Dear Piers,
This raise three interesting questions. The first question involves artistic quality in the sense of a value judgement about the art work, or a critical judgement about the art work. It might also be the kind of judgement that occurs slowly over historical time. An example of this would be the waning, waxing, and waning reputation of Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Or the ever-rising reputation of Van Gogh after his death. This would be the question of quality that you might find in Clement Greenberg’s essays on different artists or artistic phenomena, or in Jerry Saltz’s writings on contemporary art, or Kristine Stiles’s writings on contemporary art history.
The second question involves craftsmanship. No one ever doubted Alma-Tadema’s craftsmanship. For that matter, you cannot dispute the craftsmanship of many contemporary painters whose realistic work is (at least to me eye) quite boring, despite meticulous rendering and excellent physical properties of paint application that will last for many years. There are relatively few people writing on this issue — but you see it from time to time in the late Robert Hughes’s writings, or in appraisal reports or condition reports by conservators.
The third question might be the experiential quality of engaging with or producing art, without respect to the first two questions. Or perhaps the outcome of that engagement or production within the life and mind of the human being that does either. This is generally a subjective issue, up to each person, though one might find a reasonable way to test self-reports against organizational factors involving the people who engage in some form of art practice within the context of the kinds of workshops that some AACORNers create. It would always be possible to see if there is any correlated value between measurements of the first two kinds of quality against the third.
It has always interested me that the psychologist and Harvard professor Ellen Langer also paints. She is the author of the well known book, Mindfulness. I love her art. You can see some of her art work on her web site:
http://www.ellenlanger.com/art/
Yours,
Ken
> On Jun 12, 2016, at 12:03 PM, Piers Ibbotson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> How about this: "Art is a matter of opinion". Craftsmanship maybe not. What this conversation has opened up for me is some useful questions about the purpose of arts based activities in areas that are not about training or developing artists. In my practise I have only been interested in the processes and their effects. Respect for the processes and discipline when engaging in them are the craft constraints I emphasise. I have always been wary of attempts or claims to bring about psycho/spiritual transformation. Partly because I am not sure that's what I should be doing and also because I am not convinced that engagement with artistic PRACTICE necessarily achieves it.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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