Art is Stuff …and Stuff Happens

by Gary Graham

This stuff doesn’t happen on its own.  Somebody must create it.  Art is the product of conscious action.  But art cannot be considered ‘art’…until it is named.  It must be called ‘art.’  And it seems today that regardless of the number of dissenters from that designation, if one person decides that something is art – it’s art, dammit.  End of discussion.  For to impugn its veracity would be to malign someone’s character.  It might even get you called ‘racist.’ To tell an artist that what he or she has produced is not ‘art’ would be spewing hate speech just as though you’d burned a cross on their lawn or dipped a crucifix in urine.  (Oh wait…that’s been done.  And come to think of it…that was called art.   Ahhh…I am beginning to see many disparities and conflicts in the rational line here.)

ContemporaryArt4

Help me along — I am apparently a bit slow.  Something is ‘art’ if the ‘artist’ says it is art.  Even if the viewer of said art is highly offended and appalled by this so-called art.  Then it’s his or her problem… get over it…go back to Wasilla and blow up a moose. 

But should you dare suggest that it might not be the best use of public funds to bankroll exhibitions that the majority of Americans consider to be highly offensive and even pornographic —  well…then you obviously must be a hate-filled, intolerant, racist homophobe, and you are to be minimalized as a right-wing fringe kook.  (more…)

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Posted Sep 28th 2009 at 7:22 am in Art, Culture, Politics | 105 Comments