Tuesday 17 February 2009

Blog 1

At uni we also have to do an online learning journal (blog) regarding Critical Studies so I'm also going to be posting those on here, feel free to give your opinions whether you do or don't agree with what I've said.


"There are no accidental masterpieces of painting but there are accidental pieces of photography" - Chuck Close on The Genius of Photography.

Is this the most ridiculous statement or is it just me? How many artists have truely started a painting with the intention of selling it as or having the viewer see it as a masterpiece? I know that the artist Degas drew inspiration from certian aspects of photography but, he along with other artists quite despised the idea of it being called an art form. Why did they have contempt for this phenomenon that was unravelling around them? The fraction of time it takes to produce a photographic image compared to the time it took to produce a painting must've wounded the "true creatives" a little. Alright, technically it is easier and faster to produce an "accidental" photographic image but why are us photographers deemed less creative than painters or sculptors for instance? Our initail intentions and thought processes must be quite similar as the inspirational paths cross quite significantly. A photographers end result may be different and/or better than originally thought out. Is it not then pure jealously prevailing in these artists that think photographers are less creative than them? Our techincal processes may be faster but surely painters and sculptors art works differ from their original thoughts? So doesn't that make them accidental? Who knows truely what is accidental and what is set up and thought through throughly? I know a masterpiece is an artists greatest work or any extraordinary piece of work, but who decides that, surely it's in the eyes of the person viewing the work and since everyone thinks differently then most, if not all work by whoever whenever can be a masterpiece. Whether is it an accident should not come into it, a photographer, painter or sculptor can only luckily "accidentally" produce "masterpieces" for so long.

No comments: