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FROM IDOL, TO ICON, TO SO ON
In earlier times, art was
natural; it was unaware of itself. Then, people began to notice it.
Slowly, it grew into something very big and important. It slopped
paint on canvas, snapped string, glued garbage, rolled its body in
paint, and looked admiringly in the mirror. The art critics cooed
over this wonderful thing. They felt most wonderful and enlightened
too.
But the average person, you and I, became very sad.
We didn't like all of this. Feeling stupid and hurt, we turned away
from art, holding strongly to our one belief, “We don't know
anything about art, but we know what we like!”
So Art, in turn, became even more outrageous. "I'll show
you how wonderful I am!” it cried. It got more government grants to
dig up more stuff... and flung them at the canvas. It spit, and
stomped, crying "I AM GREAT; I AM THE GREATEST, MOST WONDERFUL
OF THEM ALL!"
Finally finished... exhausted... Art lay in a
great, giant, heap on the floor.
Then... a
strange thing happened. Art looked all around. No one was watching
it. "Oh, well... it sighed," I might as well just be myself" It
became very, very, happy.
But, what happened to the art critics? They grumbled
away to debate over what was the best, the most intellectually,
enlightened art. “Neo-non-affected art" held little interest for
them. They are arguing still.
And we, the
people, came to like art again. We came to understand art's proper
place in our lives, not as an idol or an icon, but as it was in
early times, a matter of life and of death.
THE END
“ICON - An object of uncritical devotion" (1)
“IDOL -
An object of worship, a false god, pretender, impostor: a form or
appearance visible but without substance." (2)
SO ON - A
natural state of being and doing, having to do with matters of life
and death.
S. Christian
1. A
Merriam-Webster, ed. H. B. Woolf, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
(Springfield, Mass. U.S.A.,
G.& C. Merriam Co.,1976), p.567
2. ibid.,
p.569 |
