Artwork is Not Art Because of Theory

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Whether it be writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, or photographers, artists all over the world have striven to show people their views of the world, of people, and even of the universe itself. Throughout history the creative urge of man to present to fellow men a different perspective or representation of life-or even the afterlife-has surfaced time and time again in the form of artwork. Sometimes it comes through genius and complexity, full of meaning and symbolism. Others, it is simple and void of any clear meaning at all other than that it is art. Soon, however, there became a point when the work of art was no longer something one could just look at and understand; the principle of the matter had changed. Art leapt from viewable understanding straight into the Modern movement where theory became art, and to understand it, one must know the theory it is based upon. Never was this more apparent than in the artwork of the abstract expressionist. Essentially, artwork is not art because of theory, and art based on theory cannot be creative or truly said to be art. To understand all of this, from the beginning, one must begin with the Word. That is to say, one must start with the understanding of the theory, what became known as the painted Word, behind Modern art between 1945 and 1975. Probably the clearest and easiest to understand explanation of these theories and how they progressed through Modern Art history has been written by Tom Wolfe in a book cleverly titled The Painted Word. Wolfe has written several other books including From Bauhaus to Our House and The Bonfire of the Vanities. Within the pages of The Painted Word one finds a brilliant explanation of Modern Art and the theories it is based upon as well as a summary of the most influential critics and artists of the time. In order to contemplate why Modern Art is not truly what one would call art, exploration of the Word and how it developed is an absolute necessity. The simplest way to do so is by exploring Tom Wolfe's book. Wolfe explains that artists rely on the "culturati", or high society members whose thoughts and actions are under the spot light at all times, to get their work noticed. These individuals like the newest of the new because it gives them a form of social status which separa... ... middle of paper ... ...ow explore the flatness and throw everything to the wind. It all became a complex paint-by-numbers, with Greenberg and Rosenberg passing out the rules and the artists fighting to fit what creativity they could into the stringent guidelines given them. The true artists that came out of abstract expressionism were those who defied the two-dimensionality of flatness and expressed what they wanted to through the paintbrush creatively-de Stael and Gorky, to name two. Art that is visualized within the creative imagination before being placed on canvas as opposed to being slapped on according to guidelines the Painted Word created is the true free form of art. Art theory, creative and impressive as it is, can never truly be the art it aspires to. Works Cited Chiu, Tony, et al. Seven Centuries of Art. Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1970. Russell, John. The Meanings of Modern Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1981. Schapiro, Meyer. Modern Art: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1978. Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Tenth Edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.

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