I am sure that many Australians will lament the death of Pro Hart who, it is said, has sold more art work than any other living Australian artist.His funeral today will be a testimony to his popular appeal.
But is it art? This has been the substance of the debate that has gone on. It being noted that none of his works have been hung, for example, in the National Gallery in Canberra. And the SA Gallery was in the process of dusting one off for another exhibition when he died.
Who decides what is good and what is bad "art"? Clearly some art is bad. Only doting mothers and grandparents can like some pieces of work.
But Hart's work has character, it is quirky, it is interpretive and has some degree of challenge.
On top of this it has popular appeal.
The culture vultures often don't like this. If something is popular, in the eyes of some critics it must almost always be bad!
I well remember a much esteemed art-critc (esteemed in his own eyes any way) speaking at a church function [this may give you a clue as to who it was]. While at once attesting to the false dichotomy between popular culture and High Kultur, he then went on to talk solidly for 50 minutes about nothing else other than the high end of the spectrum.
The ghastliness of this was even further exposed because the organisation to which he was speaking was at that time in total crisis. and, completely missing the opportunity, this commentator chose to talk about his passion rather than to address the reality of the day.
It rather exposes the High Kultur game. They tell us that certain things are "good" and "profound" and that other things are "trivial" and yet so often High Kultur fails to connect with all but the afficionados.
As spectacular as "The Ring Cycle" might be, it is expensive to produce and accessible to the few rather than the many. As expensive as "Blue Poles" was...it looks like splashes of paint to most of us.
It is not all like this..Picasso, Monet, Eliot, Stoppard...and so on
But I can hear the shouts of "philistine' already.
Hart simply is better than the local art show, and his popular appeal should be lauded not disparaged.
2 comments:
"You're not old Father Stephen" the heretic said,
"But we know that you've got to be right,
Yet when you are challenged you bury your head:
Does it help when you blog out the light?"
A.H.A.
I don't quite understand your comment Jim.
But I just make the comment that I don't consider I always have to be right, and I would really have thought that I tend to not bury my head.
Not agreeing with other people(yourself included) on some issues doesn't mean I always have to be right...it means I disagree with you.
Now hiding under the cloak of anonymity, as you do, that is burying your head.
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