Art and the Homeless

“Off the wall” can be said of anything that does not conform to expectations. It's not restricted to paintings. The irony the once-popular idiom had is long gone and it faces linguistic extinction. It became over-used to caption reviews of art exhibits that defied easy definition. But before it died it redeemed itself by killing-off the previous dumb idiom: “Now I've seen everything." Rauschenberg revived Dada hilarity-in-art with his Combine “paintings.” Dada on steroids. Although they were classified as paintings, the mere fact they had paint on the list of materials didn't make them paintings. We've come that far since it was arguable whether a painting was, in fact, a painting. Remember "That's not art"? Another art witticism that died on the vine. It's art if an artist says it's art. Period. Or, as we now say, "full stop." A touch of circular logic to stymie pedants and intellectuals. It was Matisse who said, “A good painting is...

Before modern times art was the prerogative of wealthy patrons and institutions such as the Church and State. An artist did not paint what he wanted, but what the patron ordered, that is, by commission. Portraits of important persons were most in demand. Next, religious icons and historical subjects dominated the subject matter of painting. Pagan mythology was the subject of imaginative painting, and again, as specified by the patron. Amateur artists were unknown before modern times. Training in art was by apprenticeship. There were no art schools. The materials of art, such as oil paint, were scarce and costly. Precious materials were not wasted on idle subjects. It was not until the emergence of the mercantile economy that speculative subjects found place in art. The nature landscape, without human figures or narrative subject, would be the first revolution in art. The interest in scenic backgrounds extended to quaint village scenes and rustic peasants, and eventually led to cosmopol...

Whatever can be said of the art can be said of the artist. The question to ask of an abstract artist is not, “What is it?” but, “Is it you ?”  The subject of a portrait is always an identifiable person. 1. Portraiture is the personality.  2. Half-length figure is the man.  3. Full-length figure is the man's occupation. “The question arises, however; is the fastidiousness, the patient care of the artist, consistent with vagabondage?  Should one not say the greater the stylist, the lesser the vagabond? He may save you soiling your fingers; but the real attractiveness of certain things is inseparable from their uncouthness, their downright ugliness. In fact, he seeks the elemental everywhere.” A door locked from inside is all that separates one from homelessness. William Kennedy, Ironweed:  realistic fiction on a supernatural theme, "real" ghosts, ghosts a timeless tradition in literature, revised to put the homelessness into today's context.  “Spirit” is a di...

"I love it." Each and every work of art longs to be loved by someone.  Art looks back at the looker: “I don't think you're my type.”  Kitsch is a lucky find deemed worthy of care by the finder. Kitsch finds you. Curator-ship is a term for the loving collection of anything. A collection is a family of things with common features. Kitsch is sympathy for mediocrity. Kitsch must be worthless to be worthy of care. It's a weakness, sentimentality.  "Swag" is a synonym for Kitsch. Fashion is consumer culture. Fine art is also "swag" -but it's not “consumerist.” The best Kitsch is fine art. Corn-ography  An obscenity quoted is still an obscenity. Winckelmann was terrified upon being shown the Alps. Nature is sublime. Art is like a comfortable chair (Matisse). Hellenistic Greek statuary (and its imitation) is an imposture. It flatters a certain type of viewer, as Idealism flatters a certain type of thinker. Neoclassical statuary looks like a balloon...