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#2 good art doesn't have to match the sofa

updated sun 25 aug 02

 

Martin Rice on fri 23 aug 02


Gavin wrote:

"If art takes you to wherever the artist has intended...Then you'd better
want to go there, if you intend to buy it and live with it. Makers of art
these days seem intent on making a "statement". People who buy art to live
with it may admire the sentiment, but they probably don't want to live with
it 24/7."

I'd suggest beware of the "intentional fallacy." That means that regardless
of what the artist intended it's by no means a given that he/or she has
achieved that intention.

But more important that that, whatever the artist intended his/her work to
mean or to be is, in fact meaningless. As soon as a work of art leaves its
creator it takes on a meaning, intention, indeed life of its own that is
afforded it by the new viewer, listener, or reader. There is no universal or
correct meaning for art, there is only the individual's experience of the
work. Or, a bit more flippantly but seriously, "art don't mean, it be." And
it's being is determined by it's current owner, possessor, user, reader,
listener, viewer.

So for some of us it does indeed have to match the sofa because that's the
way we find our aesthetic experience enhanced, and for others of us it
doesn't. It's really as simple as that.

On a different tack: for those of you who so generously gave of your time
and experience to help me with my question about mug handles, I now have
drying on my ware shelves my very first mugs with handles! God are they
ugly mugs and handles, but....they're my ugly mugs and handles, and, most
important, I've taken the first step on this particular learning curve.

Regards,
Martin
Lagunas de Barú, Costa Rica
http://www.rice-family.org

Joyce Lee on fri 23 aug 02


AND if good art is good art .... period ... and doesn't
require being a match or a blend for its surroundings
........ how come gallery owners and museum directors place such great =
emphasis on Placement, Background,
Eye Appeal etc for their displays? How
come some of the perfection of a
masterfully thrown/decorated/fired teabowl by a master potter ... a =
teabowl worth thousands of dollars in some settings ...may be lost when=20
placed in a
jumble with other much lesser objects in
.... say ..... a garage sale ..... and sell for
fifty cents??

Joyce
In the Mojave

Gavin Stairs on fri 23 aug 02


At 07:35 AM 23/08/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>AND if good art is good art .... period ... and doesn't
>require being a match or a blend for its surroundings
>...

If art takes you to wherever the artist has intended...

Then you'd better want to go there, if you intend to buy it and live with it.

Makers of art these days seem intent on making a "statement". People who
buy art to live with it may admire the sentiment, but they probably don't
want to live with it 24/7.

There is certainly a place for art to live by, whether you call it living
room art or something else. The women who decorate the houses (and they
are predominantly women) and make them pleasant places to live are making
their own statements, and they are statements about life as it should be
lived. They are perhaps thrusting away the difficult statements, but who
will say they are wrong to do so?

And what is so wrong with making art to please such people?

Gavin

Elca Branman on fri 23 aug 02


Art does require its own space BUT ,in my experience there is enough
consistency in taste so that things which are incongruous in era and
geography can still work together..

That , of course, is a different matter from placing your Jomon vessel
amid your delicate netsuke. Scale and space always matter, but sometimes
you might have to rearrange furniture, family mementos A LOT.

I love it when i move into a new space, as i did 6 years ago and the
walls were bare..delicious..Bringing new art children into a family
already established requires adjustment on all sides...starting tabula
rasa is much easier.

Trust your eyes and listen to your insides.

Elca
On Fri, 23 Aug 2002 07:35:20 -0700 Joyce Lee
writes:
> AND if good art is good art .... period ... and doesn't
> require being a match or a blend for its surroundings
> ........ how come gallery owners and museum directors place such
> great =
> emphasis on Placement, Background,
> Eye Appeal etc for their displays? How
> come some of the perfection of a
> masterfully thrown/decorated/fired teabowl by a master potter ... a
> =
> teabowl worth thousands of dollars in some settings ...may be lost
> when=20
> placed in a
> jumble with other much lesser objects in
> .... say ..... a garage sale ..... and sell for
> fifty cents??
>
> Joyce
> In the Mojave
>
>
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Elca Branman,in Sarasota Florida
elcab1@juno.com

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Wendy Peck on sat 24 aug 02


Joyce,

I have faced the same thing, but without the sharing problem. I lost my home
to fire seven years ago, so had a completely fresh start with everything
(not something I recommend, but a great setting for this discussion). I have
been single for that time, so everything here is of my own choosing,
including the house design. Yet, I looked around a year ago and realized
that I have several different "tastes." I was not happy with how things
worked together, and found that I was often hiding my favourite pieces in a
closet to restore the "harmony" that I wanted.

The solution for me was to set up my own mini galleries (for lack of a
better word) in different rooms. Now, my living area features one part of
me, my office another, my bedroom is totally different in style to
everything else, and my bathrooms show yet other facets of me. I love the
variety moving through the house. I have peaceful rooms, vibrant and
electric rooms and one where I put all my "spiritual" stuff. My kids are all
gone as of September, and I am tearing the lower floor apart to put in a big
studio in half of it, and I can hardly wait to redo the TV area in yet
another style. Then I can hit the newly free "guest" bedrooms. It's really a
lot of fun, and has taken all the "restrictions" off what I can surround
myself with.

Now, when I find anything I like, it fits perfectly somewhere. The downside
is that I have to keep the whole house somewhat clean, as I am likely to be
dragging guests anywhere to see my newest treasure. Come to think of it, we
are actually living in more of the house now. Could be related, perhaps?

Wendy