Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Craft. Oxford: Berg (2007):69-101. Print.
Adamson’s text addresses issues around craft, especially labour and social positioning. While I struggled to engage with text, the issue I found the most interesting is the argument over technique. Adamson seems to side with Jackson Pollock view that “technique is just a means of arriving at a statement”, that skills in a medium are just another tool to portray concepts through; that simply being technically proficient does not instantly equate success or value (Adamson, 69). Generally I agree with this summation but I think that there is value in simple technical proficiency that should not be devalued because the ideas behind it are not successful. That even if you do not comprehend the concepts, because, for example you don’t share the same cultural understanding or background knowledge that the artist is working off, or you simply do not like or agree with them, you can still appreciate the work or skill inherent in the pieces. There are some artists whose ideas do not attract me intellectually but who I can appreciate their technique and skill, one of these artists is Damien Hirst: I respect the clean lines and crispness of his work but I greatly dislike his ideas and motives. Jerry Saltz agrees in relation to one of his painting shows “that they're generic-to-bad photorealist paintings of the sort that any semi-adept student or average commercial artist could have made . . . mak[ing] them ordinary and academic.”(Saltz, Jerry. "Damien Hirst: The not-so-elusive truth: The Emperor’s New Paintings". Modern Painters (May 2005):28. Print.). Technically Hirst’s works are flawless and can be appreciated as such, but in terms of content I find them lacking. Sometimes we need to separate out aspects of a work to be able to appreciate any of it.
Great description on what the article is about. The section you fount the most valuable interested me as I did not see it in that light when I first read the article. I thought it was great you mentioned an artist that you could relate to, but maybe include an article so that you back your reasons up, or so you can reference to something else. For example: theory.
ReplyDeleteI try to write in this way, maybe it will help??Description, what’s interesting, why it’s interesting, because of blank reason, and then finally back it up by a reference.