So... I'm taking a writing class right now. It's on how to write certain kinds of feature stories, but the textbook had a nice opening quotation that I think applies to art crit as well:
Words are but the images of matter;
and except they have life of reason and invention,
to fall in love with them is all one as to fall in love with a picture.
—Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book I, IV.3
Increasingly, I think of words as something existing in opposition to the wordless art object, or the art object that is meant to go "beyond words". (Conceptual/post-conceptualist art being the exception that sometimes proves the rule.) But this quotation ties them back together again. Huh. Thanks The Bigger Picture: Elements of Feature Writing! And thanks Francis-Bacon-not-the-painter!
Image from Keith Becker
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Art versus Words => Art hearts Words. Huh.
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6 comments:
thank you for the Bacon reference...
dear art godess,
increasingly, i consider words and symbols as a medium for art. font,medium,& environment offer subjective exchange on an international level...& isn't that the point of art? or wait 'art isn't'...
i've taken at least 1 full page (5or7) at the front of 'sculpture' magazine for the next 12-16 months, and that's exactly what im exploring.
Yes, my friend Savagejargon (with TM fully intact) absolutely possesses a certain...hmmmm..."Laissez le Bon temp rouler" towards language! :)
Hmmm...that type of creole slang can only be from one art personality. Sean of GnS Projects...you both have quite a way with words in your work...
Leah- words = art?
Hey guys,
I think anything can pretty much be art -- it's just that one of the major streams that brings people to artmaking is a facility with images more so than words. (Or, perhaps, a desire to explore the expressive potential of images more so than the expressive potential of words.)
It's not true for every artist, particularly in this post-conceptual day and age, of course. But it is something I've noticed along the way.
Ok, I'm gonna quote "Whatever gets you through the night 'salright, 'salright...", courtesy of John Lennon. He obviously appreciated the endless ways we can express ourselves, and in the process create a sense of being and purpose."..Life is a cabaret, old chum..."
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