theMessage

QUENTIN MONREAL'S ARTSBLOG! When top BritPop band 10cc sang out the line ‘Art for Arts sake….’ They were elucidating what many of us in the ‘Arts’ have been saying for years. Art is for everyone but mostly it exists because of the need of the ‘Artistic Community’ for it to exist. That is to say that there are only so many people who’s views can or indeed should be accommodated on any given subject and when it comes to Art, we are very clear about who says what to who…..and what they meant by it. This ‘Artistic Community’ should not of course be confused for the footsoldiers of the movement who busy themselves with the painting, modelling and loosely ‘artistic’ fashioning of materials in studios and spaces throughout the country. No, in the same way that certain principles such as ‘taste’ and ‘fashion’ exist in the stratosphere above art, these people with their workmanlike principles and often clumsy imitation of the true artists of previous generations cluck away at the ears and husks of the studio floor, no more capable of producing ‘original thought’ than would Nauman or Warhol be of producing a ‘picture’ with materials as prosaic as brush or pencil. There has been in recent years an apparent ‘democratization’ of art (which is to say that all art can be enjoyed equally by all people) an entirely laudable sentiment and thankfully one which has proven to have all the substance of hobby horse spit. Art is by it’s very nature undefinable (to all but a very few of us in the ‘Artistic Community’) and were it to become some kind of free for all in terms of opinion and thus popularity, then the very principles which make so many comfortable lifestyles possible would quickly become untenable. In short a kind of anarchy would ensue and one only has to look at where the great Art Revolutions of the past have lead to realise that the status quo is something that is needed by the true custodians of the Art Establishment. People such as myself, Vivienne Westwood, Brian Sewell, Malcolm McLaren and so many other names synonymous with the creation of Art that will not only shock but also stand the test of time, demand not only the respect of our peers but positively flourish in the kind of non-critical atmosphere of the early 21st Century. Ask yourself, do you really want to live in a world where anyone with a scrap of talent can be recognised without passing down through the layers of critical filtration embodied by the current strata of ‘Art Hierarchy and Intelligentsia’? By all means let’s have Anarchy! But let’s have an anarchy that can exist within a framework dictated by those who truly appreciate and fully understand it’s consequences, otherwise artists will have become a law unto themselves, and this will lead to a wasteland that will bear no relevance to the constructs established by a group of people whose livelihoods depend on a set of indefinable principles leading back into the labyrinths of the English Class system and the many apparent revolutions on it’s fringes over the past century. ‘Money for God’s Sake….’ As 10cc so unforgettably went on to say, reminding us that not only is the artist a fundamental lynchpin of a civilised society but that he (or she) must be paid appropriately for the provision of their service (not forgetting the need to adequately reward the raft of tastemakers and opinion formers that surround them and enable the construction of the world of hype and appreciation that leads people to pay agonising amounts of money for a construct or ‘theoretical statement’ that all but the most finely attuned can even vaguely understand). Which brings me neatly to my next point: What is Art? ‘Wouldst that I could tell you what is Art as easily as I might tell you what Art is not’. The words of Alain deBotton there from his seminal work ‘Overcoming the stigma of Poverty: a 21st Century Survival Guide’. To truly understand Art, deBotton proposes that we draw a three way comparison with both business and sport which will become so incredibly complex and crepuscularly tenuous as to be untraceable to all but those with several afternoons spare and an ability to follow lines of argument that would lead Machiavelli himself to weep tears of inadequacy. To put it briefly: Business is self regulated through the rule of profit and the dictates of the market. All goods and services will establish a value through the demand the market invests in them. Sport is a meritocracy pure and simple. The fastest and most powerful will inevitably be the victor and thus obtain the highest accolade and thus value. Through these two comparisons we realise the true magic of Art. It is precisely because of an inability to establish a system of dominance between say, painters, that Art has come to exist in a world regulated by a set of rules so apparently invisible yet still so clearly rigid and self protecting. How is it that an artist never comes along professing a love of Phil Collins and declaiming the influence of Cannon and Ball? (there is a further question here touching on an inverse law whereby professional footballers never quote Joy Division lyrics but we’ll save that for a further blog) The wealth of visual artists who are professed throughout the Art world as ‘witty’ invariably touch on the works of Bunuel and LeCorbusier yet stare po-faced at any of Eric Morecambe’s really good one liners. This is the world within which the ‘Art Crowd’ can exist seamlessly with the ‘It Crowd’, unthreatened by the need to demonstrate an understanding of anything beyond the self governing laws of it’s own immutable cool. And this is what makes truly great Art. It is almost as if Art is a foreign tongue with no fixed laws of grammar or punctuation. There are those who can speak it and effortlessly understand it’s changes and machinations, and those who are forever destined to stand outside of it, yelling it’s critically outmoded phrases and constructs too little and too late. Who can say where the need to wear a certain cut of trouser or listen to a certain band or take a certain drug effects or affects one’s ability to truly belong….or merely long to be? At ‘New Movements’ we intend to give you just a sprinkling of these phrases and visual motifs a few vital minutes early, meaning that for a tantalising couple of seconds you will be able to appear to be on the inside looking out. We will hand you the baton of ‘Art Understanding’ so you can taste the heady rush of critical-hyperventilation as you join the fevered rush for the line. You will shortly afterward stand heaving for breath as we in the true ‘Artistic Community’ sail serenely past to begin another lap, safe in the knowledge that this is a never ending marathon, and that you’ve exhausted yourself in a do or die sprint….but hey, at least you took part and with any luck took one or two snaps on the digital camera to show your chums that for a brief moment you were there for real!