What is an artist?

[Renaud]

‘Art’ is like ‘God’ in that you cannot prove that either exists. Paintings, sculpture, cathedrals and carvings do exist and it is useful to call them works of art as a sort of collective term and so we call their creators – artists.

To many ‘art’ is a kind of accolade “that is great art” etc meaning “I think that that thing is a great thing that has spiritual qualities to which I respond”.

I find it helpful to try to judge for myself if a painting (for instance) is great, good, poor or crap as a painting but not judge how much ‘art’ it contains.

These kinds of judgments are of course subjective and not even the aforementioned sainted Brian Sewell can claim that they are universal laws – not that stops most art critics doing so several times before the Martini hour.

So many works of art are displayed in the context of knowledge as part of a book, catalogue or exhibition where one gets other peoples interpretations which are all fine and dandy - except the longer I stand in front of a painting or sculpture and look at it, the less I feel I know.

So I wholeheartedly endorse Chris’s view that the only thing that matters is how the fortunate recipients of his works of art respond to them.

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Bye the bye I have great regard for Brian Sewell since he commented that my companion was ‘a perfect lurcher’ when the two met on Wimbledon Common.

[Chris Head]

I'd forgotten about this thread. It's as confusing now as it was then.

You write beautifully Renaud.