A few years ago when Liz Lerman and I assembled our book on the Critical Response Process, I had fun collecting a series of quotes about critique, opinion, dialogue, and the purposes of art. In conjunction with some of my recent CRP teaching gigs, I've been making new additions to this collection.So (speaking of someone I mentioned in my last post) here's one I particularly like from abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock:
"There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."
Ha! At the risk of stating the obvious, Pollock's reflection speaks to how the vision of an artist can sometimes transcend the limits of criticism. It shows that -- just like art -- an opinion can have a separate life and impact from that intended by its originator. And it suggests that when art makes a foray into new realms of expression and technique, terms of critique often lag behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment