from an interview with Joseph Kosuth (conceptual artist) in 1970:
"I think to be an artist now means to question the nature of art--that's
what being 'creative' means to me because that includes the whole
responsibility of the artist as a person: the social and political as well
as the cultural implications of his or her activity. To say that the artist
only makes high-brow craft for a cottage industry's specialized market
might satisfy the needs of this society from the point of view of some
people, but it's an insult to the valued remains of an 'avant-garde'
tradition, and a denial to artists of their historical role. And unless
artists re-conceptualize their activity to include responsibility for
re-thinking art itself, then all that is of value in art will be subsumed by
the market, because then we will have lost the moral tool to keep art from
just becoming another high-clas business. In any case, what is more
'creative' than creating a new idea of what art is?"
ja
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