In the light of Steven Harper’s comments on Art
I thought I would share my Art Philosophy, especially in the light of Steven Harper’s comments on his government’s cuts to the arts.
Art like everything else does not exist in a vacuum. One of my favorite quotes is of a famous American painter and humanist Robert Hentry ‘Art when really understood is the province of every human being, it is not an outside extra thing. It is simply a question of doing anything well.’ (The Art Spirit, Robert Henry)
In our modern culture and social ecology we have compartmentalized art. Similar to our interactions with nature we have put fences around it, isolated it, trimmed it and controlled it. We often see it as a separate entity that an educated echelon can discuss and understand and do not see it existing as an integral part of our everyday social ecology. (This kind of attitude is quite evident when we hear comments like the recent one made by Canada’s Prime Minister Steven Harper)
Or there is another scenario; we appreciate art for the purpose it serves to us. We want it to have a function in our society, want it to be a tool, carry a message, be propaganda. We are not concerned with the art and its quality on its own. It only serves a function that we can rationalize.
In a way art like a tree exists for its own sake. But in that process the tree is not separate, on the contrary it is an inseparable part of an ecosystem. A good art peace is like a strong well-developed tree. It radiates a healthy quality of artistic achievement and it is inseparable part of the social ecology and its existence contributes to the processes in the forest and all beings in it.
Often the benefits and function of art are perceived, but once we start rationalizing them we inevitably simplify and compartmentalize them. That is why we search for the purpose in art, what is the point of it? We know as much as we know the point in anything else that exists. We can only guess. We might revere and enjoy a forest without ever be educated in ecology and the scientific processes that take place in it. We cannot rationalize and assign a purpose to everything, when it works, purpose becomes superfluous.
The problem is that our governments and social understanding right now work based on rationalizing and seeing purpose in a scientific way. So how do you justify something that has more elusive purpose? I will just tell you this: When we learn about the past, the dawn of man, the dark ages, the height of civilization, what do we study? What do we use as examples of those times? … Art. Since the beginning of our existence art has been what has distinguished us as humans, as cultures and as societies.
Why does our society value Art’s function in the past but completely devalue it in the present?