The Challenge of New Art
The new arts can use the old mediums of the canvas, literary forms, theater, music or sculpture; or, they can use the newer mediums of installation, urban art, performance art and digital art. The medium does not necessarily determine whether a piece of art is 'conventional', 'modern', 'post modern' or any of the many other labels that the art world, and especially critics, give to works of art.
All of this of course beggars the question of what is art? Such a question is an absurdly big one to answer, and the answer gets increasingly tedious. The definition of art should be descriptive not prescriptive - in other words: art is anything people think of as art. Rap singers talk of their 'art' as do Hollywood actors. They are feted in the press often for their art. Why not make acting and rapping art? I only draw the line at serial killers and molesters who think the cruelty they inflict on others is a type of 'art'.
Art is what we call something we find beauty in. Installation art and other modern forms of art might not seem 'beautiful', but we find something precious in the possible messages they send to us. Art is something that is defined as more than utility. A chair is just to sit on but Chippendale furniture is to admire as well as use.
One of the striking things about new art is its obsession with its own identity. Much of installation art is about shocking the viewer or those interact with the art and to raise questions about the piece's right to be called art. This is often the concept behind concept art. The great artists have always been fastidiously preoccupied with their craft but concept art wears this badge as a challenge to the viewer.
It is interesting to note that urban art that originally shunned the rarefied atmosphere of the gallery turned its back on this theme of introspection and often takes up a more conventional stance of challenging society. Urban art is also partly protest art. As with the great Victorians such as Hardy it is art that seeks to point the finger at the callousness of the ruling classes and the truly pitiful state of those at the bottom of society. This is partly the remit of Banksy and definitely the goal of the new Russian street artist P183. It is exciting to see how street art or urban art has bought balance back to the art scene ? before it was all medium and no message (other than the medium is the message), and now thanks to street art the message has regained its importance. This type of art also helps to reconnect the art world with the wider public.
Another new art that seeks to make connections both within society and between disciplines is graphic art. This is art with a mathematical basis (it's all ones and zeros) and several programmers have sought to show the creative potential of computer generated forms. Vector based drawing and the Bezier curve revolutionized computer art. While some computer artists seek to use computer parts in installations, others are seeking to refine the computer space to make it more 'life like' and more 'organic' so that it offers a whole new reality to experience.
There are so many new directions being taken by art at the moment. It is an exciting time to create art. With the start of a new millennia accusations of fin de siecle indulgence are receding and the vistas of exciting new possibilities are emerging.
April 18th, 2012
The common perception is that the art world is diametrically opposed to the science world. This is a fairly recent idea. For the ancient Greeks philosophy was the pursuit of truth and understanding in all fields of inquiry. There was felt to be no demarcation or opposition between discovering laws of nature or describing aeathetics. In the Renaissance figures such as Leonardo da Vinci were as at home in the fields of math and biology as they were painting and making sculptures.
The history of art has always been accompanied by the history of technology. As technology became more advanced so artists were able to try new things and try new mediums. An obvious expample of this is when oil colors were invented. This dramatically changed the possibilities of painting. In the modern age the invention of the spray can of paint has been the single most important thing for urban art and graffiti.
The challenge now for modern artists is to enhance the power of creation given to them by the digital revolution that started with the first computers in 1950. CAD design has meant that a computer can capture detail on 3 dimensions and can manipulate and copy with an accuracy nature in ways never before imagined. In the field of sculpture the advances made in EDM wire cutting has meant that even the hardest metals and alloys can be cut into any shape with an accuracy of just a few microns.
There seems no limit to the virtual and actual art that is now available for the artist to make thanks to the advances made in technology. Things like video installations seem like old hat compared to the possibility of holograms. It is the duty of artists to become more like Leonardo da Vinci and understand the vanguard knowledge of science and technology and translate that into something beautiful.
March 27th, 2012
Has it crossed your mind that the manufacturers of wholesale flip flops or a coffee table might actually be the new artists of today? Art, as we know, is a very broad church and a definition of what is and what is not art is difficult to pin down. The fact is that there are many corporate designers creating today’s consumer products and focusing just as much on form as on function. Yes, functionality may be at the forefront of their minds, but these “industrial artists” know that the more seductive they can make the design the more popular their products will be. It is clear that many products on the market today now have an iconic status and that, surely, classifies them as art on some level.
Of course how a product looks has been an important consideration for quite some time now but design as art for has really accelerated ahead in the last couple of decades. We can see this at its clearest in furniture design, like the Noguchi Coffee Table, but even the humble flip flop can be seen as a work of art when we consider the varied designs coming out from companies like Havaianas.
Product design as industrial art has reached such status that each year it is celebrated at various award ceremonies. Innovative design is the raison d’être behind the presentation of the iF Product Design Award; and winners are quick to include the iF label on their merchandise. Equally the Red Dot Design Award now receives over 4000 entries each year from across the world. Industrial designers also vie for the Chicago Athenaeum’s Good Design Award which has been celebrating innovative design for over 50 years.
How long before consumers no longer buy a product to actually use but to display as a work of art in their homes?
March 27th, 2012
My first semester at college I was very excited. I had looked forward for years to leaving home and getting a formal training in the arts. I eagerly awaited classes in sculpture, painting and art history! Life was going to be great – but in all my naive excitement I had overlooked some of the basic practicalities of life.
At my school there was no cafeteria. so for the first few weeks after I moved into my dorm I found myself struggling to feed myself decent food. It soon became evident that my then trim figure would become a burlesque parody of beauty if I didn’t find some way to fix my eating habits.
Thankfully, with the help of a friend I was able to track down a cheap dormitory refrigerator for my room. Without too much hassle I was able to transition from eating out at fast food restaurants to snacking on fresh fruit and veggies straights from my fridge. Not only did this save my waist line, it also left me more time to work on my studies – and truly get the value I was looking for from my art school education!
March 27th, 2012
There is now a wave of new artists emerging in Thailand. Such young artists as Lampu Kansanoh, Ampannee Satoh, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Chusak Srikwan and Tawan Wattuya are slowly beginning to gain reputations for themselves both at home and abroad. It has been a struggle for the art scene in Thailand to break out of its traditional mold.
For centuries Thai art has been dominated by traditional forms. Thai dancing, Buddha casting, ceramics and ceremonial music. The Thai language has not produced many classics. The most well konwn is the re-working of the Indian epic the Ramayana. The Thai version is called Ramakien. When you visit Thailand it is hard to find new art even in the capital, Bangkok. Thais are admirable artisans and are often very technically gifted but there seems to be a dearth of new ideas.
From the bohemian beaches of Thong Nai Pan in the south to the up and coming metropolis of Changmai in the north, young Thai artists are still re-working the same ideas – often Buddha heads. This is partly due to the supposed tourist demand for such derivative pieces that are well executed but hold little artistic expression.
The other cause perhaps for the slow emergence of a new art scene in Thailand has been the long periods of military control of the country. It is not that people have been to afraid to express themselves, only that it has received little central funding. Even today the uneasy democracy in the country has led many young Thais to feel disinclined to artistically comment on their country.
Lampu Kansanoh uses vividly realized Boschian scenes of Bangkok street life to capture the huge disparities in wealth in the city. Ampannee Satoh uses photography to capture the gritty reality of urban life in Thailand. Chusak Srikwan is one of the first Thais to gain recognition for doing installation art. These are just a few examples of young Thais at the vanguard of an exciting new art movement in Thailand.