While browsing some of the art updates that appeared in today's email, I was struck by the contrast of two stories. In one, eight women were showing their luscious abstract art at a Chelsea gallery. In another, someone paid $10,000 for a "non-visible" work of art.
So there you have the direct contrast between a visible physical expression with its emotional, psychological, and aesthetic values, up against the ultimate expression of "art as an idea."
Young artists always begin with the physical expression of their talent: they draw, paint, build and manipulate physical matter. But by the time they get to graduate school and need to write a thesis, ideas turn out to be easier to write about than physical matter. Seeing takes a back seat to thinking.
