Wednesday 24 February 2016

A sentiment on art and life from Ad Reinhardt

I have been doing a lot of research and reading on abstract art and on modern architecture and the ways in which these two might come into contact whereby art might enter into the realm of environment and buildings might be considered to participate in the art object. For Reinhardt, this would be horrifying as he fought for the purity and autonomy of art in its absolute negation of life. For me, however, rather than seeing how art might represent life by way of figuration, I wish to investigate further how art, and particularly abstract painting that still remains a fixed, flat (to greater or lesser extents) picture hung on a museum wall, could be considered as life itself and as a producer of space by way of its own architectonics.


Here is Reinhardt (Art as Art, 54):

“The one thing to say about art and life is that art is art and life is life, that art is not life and life is not art. A ‘slice-of-life’ art is no better or worse than a ‘slice-of-art’ life. Fine art is not a ‘means of making a living’ or a ‘way of living life,’ and an artist who dedicates his life to his art or his art to his life burdens his art with his life and his life with his art. Art that is a matter of life and death is neither fine nor free”.


No comments:

Post a Comment