great thread and everyone is offering interesting viewpoints
.
http://www.nd.edu/~archives/fff.htm
"finis : end....."
i used to feel i understood the meaning of the words Fine Art.
i thought i meant "finely painted", or "finely constructed".
i've since learnt that "fine art" comes from (one) of the meanings
for the latin word finis - fine art means art which is "an
end in itself",
rather than a graphical-representation which promotes a commercial
product. Warhol's 'tins of soup' doesnt contravene this b/c Warhol wasnt
selling Campbell's products he was celebrating post-war american
iconography - a generic cultural item that anyone, from a Wall Street
broker to a cab-driver in Utah would have in their cupboard.
The abstract art which laid some of the foundation for Pop (Rothko,
Newman, Klein etc), became popular as a reaction to the traumas of the
first-half of the 20th century. people wanted to escape and forget what
they had been forced to witness - and art which was about "nothing at all"
was a natural development of this.
i know this meanders away from some intitial posts here but i'd say:
1. art is art, and everything else is everything else.
2. there's almost no 'fine art' that i dont like - i like LOMO, i like field-
camera, i like digital, & abstract, impressionist, realism, kids art, street art,
non-objective, non-representational blah blah
3.many of the best art-ideas happen by chance. something like Brian Eno's
"Accidental Strategy". - oops i played an unreheased chord or i overlay
these two random tape-loops - but hang-on, doesnt that sound cool 8)
just as Matt says if 'correct' technique is so rigidly defined that there
is never deviation - then we stagnate and there is no creative revolution.
Renoir, Sisley, Seurat were "completely amateurish",
"laughable" they "couldnt paint", their paintings "looked half-finished".
today their innovation is renowned and there work perceived
as mastercraft. we might marvel at their ability to synthisise images
from directly painted pure color. their contemporaries of the 'Salon'
viewed this hasty, superficial work with ridicule and incredulity.
