June 5, 2009

Something to Think About

By: Casey Knox

I’m not sure I could pick my favorite artist. Truth be told, it’s hard for me to say "oh, I love this guy and really love everything they do."  It’s the piece that I can say I like or I don’t.

Lets see... some of my favorites are Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Edvard Munch’s Scream and Anxiety, Dali’s Persistence of Time and Woman at the Window, Picasso’s Don Quixote, Bosch’s hell in the Garden of Earthly Delights. Come to think of it, there was an artist/illustrator named Rob White who illustrated a book of poems and lyrics written by Harry Chapin called "Looking…Seeing."  I could look at those illustrations all day. In fact... sadly, I don’t even think I read Harry Chapin’s words. I guess I seem to lean toward the surreal and expressionistic. Images with a somber or tortured mood.

With all this reminiscing about who was my favorite artist and/or my favorite artwork made me wonder... Who will be hanging in museums a hundred years from now, from my generation? IS there a current Bosch or Van Gogh out there?

Maybe I just don’t know where to look, or maybe its true that art is appreciated more in posterity than in the present. But I just haven’t seen too many contemporary art pieces that move me the way the ones mentioned above have. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that the art/artist is not out there. I'm just saying they are harder to find. I think our society has de-emphasized the importance of visual expression to a point where society is bored with it, and has almost written it totally off as frivolous.

I think you can find evidence of this in the way art is treated in schools. Today, art programs across our nation are being cut out as schools are being pressured to beef up programs that can be measured by standardized testing. I think it's sad and I truly hope we don’t continue down this path. Speaking especially as one who, if she didn’t have her art classes in high school, she wouldn’t have had a reason to even show up... and then where would she be? It scares me to think of which way society will go if the generations behind me are not taught an appreciation of art and the ways it helps open the mind to ideas.

I found this article about what art programs in school help teach our children. Art might not be as frivolous as it may seem.  

Maybe it's more than just mixing paint on canvas and making pretty pictures.

Something to think about.