“The tradition of modern art, beginning with Gustave Courbet in the nineteenth century and extending into the present, establishes the artist’s studio as a legitimate place for a human being to paint their way into their identity – through faith, disbelief, hopes, and fears. In the studio they stand before themselves, the world, and God. Unhinged from the necessity of understanding their work as the fulfillment of commissions, they were free (or, as Sartre observes, condemned) to define the trajectory of their own work, through their own felt experience – to create their own significance, to invent their own roles as artists and the function of their artifacts as a means to give meaning to their lives. Free to do anything in the artist’s studio, the modern artist has a responsibility to do something. The modern tradition in art is thus the accumulation of these remarkable somethings, disclosing the human condition in particularly powerful and distinctive ways, as art becomes a means of self-discovery. Edvard Munch encapsulated this approach to the studio when he said, ‘in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself,’ an attempt to pain the ‘soul’s diary.’ Yet ‘self-discovery’ and the creation of meaning is not a private affair, but always consists of the artist’s relationship to the world and to God – even if ‘God’ is only an echo, a ghost that haunts the consciousness. As Oswald Bayer reminds us, ‘knowledge of God and knowledge of self are not to be seperated.'”
Daniel Siedell, Who’s Afraid of Modern Art? p.8
“I have referred throughout this chapter to visual art as being a language, not a craft. Art is not just a craft, though I am no, by saying this, denigrating craftsmanship. Many people criticize modern art for not being well made, but it is too simplistic to do this. A rapid sketch of a dancer can, for example be just as beautifully crafted in its way, if its aim is to give an impression of her movement, or a drawing detailing all her hair follicles in her skin, if its aim is to praise the appearance of her flesh. The quality of a technique can be judged in relationship to the artist’s purpose. If treated as an aim in itself, craft becomes a trap. It is better not to make a work of art at all if your labours only amount to a display of skill and the work itself has nothing to say. That is why art is more than craft; it is language. But referring to art as a language is also to misrepresent it in one crucial way. Art is not a language because you cannot use it to converse. It is one-way communication. It can in its developmental stages…provide a means by which the artist can have a conversation with himself, as he works out his ideas. But…a work of art is a completed statement, given from the artist to his or her public.”
Julian Spalding, The Eclipse of Art p.38
