Exploring the Value in Art. Process V's Product dichotomy.

Francis Bacon

“ I do not know whether I work in order to make something or in order to know why I can not make what I would like to make?

This is a sentiment that resonates with me, indeed it is a question I have often asked myself when I have been producing work and yet in what would seem a direct contrast other prominent sculptors such as Henry Moore, openly assert their opposition to any emphasis on the philosophical aspects of the creative process. Moore seems much more reliant on the visceral aspects of creativity.

Values embodied in Art

Working Title: Exploring the value of art the Process Vs Product Dichotomy

Artists

Idea...

Throughout my working life as a practicing artist I have been fascinated by the notion of artistic value and for me there are a number of facets of “value” in art. There is, of course, the material value of the work or product but of much more interest is the question of value embedded in the art by this I mean the values of the artist in creating the work both in the process and finished product, what does it represent and how are these values, cultural, ethical and philosophical perceived by those who might experience art. This reflection has lead me to think about my own creative practice and the dichotomy that may exist between process and product. Are my own values and constructs represented in the finished piece and how (if) these values are interpreted by the observer? Is the creative process itself the art or is all value embodied in the finished work?

Giacometti

Investigation into the creative process

Text from Edward Lucie-Smith, "Lives of the Great 20th-Century Artists""Alberto Giacometti is, both because of the nature of his work and because of his close friendship with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the artist most closely identified with the Existentialist movement.

Contempoary Artists

Ethical

Culture

Comunist art

Political

‘My painting is not violent; its life that is violent’ (Francis Bacon)

What does it say about the society it was created in?

.a frozen sculpture of the artist's head made from 4.5 litres of the artist's own frozen blood taken from his body over a period of five months. This work is repeated every five years and will result in a unique record of the artist aging.

Louise Bourgeois

Experience

Influences

Tracy Emin

Mark Quinn

Roni Horn

Expression

Personal

The notion of self-consciousness may contribute to the viewer’s emotional reaction to art works; the feeling of ‘shame’ may be an instinctive, visceral response. Cashell expands on this when describing Tracy Emins work ‘My Bed’.‘We become ashamed for witnessing the exposure, the violation of privacy seen there. Feeling like an intruder invading personal space, we look left, right- perhaps behind – forced into the position of unintentional voyeur by the work. We experience shame because Emin’s openness threatens privacy by confronting us with the possible exposure of the secret data of our own lives; indeed, I would suggest that the experience of her work forces this confrontation with the shameful secret, which, paradoxically. Takes place privately- in the imagination of the viewer’.( Cashell 2009: p 147)

Emotional content

vulnerability

Links with Existentialism

henry Moore

memories

Expression of self

Identity

A concern with human existence

philisophical

Philosophy of Art

Human Individuality

Sartre

Dewey

It is a great privilege to be able to work with, and I suppose work off, my feelings through sculpture. (Louise Bourgeois)

Is the arifact produced a piece of art or an embodiment of artistic ideas?

Is the value in the artistic process or in the manifestation of the artifact?

Viewers of Art

“The artist does his thinking in the very qualitive media he works in, and the terms lie so close to the object that he is producing that they merge directly into it”. ( Dewey 1934)

Interpretation

Engagement

Visual perception

subjectivity