Artists & Bullies

[rosanegra]

Yesterday I was having a conversation about this variety of artists who go around saying "oh you just don't get my art". There is something very wrong with that statement. It is effectively the same as bullying. It is a way of making others feel inferior and the artist or bully superior. It puts them in a position where they feel safe from attack.

Comments

[patchworkkid]

I hear what you're saying, and I used to agree until it was once explained to me that a lot of art is spoken in a language of its own and it's not until you speak the language that the impressive weight of what it conveys can be known. They explained white cube art to me, and it was pretty enlightening, until it all fell out of my head.

But there's also a low school of artist who exploits the existence of this language in order to fob off their own lack of talent as simply being too good for the thick-headed masses. So the existence of the latter shouldn't devalue the existence of the former.

Art should be challenging. Mohammed should go to the mountain. An effort needs to be made. Art isn't passive. It shouldn't be. But I also agree that it shouldn't be ruthlessly opaque. I think there's a happy medium, and I for one am happy that art exists which - at first blush - is meaningless, until one acquires the language which translates into something potentially perspective-changing.