Copyright: Jordi Rodríguez-Amat

TODAY’S ART AND OTHER REFLECTIONS

 

The freedom of the creator

Today, art has no limits. Any artist can take a clear and definite personal attitude that allows them to establish their own creative process. Under this proposition, any criterion can be justified and therefore anyone with a certain ability can become a creative artist.

With this I do not want to become an advocate of everything that is done today under the most radical concept of contemporary art, but to access the pure and simple acceptance of letting each artist do what he or she personally considers, and at the same time, grant him or her absolute freedom at the time of creative action.

Artistic experimentation is today a fundamental principle of many of the contemporary creators. For some, it is no longer a matter of painting, drawing or making a work conceived under any of the traditional doctrines within the so-called Fine Arts. For some artists, anything new may make sense, no longer because of the work itself, but because of the contribution of what seems to have not been done before. Here, in any case, the dilemma of, what is new? I myself often ask the question, what is new?

New forms of expression or manifestation, both individual and collective, have emerged in the world of artistic creation. Some of them started more than fifty years ago. The happenings, installations, performances, landart and the so-called conceptual art, among others, have come to expand the range of possibilities available to the artist when dealing with the 'act of creating. It is clear that all these languages are forms of expression that expand the range of possibilities available to the artist. But if we hurry to look for something new in today’s art, we can find, not only the created objects themselves, but, above all, the actual attitudes taken by the creators. Although not under these names, these forms have occurred throughout human history. What we might consider new here is no longer the action or object produced by that action, but the idea as the generating element of the work, since many of these forms of expression have previously occurred, however, until now, never with the intention of being an artistic product.

 

The function of art

This leads us to reflect on whether art, as it was understood a relatively short time ago and still understood by a very large number of artists today, is dead. The typical and topical question; what is art ?, is presented to us, today more than ever, fully valid and appropriate at the present time. Every individual or social group of any age has had a moment when they have reflected on a certain definition of their own concept. It should be noted, however, that this concept has not always been considered for the simple fact that it is relatively recent. In this sense much has been said and written about the function of art. We must acknowledge that, one of the functions, that of being a work with purely aesthetic values without any other purpose is very, very recent when we compare it with the time elapsed from the moment we take an object today to study it as an artistic object. If we also decide to consider that aesthetic values are relative and there can be an art without them, their function is even more difficult to define from a logical and pragmatic point of view.

From this perspective, today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the path that begun in the last century is regarded as full of content for some, absurd and illogical for others. It seems clear that the temperament that characterizes the so-called contemporary art and no longer the so-called avant-garde art, a term coined in the mid-twentieth century, is absolute freedom, both in its definition and in the performance of the action that the definition itself entails. By accepting this principle, any definition can be full of content and meaning. Going further and using this absolute freedom on the part of the creator, there are those who have even come to accept as an artistic manifestation the denial of the very existence of art. It would be kind of absurd for the absurd. It seems that concepts like sensitivity, feelings, craft, technique, and many, many more are today absolutely obsolete and empty of content for certain artists. Especially for those who believe that in art you have to break with the past and be constantly under an innovative mentality. Others, however, continue to base their works on values considered absolute and to create artistic objects for aesthetic and emotional purposes.

Discussions about art are almost always marked by different personal behaviors in the face of the concept itself. All we know is the product of many years of training. We are subjected to this training and it is absolutely impossible for us to free ourselves from it. We talked about the freedom of the artist before, but does this freedom really exist? The individual is never free and I do not mean the creative artist to whom this privilege is granted, but, to the human being, generally subjected to all the external influences that throughout his life have forged as is. Just as we cannot change the color of our skin, we cannot change the character or other aspects that make up an individual, whether genetic or educational.

 

Critics, theorists, curators and other figures

On the other hand, there are certain characters today who have appeared in the artistic universe and who play an important role. They are the theorists, the critics, the curators and all those people who, without being directly creators of artistic objects, play an important role in the tumult in which today's art moves. Some of them have taken on the roles of leaders and drivers of the paths to follow. In some cases, it has even been thought that those who really lead the path followed by art are not solely the creators, but also the critics and the curators. They are characters who have appeared out of the need to fill certain spaces and have taken on an almost fundamental role in today’s art universe. For those in whom works of art are not limited to pure objects with aesthetic values, the object created is not enough if it is not supported by a whole lot of ideas that explain it. Even the very concept of aesthetics that was traditionally applied almost exclusively to artistic objects has lost its significance for those who break with the past. Most of these characters have been supported by a powerful medium that allows them to express and / or carry out their artistic ideas or principles. They are usually curators of exhibitions, directors of major art fairs, critics with decision-making ability publishing in art magazines, and so on. It seems that they are the ones who, in one way or another, determine the guidelines to follow and their influence is certainly considerable.

 

The craft and art

Critics of all these new forms of expression believe that it is the lack of a profession by definition that has led new creators to enter these systems of expression. It is clear that to gain the knowledge of the trade necessary to express oneself according to established aesthetic principles requires an effort of many, many years of constant and daily work. Moving, on the other hand, within the newly created systems of expression entails the capacity for decision and action that allows the individual to confront the action of creating. Of course, we must also speak of “ex officio” in this case, although the concept may not have the same connotations that we have always given it.

 

The judgment of history

We must not forget, of course, that there are many, many artists for whom the work continues to have values based on the aesthetic principles of the so-called Fine Arts.

Despite the relativity in which art moves today, history will provide the verdict and placement of everything that makes up the current turmoil within the world of contemporary art. It will be necessary to accept the very bias of history as a science at the time of deciding, establishing and finally writing about what is happening at that moment. So let the future, with all its biases and prejudices, write and situate our artistic present. We know and accept that history itself as a science is relative and can be written in many different, even contradictory ways.

 

Jordi Rodríguez-Amat

The Rodríguez-Amat Contemporary Art centre