comments about 3/9/07

Veronique's presentation was very nice. I wanted to bring up one of her comments for further discussion. She stated that the 'duty of art is to be controversial.' I disagree with this sentiment. I would say that if there is any duty for art (which is in itself highly debatable), it would be for it to be open, intellectually curious, and sincere. In being open and honest, the work may turn out controversial; and then the artist must have the courage of their convictions to carry it through. However, I feel that art which focuses on just being controversial is formulaic, shallow, dishonest. To create such work, artists merely need to find a widely respected belief or tradition, then exploit it by transgressing it with a kind of dismissive insouciance. This has been the modus operandi of at least some artists in the past. Art as controversy then becomes the favored explanation in visual studies classes, because it is an easy explanation. As a result, it begins to appear that artists' only intention was ever to be controversial...

As to the question of whether or not the federal government should fund art, I don't have very strong feelings on this matter, but tend to think that it has a negative effect in general. Such funding was certainly used as cannon fodder by the neo-conservatives, and helped them regain power of Congess in the 1990's. So it appears that having the government connected to art helped to create a backlash against a more liberal and open society. I don't see how the federal government can mingle with art without politics seeping in. I do feel sorry for theatre and dance companies that need the money to put on their elaborate productions. I wouldn't really mind the federal government funding them.
-JP

Merging art with politics

In reference to the Tax article:
I don't believe art and politics ought to be merged. James Joyce had an excellent way of looking at this issue. He wrote that "the feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess,... loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic emotions. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I use the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing."Portrait of the Artist
Political or didactic art can never give the means to take control over ones lives because the experiencing subject is always being moved in a highly programmatic fashion.