. __Vincent Van Gogh

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.__Ralph Waldo Emerson

ESSAY XII _Art_by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some art links that might have the answers I'm looking for.

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