Whew, we made it! This dense, thought-provoking, and wordy book is finished, yet something in me still feels incomplete. As I think back about what this book has said + meant, I realize I have many simple unanswered questions swimming around in my brain.
What is art?
Is this art?
What is good art? What is my responsibility as a Christian artist?
Is this art?
Is this art?
Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed various views about what makes art important + the reasons we create. I’ve been encouraged and inspired by the words we’ve thrown around + written down, yet I still feel that these topics are so enormously heavy that closing up my book + setting it back on the shelf doesn’t seem appropriate yet.
Apparently to the Oxford English dictionary, art is "the expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form... producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."
Georgia O'Keefe thought art is filling a space in a beautiful way. Georges Saurat thought art is harmony. Pablo Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth."
Apparently to the Oxford English dictionary, art is "the expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form... producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."
Georgia O'Keefe thought art is filling a space in a beautiful way. Georges Saurat thought art is harmony. Pablo Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth."
And that's where I get stuck, too. When I ask myself these questions (listed above), I always come back to the same word: truth.
Williams says, “But truthfulness unfolds - it doesn’t happen all at once - and makes possible different levels of appropriating or sharing in the activity that is the world” (137).
In regards to art, this idea that truthfulness can grow or appear more clearly over time seems to invite a dialogue between art + viewer + artist. Imagining that threefold space helps me to see how there is something about the implicit ontology of art which is unavoidable. Art may not always come along with completed perceptions, definitive responses, or straightforward motives, but something about the fact that it simply exists is important.
To me, that seems to hold some sort of truth. There’s intrinsic value in art, like there’s intrinsic value in us (God’s creation). This connector helps me to see the value of art, and therefore its potential goodness + truth. So while I still not be able to nail down what art actually is (where are the limits?), I do believe that good art is art which conveys some truth...
However, I don’t think it just stops there. In class, we discussed the idea that an art-artist relationship is similar to a child-parent relationship. At some point after creating + developing, the art (like a child) must be let go. The artist must release it into the world and stop watching over it as carefully as they once did. The art must be free to interact with viewers, and to create conversations and experiences that the artist may not have control over or even be involved in. Basically, art must be allowed to live.
After thinking about this idea a bit, I realized that maybe good art is art which lives well - meaning that once it is let go, it enters into those conversations and experiences in a way which conveys truth. Whether that truth means it encourages, inspires, informs, questions, or suggests, I believe that’s what makes it important or good.
Here is a list of some of my other final thoughts:
- Things are not only what they are. Art is not only what it is.
- We must interact with our natural (and quiet) inclinations.
- Art can be an outlet for fulfilling divine needs.
- We are capable of remaking bits of the world with self-sacrificial love.
- Through creating, we can discover our own unfinishedness.
- Like God created us because he loves us, we are free to create art because we love it.
- Integrity is key.
Sources:
Images: The Guardian
Mental Floss: 27 Responses to the Question "What is art?"
Oxford English Dictionary
Your post here is rich in thoughts and ideas and + marks! What I can tell reading your post is that your head is swimming with many ideas and concepts gleaned from the book and conversations we had in class. That's a good thing. I like your bullet point at the end. That list alone is something you could take a lot of time to unpack and dive into further. I like that you have pictures. Label them and give credit to the artist that did them. The burger looks like a Tom Friedman piece and the second Duchamp.
ReplyDeleteOver all nice post. Another more direct thought from Williams may be helpful to clarify things, like... you use his one quote about truth, but since you are dialoging about what art is, is there another one that can add some clarity? Nice job putting "ontology" in a sentence. (-;
Commenting on your blog again, because I screwed up on who I was supposed to comment on.
ReplyDelete"What is good art? What is my responsibility as a Christian artist? "
That is something I often think about. As Christians I think we have more responsibility with our art than a non-Christian would. We don't have to do art that literally shows Jesus, but we have the calling to glorify God with what we do. That doesn't even really mean we have to make something beautiful or that shows any aspect of Christ, but I would have a problem with a Christian making pornographic material for instance.
To go along with your quotes, Andy Warholl said "Art is anything you can get away with." which I think many people now take completely to heart, and they put too little stock into your idea that it is truth. Yes, my truth can be different than your truth, we should aim to show our own truths.
I agree when you say that you're still left with this sense of being incomplete. While this book opened my eyes and my mind to new ideas and new ways of thinking, I feel like I almost have more questions now that need clarifying! I think I need more time to reflect before putting the book away for good. I loved how you looked into different definitions of art by different people and sources - that was interesting to hear after reading about the various artists' definitions in Grace & Necessity. Is there one definition that resonates with you more so than others? Or is that Williams' quote about truthfulness? Good wrap up of thoughts from the whole book - the bullet list was helpful for me to read through and reflect on!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how different artists define art- Thanks for including some of those. Vincent Van Gogh also wrote to his brother: "That which fills my head and heart must be expressed in drawings or paintings." when he was defining his own art.
ReplyDeleteThere certainly is a lot of truth to many of what these people say. It's like you said, it comes back to truth. We all have our own truth of how we view this world, and its important I think that we all show it. Nice thoughts- There's a bunch of them to unpack in there!