Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: What is fine art photography?
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 21:23:31 -0500

Dave Fisher jotted down the following:

> When a piece of art requires an *explanation* for a viewer to *get it* it's
> usually toast for me.

Ooh, I love this discussion! ;)

This is an oft voiced criticism of some art -- and some artists -- that art
should require no explaining.  I've been giving this some thought recently,
in relation to other stuff I've been keeping on the back burner, and I'm not
so sure that I agree with this position wholeheartedly any longer.

Almost everything we do requires learning at some point to be
comprehensible.  All apsects of science and most aspects of daily life
(getting dressed, speaking, balancing a checkbook, what foods to buy to get
sufficient nourishment, etc).  It could be argued (and has) that even
seemingly trivial things like seeing the world around us requires learning.
So why should something as large, complex, and abstract as "art" be the one
exception to this?  What makes art so special that it should require
absolutely no knowledge upon the part of the person experiencing a piece of
art?

Indeed, I find *value* in the explanation.  If a viewer doesn't "get it" at
first and receives an explanation, they have learnt something.  They may not
agree with it -- that the intentions of the artist are successfully conveyed
through the object -- but they have learnt something about art.  They are,
perhaps, in a better position to appreciate other objects of art.  Or, as I
often find is the case, see old familiar things in a new light.

To me, when a piece of art requires an explanation for a viewer to get it,
it's an opportunity for learning.  For all involved: viewer, artist,
explainer.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     |       Harrisburg '79
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       |       Chernobyl '86
email: howard.390@osu.edu         |       Windows '98
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------