Art used to be (and in some cases still is) all about the image. Francis Bacon's work was all about the sensation. He said that he wanted the images he painted to create a feeling before they created a story. In this way the person is forced to spend time engaging with the art and figuring out for himself the story within only after he has emotionally reacted to it. Not at any point did words play part in explaining it - one has adjectives to describe the work, but not explain it.
It seems these days that art is no longer a language in itself, devoid of words. Conceptual art has inevitably formed a relationship with spoken and written language required and used by the artist in order to ensure his work is understood, so the verbal explanation and the visual piece come together as a single, complete package.
Why? Because the artist has become a lazy creature. What happened to years of training oneself to speak with images? What happened to a lifetime's dedication and devotion to the better understanding of the language of the picture? Cézanne, Van Gogh, Paula Rego, Lucien Freud, Rodin etc. etc. didn't waste their time talking endlessly about what they were trying to achieve without actually attempting to achieve it.
I remember when I was still in school an artist was commissioned to make a sculpture/installation to put in the main hall. It was an awkward piece: wooden boards jutting out at weird angles with paintings of miniature people and scenes all over it. The artist came in to talk about it, and he spoke for the better part of an hour about how it was autobiographical, and then went on to explain all the little stories he'd depicted. It was really tedious, a complete waste of our time. But it turned out he'd been doing this all over the country, his work and his live talks about them were part of the same package. My history of art teacher mumbled something about what a scam it was and left half way through. Touché.
Somewhere along the way verbal explanations have come to be required, and no longer by the art critic, but by the artist himself. Surely if the work requires this, it's not achieved its goal? It's like an architect standing outside his building explaining all the interior spacial arrangements to people before they're allowed inside.
It seems these days that art is no longer a language in itself, devoid of words. Conceptual art has inevitably formed a relationship with spoken and written language required and used by the artist in order to ensure his work is understood, so the verbal explanation and the visual piece come together as a single, complete package.
Why? Because the artist has become a lazy creature. What happened to years of training oneself to speak with images? What happened to a lifetime's dedication and devotion to the better understanding of the language of the picture? Cézanne, Van Gogh, Paula Rego, Lucien Freud, Rodin etc. etc. didn't waste their time talking endlessly about what they were trying to achieve without actually attempting to achieve it.
I remember when I was still in school an artist was commissioned to make a sculpture/installation to put in the main hall. It was an awkward piece: wooden boards jutting out at weird angles with paintings of miniature people and scenes all over it. The artist came in to talk about it, and he spoke for the better part of an hour about how it was autobiographical, and then went on to explain all the little stories he'd depicted. It was really tedious, a complete waste of our time. But it turned out he'd been doing this all over the country, his work and his live talks about them were part of the same package. My history of art teacher mumbled something about what a scam it was and left half way through. Touché.
Somewhere along the way verbal explanations have come to be required, and no longer by the art critic, but by the artist himself. Surely if the work requires this, it's not achieved its goal? It's like an architect standing outside his building explaining all the interior spacial arrangements to people before they're allowed inside.
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