Chapter 3: Skilled

Glen Adamson Thinking Through Craft; Chapter 3; Skilled, Oxford: Berg, 2007, pp. 69-101

Glen Adamson has curated, written essays for exhibition catalogues, published articles and reviews and written and edited several books about craft and design in the 20^th century. He has a BA and a PhD in Art History at Cornell and Yale universities, respectively and has held positions such as Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As a result of reading this chapter, Skilled, I cannot help but take a position on the question of the application of skill in art making. It also brought to mind an idea that Sol Lewitt espoused in his “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (Lewitt)

Sol Lewitt considered that the idea is simply the most important aspect of the work and independent of the skill involved in realising the work. Personally I take the view that good, even excellent execution can only intensify the idea in a piece of art. That this level of skill, allows the making to fade into relative insignificance, leaving the idea of the work all the more visible.

I enjoy Lewitt’s “Sentences on Conceptual Art” (which follow his paragraphs) and find some of them pertinent to this subject and what I think about it. Sentence number 30:

“There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.” is actually very telling. I take from this that an obvious lack of skill in a work (and I include lack of attention to detail and poor finish as examples of poor skill) as therefore being the most important as it is most obvious.

On the other hand I am also a firm subscriber to sentence number 32:

“Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.”

After all, life really is too short for banal ideas.

Bibliography

Adamson, Glen. Thinking Through Craft. Oxford: Berg, 2007.

Lewitt, Sol. “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.” Artforum (June, 1967): pp 79-84.

Cast Away

Chris Kraus “Cast Away”, Video Green: Los Angelos Art and The Triumph of Nothingness, New York: Semiotext(e), 2004, p145-p150.

Chris Kraus wrote ‘Cast Away’ in 2001 and it is contained in her 2004 publication: Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness. Video Green considers Los Angeles art and art school programs and their place in the international art scene.

“...anything is permissible ... so long as it is pedigreed, substantiated, referentialised.” (Kraus) p147

If art production is permissible by this definition, then perhaps it supports the credence given to the undertakings we present as students at Elam. After all, Elam as a school of art, justifies these efforts such that whatever form they take, they should be regarded as creditable offerings, worthy of our interpretation and elevation to the status of work (of art). We do. But are we too kind – or too cruel, to speak our mind?

Yet I observe that an aesthetic of what we bring to our work at Elam is a reflection of what occurs in the outside (contemporary art) world – imitation, although not taught per de Duve’s obsolete academic art school model (de Duve) p22 – occurs naturally through osmosis. Thus in my view, the next work, the banal image, the flimsy gesture, while lightly pedigreed, substantiated, or referentialised, will continue to inform our progress.

Therefore, in our practice, we actively seek to support Kraus’ view by fabricating these qualifications around our work such that they act as a scaffold, framing and supporting our work. If we were to fail to do this, our work might suffer the ignominy of being relegated as peripheral non-art.

Bibliography

de Duve, Thierry. “When Form Has Become Attitude - And Beyond.” (1994). Theory in contemporary art since 1945. Malden MA: Blackwell, 2005. pp 19 - 31.

Kraus, Chris. “Cast Away.” Video Green: Los Angelos Art and The Triumph of Nothingness. New York: Semiotext(e), 2004. pp 145 - 150.