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... in the scheme
of things.
Does Art have the power to change anything?
"It has never, as far
as I have read or can recall, made a difference to any political
movement, or fed a starving tribe, or established a social
order, given an abandoned child a home, or a battered woman
relief from her abuser." I was told that in a conversation.
In practical terms, that
may be true. It is worthy of deeper examination. For what
is to say or measure, the value of personal hope, identification,
sublimation, instruction, introspection, reassessment, inspiration,
or motivation that a visual art can offer to any of the
above situations? Or the sustenance? Or the endurance?
Aside from being beautiful
or expressions of observation, or doorways to the sublime,
or astute observations of the human way – heart, mind,
and soul… Fine Art has, more often, an individual
impact, rather than a mass societal impact. I have read
that beauty brings us closer to God.
Art is used quite effectively
in the moment, when employed for propaganda, or deployed
in advertising campaigns - or in the long term when effective
mass media changes how a society (or an audience) acts by
serving as a modeling agent. Art imitating life - Art manipulating
life subtly - Life imitating art (a strange from of evolution
known as social adaptation).
What about the effectiveness
toward change attributed to the finer arts - those contemporary
arts in particular that some dismay in saying, "you
need a doctorate in 'theoretical aesthetics' to understand"
- art that is criticized as being too self centered, self
absorbed, and absurd, to be of any aesthetic value to our
culture? Well, being one who is open to exploration in the
arts, and certainly frustrated sometimes for my own lack
for "getting it" or finding the point, let alone
the beauty in some contemporary expressions, it does fuel
my thought to deeper personal examinations of my assumptions
to reality. What good is that? It keeps me from getting
too comfortable in a "definitive absolute" (of
anything) and keeps me flexible for growth through reflection
and 'mind' expansion. In reassessing my values and ideas
about the world, I constantly strive to understand, and
believe it or not, this does keep me rather humble - it
also puts my through many provoked feelings. It opens the
doors to discussions about all kinds of issues beyond the
easy judgment for making a "thumbs up or thumbs down
entertainment assessment."
Art awareness and the awareness
of beauty – or the ‘fine’ or higher thought
– on a large cultural level has been inspiring to
cultures open to that aesthetic language - as in the Renaissance…
the 40’s- early 60’s in New York… But
has it that effect where there is poverty and not the resources
to fund and support art making – has art been more
the privilege of the intellectual, the contemplate, the
wealthy?
Why fund art when there are
wars to wage, mouths to feed, ill to mend, dying to prevent?
So what good does art accomplish – does it have the
power to change anything?
It is not that art has the
power to change – it has the power to hold back entropy.
That is it's true value. It is a celebration of life - an
exploration, a dialog, communion, it is beauty - it is a
positive construction at best, that holds back entropy over
time. It gives hope and inspiration.
We are a culture so inundated
with imagery (art) that we take its presence for granted.
Yet we are dumbed down in saturation and over-proliferation.
The Finer more current expressions are not as accessible
for most. Imagine if you can, a world with out art.
Imagine it!
What value does art have?
Imagine the world without. Art - the fine arts - are enriching
to life.
Go take an art appreciation
course from a local college. Go to museums and ask questions,
and read the programs. Then observe yourself - see if you
are not different for the better as a result of the encounter
and the dialogue.
Then ask me again if art
has any value - tell me it changes nothing - It is impractical
- what does it contribute to life? Only lead could be that
dense.
"It
is difficult for men to get news from poems, yet men die
miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
~ William Carlos
Williams
October continued -
I Am Cooked... >>10.20
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