He would of been on the streets if he wasnt being financially supported by his brother his entire life.
Not to say Van Gogh is of equal value politically (lol), but you could say this about Marx with Engels. It’s not a bad thing that an artist was supported, or that because of that his work should be ignored or destroyed (not that you you claimed that necessarily). Ideally, many more could have been in his same situation, but that’s not possible to change retroactively.
I don’t see why it’s “exceptionalism” to want his work to be respected, I wouldn’t want much less famous pieces of art tarnished either.
Also, if you want other artists to have had the opportunity for recognition, saying Van Gogh should have “gotten a job or something to support himself” is pretty weird. You don’t think there were artists with great potential who could not develop it or produce enough notable work exactly because they needed to work some shitty job instead? That’s like the exact opposite prescription for wanting more artists to make great work and get recognition and acclaim. Not sure what you want really
I feel like all people can make great work, ideally it should be normal to make great work to the point that there’s no reason to have recognition and acclaim. I believe that that world exists. Ideally art should only have importance to the community around that artist.
I feel like the enshrinement of certain artists works against that idea and also works against the recognition of “lesser” artists because it’s not the enshrined artist.
I think this kind of thinking leads to preserving the world as we know it.
I dont think having a job actually prevents great art. I think bad formative education and destroyed communities does.
On that note, why would someone have to work in a mine while someone else would get to make all day long? Doesn’t seem fair that one person gets to explore an entire microcosm to its fullest, go on this intense spiritual journey and develop their highly personal craft while one person toils in a mine. I feel like the idea of not having a job and just being an artist doesn’t add up to a fair of a society.
ideally it should be normal to make great work to the point that there’s no reason to have recognition and acclaim. I believe that that world exists. Ideally art should only have importance to the community around that artist.
Yeah I just completely disagree with this. Why should art only have importance to community surrounding an artist? People can enjoy art from all kinds of different contexts that they would never be familiar with. That is one of the beautiful things about art is enjoying perspectives unlike your own. And even if it were desirable to have no especially acclaimed artists, I don’t think differing recognition for different art would ever disappear because people will always have differing preferences, and some art will resonate with more people or more effectively. And that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that if people are more or less equally able to pursue art if they choose. I see no problem with some art getting more attention than other art in and of itself. It’s the denial of the possibility to make art to so many that is an issue.
Doesn’t seem fair that one person gets to explore an entire microcosm to its fullest, go on this intense spiritual journey and develop their highly personal craft while one person toils in a mine.
Some people will always choose not to make any art, or choose to make less or spend less time improving their art than others. Framing it as issue of fairness that some people are only artists for work and others are not assumes everyone has equal desire to produce art, or to improve it constantly.
Not to say no one working a mine wouldn’t like to make art too, or even that many artists could have other jobs. But even in an ideal world, I value equal opportunity to choose art production instead of attempting to make art a completely despecialized activity because people have differing levels of interest in it and because one can spend a lifetime perfecting their art, so allowing the most driven to specialize enables art that requires or is greatly improved by much higher investments of time than people just making some art after work could or would want to make.
Good art will always find its audience, it doesnt need to be a commodity or institutionalized.
I disagree with you entirely, I think people are alienated from the arts so they appear to be uninterested in art. I think art is an essential part of humanity. If given the knowledge, the community and tools to do art, no one would pick miner over art/music/literature etc. I think the way and time people invest in art would change if everyone had the same opportunity.
Insanely specialized artists should be earned by a society that can reasonably accomodate them and not fuck over some dude working in a mine.
