Something odd happened during the Democratic presidential candidate debates in New Hampshire - a candidate mentioned a word that is rarely heard in the rough and tumble world of presidential politics - ART.
In a list of things he said he felt needed to be addressed, Governor Bill Richardson said the country needed to increase funding for art education. Regardless of your politics, you have to admit it took a lot of courage to even bring up the “A” word in the midst of discussions of the economy, terrorism, health care, immigration and global warming.
Governor Richardson’s comments, made in the context of a debate about the future of the country, raised an interesting question. Since politics is the social mechanism we use to preserve those things that are most valuable to us as a nation should art even make the list? How important is art when compared to the crucial issues facing us? Does it really make a difference given the state of the world?
I know a lot of the standard defenses of art of course - it enriches our lives, it educates and entertains. All true, but the same could be said of stamp collecting and crossword puzzles. What I began to focus on was a much bigger question - what is the intrinsic human value of art. In short, Does Art Really Matter?
Even though much of my life has been involved in the art world I’d never thoroughly considered the question. What I needed was a clearer understanding of why art is important to me and others.
It certainly seems important to serious artists, who devote their lives to creating art. Some, like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and countless others, literally faced their own personal hells to convey an ultimate truth that is beyond all understanding and ultimately beyond the ability of human conveyance. Was it worth it?
Art seems to matter to all the scholars and teachers and curators who have devoted their careers to helping us understand and appreciate art sometimes in the face of a scornful and indifferent public. Why bother?
It seems to matter to the fund-raisers and the donors who give time and money to public institutions that preserve and exhibit art. Aren’t there more important causes?
Art seems to matter to collectors who spend billions of dollars a year for the privilege of owning the product of artists’ talents. Aren’t there better ways to spend one’s money?
From my years as a gallerist I know art can have a strong emotional resonance with viewers. Once, while exhibiting a Matisse etching, I noticed a woman walk over to it. Within a few moments she began sobbing out loud. I rushed to her thinking there was something terribly wrong. But, when I asked if I could help, she said she didn’t understand why but she felt overwhelmed by the beauty of the piece.
Reflecting on the emotional power of art also made me also remember that one of the first things totalitarian governments do is round up artists and poets and decree that art must serve the state. So art must contain the ability to change minds and inspire freedom.
While some people consider art to be about things, it is only nominally about objects. It is about ideas and emotions expressed in paint or music or poetry. It is a conversation with oneself, with fellow humans and expresses our desire to come to terms with our humanness and ultimately touch the infinite. Art can be as beautiful as a photograph of a shadow falling across a wall or as agonizingly painful as the tormented faces screaming in Picasso’s “Guernica”. [By the way, If you feel the connection between art and the infinite is too big a leap then read Joyce’s “Ulysses” or listen to Beethoven or stand before a Van Gogh - if you don't feel connected to something larger than yourself then maybe you should consider a soul implant.]
So, after some thought, this is where I stand:
Art connects us with the deepest human longing for meaning and our desire to touch the infinite.
That seems pretty important.
If finally all our politics are of no consequence and we lose the battle against our own worst nature and unleash the ultimate catastrophe upon ourselves; then arguably there were bigger issues than art. But I can envision the final person on earth tracing the shape of a flower in the dust as her last act of trying to communicate and as a cry against the impenetrable nature of what it meant to be human.
Perhaps then, art matters a great deal after all.
