Art

What is Art? ... What are the Arts for? ... Who decides?

These questions have occupied many Art School hours, as well as hundreds of inches of library shelves. So often the crux of the debate is about who is ‘qualified’ to make the decision.

In truth, we are all qualified, and in fact, this issue is continually being decided by each individual person. It may be a subconscious response, or from a point of knowledge and education. It may be through intuition or even out of anger or ignorance - but each person will still make a judgment.

Whether or not we agree with these judgments is another question.

People who are educated may be more open-minded to the novel or obscure offerings of the artist.

It may equally mean that they have ‘received’ their opinions rather than formed them for themselves; this factor may as easily inhibit a person of limited education.

A lack of education, money or social status may hinder access, but it does not prohibit an individual from appreciating a work of art.

Fashion, taste, life experience, cost, and peer group, can all influence whether we agree with the next person (or generation) about a work of art.

As proved by the Saatchi’s, Art is the only ‘commodity’ that has the capacity to have its value decided by the investor. In the same way Art’s status is decided by the viewer.

Personally, I believe that the best Art is that which takes you into itself, so that you are not aware of what material it is made of or how it is constructed, but it simply moves you to think or feel or question.

It is my view that Art exists to raise people’s awareness, their spirits, to raise their heads, to raise their game - in short to make intellectual, spiritual and social connections.