I find the Art vs. craft argument to be one of the many arguments among different modes of thought existing in today’s melting pot. It is a modernist versus postmodernist debate that gets entangled and neither is right or wrong. The art world will always have these petty binary opposites a battle between the elite and the avant garde that may in time become the elite (such as Duchamp). “ Aesthetics” becomes non-universal but subjective (according to Kierkegaard this is truth) making art liberating yet at the same time vastly more confusing. There is a philosophical divide among artists as well which comes down to whether or not you prefer to a.) Question b.) Find solutions or c.) Make without questions and solutions.
Creativity is significant and yes, Beuys was right-everyone has a potential for creativity. In this very notion is the beautiful settlement of art as an exertion of human energy into meaning and beauty through: (insert ambiguous words here such as “sculpting”).
This struggle between questioning vs. solution, purity vs. impurity, egocentrism vs. non-egocentrism, and alienation vs. salvation appears to be a worthless debate and the same goes for art vs. craft. Is joinery not as artistic as appropriation? Is thought a higher role than skill? The debate seems to come down to function and intention for one can find “ beauty” in everything. Richard Serra does not regard architecture as art because it has a different set of problems to solve such as plumbing. though this statement maybe true in terms that architecture has a different need the question seems to remain: why should one be so attached to categorizing? What has further complicated classification is the fact that In today’s age the conceptual has reduced the object and visible to thought which highly offends the pure modernist. This issue is reflected in the art vs. craft debate.
There shouldn’t be distaste for the object either. I think what needs to be considered is the creator’s intentions to truly define where they should be placed if we truly need to classify. It is highly offensive to concluded that craftsmen produce no thought by making and that “artists” are merely thought machines. There is balance and needs to be a balance. Knowing a medium and history is highly relevant and in our neo-modernist age, art and craft both have functions socially, economically, historically, and on a personal level. Photographs can be altered and used as propaganda for big business; the body and its temporal qualities can and has been exposed and challenged in a rebellion against these norms. “ Art” still expresses the time period historically and philosophically. Nevertheless, on a personal level, the act of creation of asserting one’s energy (in whatever way shape or form you choose) is perhaps all that matters and gives relevance to the chaos of life and these impending questions that perhaps have no clear answers.
It is time to hold the validity of intention in high regard.
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