What is art?

[theatokos]

My arts salon met over the weekend and the subject of Thomas Kinkade came up, why I can't remember. There are many visual artists in this group: cartoonist, painters, many sketchers, some one who does computer graphics for big name films. One of the visual artists had never heard of Kinkade before. We all groaned, wondering how that was possible when his art is sold in licensed stores in malls everywhere. Over the last few days we've been posting articles about Kinkade back and forth to each other. We all agree that we loathe his work. Below is a slightly expanded version of what I wrote to the group.

Yet, his paintings *are* pretty. Nice colors, bucolic scenes, technically proficient.... they're peaceful. But they lack that "je ne sais quois" of something with soul; they're flat. It's an interesting argument: is art always something that is provocative (I would say no)? Can it be something merely aesthetically pleasing? Is it the blatant marketing of his work that is so distasteful? Don't all artists wish for the success that he has?

Kinkade's work is all about marketing. It is merely the selling of a fantasy, a momentary distraction from reality. And he basically says as much in interviews. He says he's selling hope, but really he's selling "Art"- trademarked, copyrighted, all rights reserved.

My only entry point into these questions is to think in terms of music. Kinkade is the pop music of art. I will say that Britney Spears is no Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (amazing, and sadly dead, opera singer) and her music isn't even as musically interesting as Beck (or, insert your own band here). But sometimes it's nice to just groove out to something well produced, that I don't have to work to listen to, or doesn't ask me to bring my own thoughts and experiences to.

Maybe that it's it: art asks us to engage with it, to think and feel and interact, we have to meet the artist some where along the way. Even if we are not moved emotionally or challenged intellectually, we get caught up in the beauty or the experience. It's not just a 100% passive experience. And that's what I find so boring about Kinkade's work: it asks nothing of me.

Comments

[donkeyfly.livejournal.com]

i guess i think of art as always having an idea behind it. the idea can be to have no idea, but that should be the purpose not the accidental result. kinkade seems to make artless decoration, but i probably wouldn't normally refer to it as art. maybe. i don't know. this is a very confusing question for me, especially when i hang out with ceramic people, because some people make functional ceramics and they are definitly making art, some people make functional ceramics and they are maybe making art? i don't know.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

I do think that ceramics is art - maybe it's the craft in "arts and craft". Utilitarian craft can still be artistic. It has an idea, is given much deliberation. Throwing in functional art definitely changes the discussion.

I also had a thought about Rie Munoz (http://www.riemunoz.com/news.htm) (linked for those not in the know). I think that Rie Munoz is in a Kinkade category. I think what speaks to me about her work is that I'm from Alaska and it reminds me - in a colorful way (important in the grey dreariness of AK) of the places and people there. But otherwise it is just whimsy. Nothing wrong with it, but it is certainly lower down on the art scale for sure. It doesn't really ask anything of me.

It was interesting to be mocking Kinkade, realizing I have two Rie's hanging in my apt.

The Art Debate

[(Anonymous)]

I can not believe that you just compared Rie Munoz to Thomas Kinkade!!! For me a better comparrison would be to compare Barbara Lavalee with Thomas Kinkade. Barbara Lavalee who ripped off Rie Munozs work (well, that debate is still ongoing), however I find it so. Barbara Lavalee's work is the souless version of Rie Munoz.

Thomas Kinkade is not art it is a brand. It just sells by being what it is not becuase of what it is.

Your Sis

Re: The Art Debate

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like your analysis! I think you are right about the Rie/Lavalee thing. I've always prefered Rie. But she IS whimsy. And I do love me some whimsy.