High Culture vs. Low Culture // 14th December 2011 High Culture vs. Low Culture // 14th December 2011
- Avant Guarde; idea of being progressive/innovative (It is used broadly across many industries) - Understanding the term 'avant guarde' and the term 'kitsch'; "art for art's sake" - Idea's of there being an avant guarde in society
- Being avant guarde makes us innovative and challenging or it can also be referred to as being part of 'THE' avant guarde
- Describing something as avant guarde means describing it as 'better' - Avant guarde often relates to fashion - The term has lost its currency and is used everywhere in popular culture outside of art
- Art as avant guarde is a class of attack on critics on the rules of the art at the time - Fauvists are seen as avant guarde; as they questioned the norm - In today's culture; experimenting for experiments sake
- Avant Guarde is very institutionalised; there is almost a pressure now to be original constantly - We must be innovative and prioritise innovation
- Due to the history of education in art (people copied art) artistic freedom was not accepted; there was no expression. This allowed the success of new avant guarde art movements. The society changes and class shifts mean there is more of a market place for art. However, art is still restricted due to the demand of art types and the fact that artists see themselves as above all others
- At this point in time art begins to swallow itself and almost becomes self destructive - Avant Guarde translates into the dynamic force; they are the cultural leaders as like in the Van Guarde of the army
- 'Art for Art's sake'; seen as art with no purpose, there is no message of politics. We can see this a s a form of fine art through Avant Guardism
- Artists become separated from "all the rest" of the population as they see themselves as special. Fine art becomes misunderstood
- Critics begin to help artists self perpetuate the fine art movement by noting theories that have no meaning. All parties then follow the critics POV to get noticed and acclaimed. Critics help protect the art world in the same manner by creating arguments. Critics suppress all other cultures and protect their own interests and personal aesthetic pleasures such as american critics say all other countries work is pointless.
- We find that people in power such as Stalin direct art movements.
- There is an elitist mindset that misunderstood art is elite. To be this we argue that you must then separate yourself from the world.
- Dictionary definitions of the term 'avant guarde' link it with ideas of innovation in the arts or pioneers. Idea of doing art and design work that is progressive (innovating). Also refers to the idea of there being a group of people being innovative
- Being avant-guarde in the work you do; challenging, innovating, etc. - Being part of a group; being a member of the avant-guarde
Marcel Duchamp
- radical / sensational
- Mona Lisa: L.H.O.O.Q (she's got a 'hot' arse); avant-guarde humourism's or jokiness
- 'Fauves' - Wild Beasts
- Fauvists are seen as avant guarde; as they questioned the norm
Andre Derain
- Aesthetics to the painting - Politics behind the artwork - Being experimental / shocking - Experiments for experiments sake --> Art for Art's sake
Leeds College of Art; Visual Communication prospectus
- prioritise meaning
- Avant Guarde = Seriousness
- LCA quotes prioritise certain concepts;
1) Innovation (creating new things)
2) Experimentation (process in order to achieve new things)
3) Originality (copying is bad, originality is good)
4) Creative Genious (to bring out a hidden creative depth held deep within the student)
Visual Communication
'The second level aims to let you experiment within your chosen range of disciplines'
'Our aim is to encourage students to take a radical approach to communication'
'To be a student on the course you need to enjoy:- 'Challenging conventions'
Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern designs
'Our aim is to provide an environment which allowed you to discover, develop, and express your personal creative identity through your work'.
'Level on studies concentrate on '... experimentaton'.
Interior design
'We encourage our students to challenge conventional thinking'.
Furniture Design
'Throughout the course you will be encouraged to form a personal vision and direction based upon critical self-analysis'.
Fashion Design
'We encourage you to develop your individual creativity to the highest level...'
'Level one studies concentrate on... experimentation'
Art and Design (Interdisciplinary)
'What will unite all your creative output will be the ability to apply your creative and technical skills in innovative ways, which are not limited to traditional subject boundaries'.
- Idea of art was never about being expressive or creative. In olden times, only rich people went to art school or art academy. You would be assigned a 'master' and you could copy their work until you could do it perfectly.
- The only people to buy art at this time were aristocracy and church. It was never about expressing yourself and there was no room for exploration. This continued until the 18th century; modernisation, art becomes free (expressive).
- Artists have to produce work that people want otherwise the artist can not fund their lifestyle and will eventually die or starvation.
- Chatterton Myth: exploratory of the way artists feel, appears through certain concepts of avant-guardism, genious is revealed at this time, eventually people will understand
- Avant-Guarde = french term
- advancing guarde / military term
- best fighters = elite
- Avant guarde used in culture means there is a leader
- Rule of avant guarde; politically changes society
- 'Art's for Arts sake' Whistles Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875)
- Critic John Ruskin protested
Late 19th/Early 20th Century
- 2 approaches to avant-guarde
1) Art is socially committed
2) Art seeks to expand
- Clive Bell; significant form. Public are irrelevant (art historians are powerful)
Significant form; relationship of lines and colours move you aesthetically
- Favourite artist; Cezanne Mount St. Victoire (1900)
Clement Greenburg
- Thinking and practice; 20th century
- The 'art for art's sake' approach dominated much thinking and practice in 20th century art
Pollock Lavender Mist (1950)
- design etc is worthless dumbs people down
Chris Burden 'shoot' (1971)
- Political Gesture with vietnam
- Artist got a friend to shoot him in a gallery to create an impact of the vietnam war
- Very Avant Guarde
- Stalin banned avant-guarde art stopping all forms of experiment. A real problem for the avant guarde is that it seems to necessitate 'Elitism' . So for those member of the 'left wing' (interested in social change) there was a tendency to have to rely on ACADEMIC TECHNIQUES in order to appeal to the 'public'.
Kitsch
- Kitsch becomes a degradation of how we view art
- Looking at things which are kitsch becomes elitist in itself
- Must we be elite to call anything kitsch?
- We have elitist sub culture in all our lives therefore we become the underclass by not realising this
- Kitsch culture however can be seen in the fine art movement such as in the statue of Michael Jackson and Bubbles.
- Thomas Kinkalde; richest living artist due to the fact he sells his art for the kitsch market. Do we say from this, that fine art is now irrelevant because not everyone can purchase it
- There is a battle to keep high culture pure and protected from the accessible world
- Low culture controls the art snobbery through kitsch items creating a divide
- On the other side, many fine artists such as Damian Hirst must replicate his work in a cheap way to make money due to the fact that fine art is ultimately self destructive, this is to make money.
Things can be seen as Kitsch culture are as important as high culture as they change the way we live indirectly and in a hidden way.
