Eros in Art- Have We Lost the Knack?
O.K., so we can build giant kitsch monstrosities resembling household objects and that's really kooky and yes, there's been a lot of eroticism in 70's and 80's galleries but eros in art has never been a fashion phase. And I'm not saying that we should use sex in art to be more shocking or to make the work more punchy but to experience art that has an element of eros about it, and done well is second to none. Sure, there's been periods in history where such content was absent in art, like the Dark Ages, times where it was forbidden. Our censorship laws at the moment are generously relaxed and most artwork that `contains nudity' these days usually has something to do with the boundaries of moral controversy. Art for its own sake will claim gratuitousness but we don't even need to go back 100 years to witness art that's full of passion, maybe a little erotic but not necessarily graphic. Look at Rodin's sculpture, almost all of it, or Degas' private images of ballet dancers or women bathing , there's an automatically recognisable sense of beauty about them, without objectively being about sex. Has the recent influx of porn in our lives alleviated our interest for eros in other areas like art? Ancient Roman art, Renaissance art or even Baroque are all evident of producing erotic works and I won't be told that it's just the conservative times we're living in that have seen the flame of our passion wane. It's possibly an intellect thing, a mind thing- it's a premeditated concept as an attribute of the art piece anyway. Our remedy may lie in remembering the past, not out of nostalgia but in purusing its successes. And eros is a state of mind too.
Rodin sculpture from rodin museum in Paris
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
I agree with you and really enjoyed this post. Art is not art without Eros, it's mental chatter and doesn't leave me feeling "whole"... just tired...I don't visit the art galleries as much as I used to because of this fact... everything is juxtaposed and cubed and squared... but that's what happened I guess when they invented the camera...blew all the artists away... however, it may go full circle yet, when people are sick of looking at triangles and kindergarten faces...I guess I'm old fashioned...
Lilla...
WE WANT ART WITH AESTHETICS!!
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
I have found that burning good quality Sage can enhance my appreication and use of colour... not that I've been doing a lot with colour recently as I embarked on some iconic Egyptian painting of my own, messing about with perfecting the back wash technique to mimmick papyrus paper... the designs on top of Kings, gods and Queens could not be considered erotic and yet strangely so... hmm another thing altogether really... but I've enjoyed the two year experiment and produced some interesting 'work.'
Tell me MatthewB does your course just teach you to appreicate and recognise art, for example, for evaluation purposes... or or are you learning to draw and paint it yourself also...?
Lilla...
WE WANT ART WITH AESTHETICS!!
M