Seriously, Constantine, what does the ear have to do with anything? It’s about the work.
“I may not know Art, but I know what I like” is a cliche, but it has some validity. If you like Kinkade and don’t like Van Gogh, that’s fine. (Although you could at least spell his name right.) I like champagne, but I’m incapable of telling the good stuff from the bad stuff. There ARE people who have a great deal of knowledge about these things that I lack, and strong opinions about it, and I believe they aren’t just blowing smoke when they talk about it in terms I don’t understand. But I’ll go on drinking what I think tastes good.
What separates Art from Not-Art is hard to put into words (what separates Good Art from Bad Art may be even harder), but whether something is aesthetically pleasing is only part of it, and not a necessary part at that. Picasso’s “Guernica” isn’t very pretty. It isn’t meant to be.
Art expresses the inexpressible; what you CAN put into words about it is insignificant compared to what you CAN’T.
I suggest you read Chaim Potok’s “My Name Is Asher Lev”; the narrator is a painter who describes his own growth from a boy who has a talent for drawing things so they look like what they’re supposed to look like into a man who creates works of great power (he’s also an Orthodox Jew, which complicates things). As well as anything I’ve read it manages to describe what it is an “artist” tries to do, and what it means to others when he’s done it.
(There’s also a great two-part episode of “Cheers” where Sam wants to have Diane’s portrait painted, as a gift. Christopher Lloyd plays an obnoxious Important Artist, who ends up painting Diane’s portrait after Sam had forbidden her to sit for it. At the end of the second episode, which was also the season-ending cliffhanger, Sam finally looks at the finished painting (the audience never gets a good look at it, but it’s supposed to be emotionally raw and not at all “pretty”) after he and Diane have broken up over it, presumably forever. Sam simply says “…my God…” and the screen goes black. He finally gets it.)
I didn’t say it can’t be pretty, I said that it doesn’t have to be pretty. And being pretty isn’t enough to make it Art.
“If you be both honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty … for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof.”
(By the way, the choice between a long and tranquil life or a short and glorious one was the choice offered to Achilles.)
so I’m still confused about what a crucafix suspended in a glass of urine has to do with art?Is disrespect and just plain offensiveness to be construed as art? If so I reject art!
randayn over 13 years ago
Good for you, Barney!
Hillbillyman over 13 years ago
This strip would make a good situation comedy on TV.
lewisbower over 13 years ago
When I was 14, Zit B Gone took care of a large problem that lived forever.
Constantinepaleologos over 13 years ago
Seriously Clyde, why is Van Gough better than Thomas Kinkade? The guy cut off his own ear. Some genius.
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
Seriously, Constantine, what does the ear have to do with anything? It’s about the work.
“I may not know Art, but I know what I like” is a cliche, but it has some validity. If you like Kinkade and don’t like Van Gogh, that’s fine. (Although you could at least spell his name right.) I like champagne, but I’m incapable of telling the good stuff from the bad stuff. There ARE people who have a great deal of knowledge about these things that I lack, and strong opinions about it, and I believe they aren’t just blowing smoke when they talk about it in terms I don’t understand. But I’ll go on drinking what I think tastes good.
What separates Art from Not-Art is hard to put into words (what separates Good Art from Bad Art may be even harder), but whether something is aesthetically pleasing is only part of it, and not a necessary part at that. Picasso’s “Guernica” isn’t very pretty. It isn’t meant to be.
Art expresses the inexpressible; what you CAN put into words about it is insignificant compared to what you CAN’T.
I suggest you read Chaim Potok’s “My Name Is Asher Lev”; the narrator is a painter who describes his own growth from a boy who has a talent for drawing things so they look like what they’re supposed to look like into a man who creates works of great power (he’s also an Orthodox Jew, which complicates things). As well as anything I’ve read it manages to describe what it is an “artist” tries to do, and what it means to others when he’s done it.
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
(There’s also a great two-part episode of “Cheers” where Sam wants to have Diane’s portrait painted, as a gift. Christopher Lloyd plays an obnoxious Important Artist, who ends up painting Diane’s portrait after Sam had forbidden her to sit for it. At the end of the second episode, which was also the season-ending cliffhanger, Sam finally looks at the finished painting (the audience never gets a good look at it, but it’s supposed to be emotionally raw and not at all “pretty”) after he and Diane have broken up over it, presumably forever. Sam simply says “…my God…” and the screen goes black. He finally gets it.)
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
I didn’t say it can’t be pretty, I said that it doesn’t have to be pretty. And being pretty isn’t enough to make it Art.
“If you be both honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty … for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof.”
(By the way, the choice between a long and tranquil life or a short and glorious one was the choice offered to Achilles.)
ponytail56 over 13 years ago
so I’m still confused about what a crucafix suspended in a glass of urine has to do with art?Is disrespect and just plain offensiveness to be construed as art? If so I reject art!
arye uygur over 13 years ago
lol
jpozenel over 13 years ago
Clyde really seems to be very jealous.
fritzoid Premium Member over 13 years ago
It’s an ongoing conversation, gfnv. Check out the Monday and Tuesday strips.
Happy, happy, happy!!! Premium Member over 12 years ago
i was once asked if i would rather be a dead lion, or a live sheep. i try to be a sheep with fangs…
robert423elliott almost 3 years ago
Be careful, Clyde. He has enough money to make You-Be-Gone!!!