"Our
civilization promotes a separation of abstract ideas from what the
senses perceive, which is fatal for the artist." (144)
One of the roles of the artist since the beginning of time, remains
the study of nature and the world in which he lives and interacts.
It is true that what constitutes nature, for one generation, may be
different for another, and may vary for cultures as well. Man is
sometimes included, and sometimes not. Often the medicine man,
shaman, or monk and the artist were one and the same. This person
was not concerned with material things, but with his fellow man and
the spiritual. He often lived a life of solitude and self imposed
poverty.
"A target or a flag in a Jasper Johns - as commentators never
tired of telling us - remained a target or a flag only ironically,
but was essentially a neutralized field of surfaces, textures and
forms from which the fangs of reality had been removed - an oblique
comment on life, but mostly a commentary on art." (145)
Thomas Albright
"`Formalism', caused by a detachment from the subject is
characteristic of much modern art of minor quality." (146)
Rudolf Arnheim
"... expression tends to freeze when it becomes too
self-conscious..." (147)
Thomas Albright
"... in some cases, a high degree of abstraction may express
detachment from reality, an impoverishment that leaves
representation with nothing but the perceptually determined play of
empty forms. Such a detachment can be a consequence of the
splitting-up of integrated culture into specialized activities,
which tends to conceal the philosophical, religious, and social
meaning of the individual's life, to destroy the artist's function
in the community, and to reduce his task to a merely "aesthetic"
one." (148)
Rudolf Arnheim
144. Rudolf Arnheim, Toward a Psychology of Art, (Berkeley and L. A,
Cal., University of California Press, 1966), p. 288
145. Thomas Albright, On Art and Artists, (U.S.A., The Chronicle
Publishing Co., 1989), p. 41
146. Rudolf Arnheim, Toward a Psychology of Art, (Berkeley and L.A.,
Cal., University of California Press, 1966 ), p.47
147. Thomas Albright, On Art and Artists, (U.S.A., The Chronicle
Publishing Co., 1989), p.44
148. Rudolf Arnhiem, Toward a Psychology of Art, (Berkeley and L.A.,
Cal., University of California Press, l966), p. 47
