A recent visit to the Turner Prize Exhibition at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall left me asking, what is art? - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: Keith Davey, Spring Farm Lane, Harden.
Having recently visited the Turner Prize Exhibition at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall, I am somewhat confused. What is art? An apparently simple question but after discussions with several ‘arty’ people, I am no wiser.
The usual response is ‘it’s what you want it to be’. One person's response made me think. She said ‘your mistake is you are confusing art with skill’.
My next question was ‘if skill is removed from any activity, what remains?’ Her reply to that was ‘umm, I will have to think about that’.
I think she will be pondering that one for a long time. History has given us numerous wonderful painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, gymnasts, scientists to name a few, but I would be very reluctant to include in this list not only the Turner Prize winners, but several other so-called artists.
To give one example I have a copy of Sister Wendy’s Thousand Master Pieces, Sister Wendy Beckett’s selection of the Greatest Painters in Western Art. On page 297 appears Agnes Martin’s Leaf in the Wind. I see no leaf.
Sister Wendy writes “…refuse to be put off by the non-meaning of the work…take time to allow it to speak”. All I can see is a plain white square.
Page 383 has Ad Reinhardt’s ‘Timeless Painting”. A plain black square. Wasn’t it Hans C. Anderson who wrote about the King’s new clothes? I would be delighted if someone could answer my question; what remains if skill is removed?