SYNOPSIS. Wherein the author asks an expensive question. Where Andy Warhol makes a cheap appearance. Where art is art is art is art and so on. Wherein a definition is discovered that may do nobody any good whatsoever. Wherein failure is courted with pretty words and flowers. And how failure doesn’t return our calls.
“WHAT IS ART?” OR, “IS THAT ART?” OR, ALTERNATIVELY, “ART?”
The $1,000,000,000 question. The question nobody can answer because of that pesky force in all humans: subjectivity. The question, however, that everybody who has suspicions like mine is forced at some point to ask in stumbling phrases, curious postures, poorly timed eye-blinks, and gestures toward things while saying, “Not that. Please, god, not that.” It’s more of a plea, not a question.
If one dares to say, “That is not art,” someone nearby will inevitably say, “Why not?” And then a conversation ensues that leads nowhere productive. Andy Warhol’s Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box, 1964 is a good case in point (and referenced in Things I Hate). We look at it and question, “Is that really art?” Perhaps that’s what Warhol’s intention was, to take Duchamp’s readymades to the next logical step. Imagine his lover contesting the box’s artness (sacrilege, yes, but useful sacrilege). The question is posed. “Why not?” Warhol might have replied. The lover may have scorned him, called him crazy, or placed the laurel of genius on his brow—all deserved responses.
“Is Warhol’s Ketchup Box art?” I ask.
The answer is, “It is now,” I reply.
Very frustrating.
ART IS ART IS ART IS ART
So there we go. “It is now.”
The reason: “Because I say it is.” Doesn’t give us much hope for critical thinking or reason.
Like pornography, most people take the judge’s side and say, “I know it when I see it,” which may work in the loose and gray confines of the legal system, but doesn’t really belong in the airtight field of aesthetics.
However, since I’m supposedly attempting to genuinely Like Art Again, I’ll just draw a baseline that almost any artwork can easily reach:
MY BASELINE DEFINITION OF ART: All creative output begins as art.
[Please tell me I didn't just type that in public]
Well. That should do it. Now we’ll chip away at it as we go along, like good little chippers.
Well. That should do it. Now we’ll chip away at it as we go along, like good little chippers.
It’s very possible that we won’t succeed in defining art with that attitude. But the question “Is that art?” is an impossible one and I like impossible things. Striving after them usually makes us work harder and accidentally do other great things in the meantime. We might as well try.
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