Art Imitates Life?

Only in the United States is art expected to imitate life. In Europe and elsewhere, it is a part of life. A well laid-out garden or table setting; a café conversation about a show or book; a spontaneous song in a pub; these are the things that are beautiful and true. It’s no surprise that Frenchman Marcel Duchamp would find art in a urinal.

(My friend Bruce drew a beautiful urinal in high school–again, more interested in the play of light off of the metal surfaces than the subject). But in the U.S., we want art to be representational. Thus, Rockwell is considered “better” than Hopper because his paintings are more “realistic” than Hopper’s. But there’s a big gulf between the real and the true. An even worse strain in American art is its self-righteousness. Joseph Campbell called it not art but “moral pornography.” The man in the white hat always wins. The underdog overcomes. Boy gets girl. Yet this more rarely happens in real life than in fiction. Shakespeare was great because he took his own advice to “hold a mirror up to Nature” and in so doing “I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you.” I like James Joyce because he just presents life and does not judge.

Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?

I saw a great movie over the weekend: Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? It’s about a female truck driver who buys a painting that may be a Jackson Pollock. A noted forensic scientist finds strong evidence that it is: a fingerprint matching one on Pollock’s paint cans in his studio; dust on the canvas that matches dust from his studio; etc. Yet the art world refuses to believe that it is a Pollock or (more importantly) even consider that it might be a Pollock. A most telling moment is when a former bigwig at the Met says that art world opinion is worth more than scholarship or science. Also tellingly, a Wall Street investor says that the painting would have more chance of selling if it were signed, even if the signature were a fraud! It is much easier to dismiss somebody than to address their arguments. This art world disdain for facts or others’ opinions is a metaphor for or another instance of the pattern we see everywhere of dismissal: shock jock radio and TV talk shows, newspaper editorial pages, and (most damagingly) politics.