“Art is Art, Bullsh*t is Bullsh*t” ~ Taylor Hackford. What is real art?
I was one of the Asst. Prop Masters on the set of a Taylor Hackford project when on take 8 he yelled out, “art is art and bullshit is bullshit and this is bullshit!”
So what is real art? (I’m sticking to my medium, painting/visual arts)
I’ve seen this discussion so many times and I’m asking, please, stop saying “no one can say what is real art.” Just stop it. Yes they can. It doesn’t take degrees and decades of experience. Everyone knows Gretzky is “the great one” in ice hockey, it’s obvious. No one questions hearing a great musician vs. an out of tune hard to listen to hobbyist. Why would you think art is different? Are we that arrogant that we can’t honor real art and the artist who made it? I get it, your color me mine tooth brush holder is really cool, but it’s not likely art.
Art is more than a skill set and a pretty picture. It’s beyond something nice to look at, or what’s cool based on the current trend. Art is the wisdom response regardless of intellect. It’s innately relatable despite background birthplace, societal or individual conditioning. Real art elicits a response from the viewer of the unsayable reality that is the very fabric of life. You can feel it.
You might like a piece, you might not like a piece, doesn’t matter, real art is alive, a living presence reflecting back emotion and experience.
I support all creativity and any artistic expression, but a car isn’t a car, an athlete isn’t an athlete — art is no different. There are great masters(l (even they have crappy works), advanced hobbyist, there’s schlock nonsense and everything in between. Still art is real and identifiable. You think a multi-generation art collector who’s given their life to collecting can’t tell real art from something just nice to look at? Come on!
Anyone can heat up ingredients, not anyone can be a chef. And very few are high-minded world renowned chefs who can truly create. Art is the same.
Stop saying anyone can be an artist, it denigrates the rare miracle of real art. Anyone can paint, and I personally encourage everyone to do so! Create, have fun, be ecstatic, even sell it! But be realistic. And honest. And humbly accept and appreciate true art.
Its ok if you don’t agree, no problem, my life includes the blessing of differing opinions. Oh, and don’t listen to Hackford, he’s a prick.
