When people ask me what I do, I usually reply with the smart-ass comment, “I draw pictures for a living.” In reality, that’s pretty far from the truth. My day job has me doing a lot of varied things, but rarely have I ever been required to draw anything. I am still a professional artist, however, so I happen to know a thing or two about art.
Do me a quick favour: Go to your fridge. Look for a menu from a pizza or Chinese food place. Do you see that menu? An artist made that.
Tell me, is that art?
It was created by an artist, developed through an artistic process, using an artist’s tool set.
I would conclude that it is not art, it’s a fucking menu. I suppose a very well designed menu could be seen as art by other menu designers. Perhaps even a beautifully, wonderfully, magically spectacular menu might transgress beyond the love of menu designers and catch the eye of a few CD cover designers. But I digress.
Here in Ottawa we have a thing called the National Gallery of Art. It’s awesome and everyone should go. When you go, I want you to look for a piece called, “Voice of Fire”. It’s hard to miss. It’s 5.4m tall and cost the gallery $1.8 million back in 1989. Here, have a look…
Voice of Fire (1968, Barnett Newman, Acrylic on canvas)
Don’t worry, your browser is fine. Yes, it is a red stripe on a blue background. Straight up acrylic on canvas. Nothing fancy.
One. Point. Eight. Million. Dollars. Red. Stripe. Blue. Background.
When it was purchased, as you can imagine, it caused a lot of controversy here in the capital. People were printing knock-off t-shirts and there was even a book about it a few years later. It kicked off this big discussion about, “what is art?” with experts on both sides of the fence arguing their points with their finest debate skills. The spectacle was entertaining for a while but ultimately fleeted and all we were left with was The Voice of Fire. Why did the discussion end? Because eventually everyone realized that the argument could never be won.
Art is, has always been, and will continue to be subjective. Not everyone considers Art to be “Art” and that’s never going to change. It doesn’t matter if your creative work is hanging in the National Gallery or sitting on a shelf in Walmart. Someone, somewhere is going to question it’s place as an artistic medium and the sooner you learn to let go of caring about other people’s opinions of things you love, the better off you’ll be. You don’t need vindication if you’re you’re happy liking the things you like.
And please, the next time you’re reading a menu, take a moment to appreciate details.
(For the record: Yes, I believe some games are art. Yes, I think Voice of Fire is awesome and well worth the money and finally, yes I do enjoy a well designed menu).
RSS
Have you ever seen the play titled “Art”? It recently played in Toronto and I had a chance to go. From Wikipedia: “the story revolves around three friends—Serge, Marc and Yvan—who find their previously solid 15-year friendship on shaky ground when Serge buys an expensive painting. The canvas is white, with a few white lines.” He pays 200,000 francs for it (roughly $40,000 CAD). Your point of view reminds me a lot of Yvan’s view. If you get a chance, you should see it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/‘Art’_(play)
Oooh… thanks for the tip, Darth!
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