Jerry Saltz lecture - Art and the World Today - 8/12/12

Sunday, August 12^th, I went to a lecture given by Jerry Saltz called Art and the World Today, at the Center for Maine Contemporary Arts in Rockport Maine.  It was an excellent and engaging talk.  Here are some of the points I jotted down to remember.

     Art is a form of knowledge that is about experience.  Art is a content carrier.  Art is about how to imbed thought into material.   Art is work, work, work.   Style is something that eventually picks the individual artist, not the other way around.  As an artist you need to ‘hear’ yourself ‘see’.   And one can never see too much.   An artist can never really know what they’re creating until they are done.   Artists need to be willing to be wrong, to dance naked in public. Art is not optional; it’s part of the cosmic force. 

  

     Artists need to be seen, have their work witnessed, and have people tell them what they think.  Forming opinions on art is a way to get to know yourself, by understanding why you have the opinions that you do about art.  The moment you understand a work of art it gets you.

     The art world loves to pretend it’s the undertaker: painting is dead, this style is dead, etc..  But we humans are all making this up as we go along.  The whole world is built on opinions, so artists need to be delusional.  And you can never let rejection define your life.