Blog

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where I've been catching up on some reading.  Don't you love it when I do that - it always sparks an interesting blog post or two :)

But today, I just want to share.  I'll give you a couple of paragraphs from the article I just read, and applauded, and then you can decide for yourself, if you want to click on the link and finish the article!  

The people who are splashing paint on a canvas in pretty patterns, or brushing it on in aesthetically pleasing color combinations, are not doing anything abstract. They are merely depositing little tangible blobs of paint that do not stand in for anything at all.

I genuinely believe that people have derived a sense of aesthetic pleasure from some of their creations. But they are not in fact works of art. The most beautiful of their color fields cannot compare to a field of primroses. They are not works of art, no matter how beautiful, because there are no real abstractions in them, there are no meaningful selections from nature, no great activity of mind. They may mix colors prettily as they please (most of them aim for ugliness) but without selection based on knowledge of the forms of the real world they do not make works of art - and they are not artists.

the author:  

Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center

and where it can be found:

http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2005/Abstract/Ross.php

I think I wrote a blog post about this before, but it does bring to mind the old Hans Christian Anderson story, The Emperor's New Clothes, eh?  Enjoy the article, and have a lovely weekend!

Cooper

Oh look, and I found that Emperor's New Clothes post:  click here

And since Fred, up there, was talking color, would you like to see how my easel looks at the moment??  :)

It's already sporting a name:  Last Full Weekend In July, and all good Iowans (and a host of others!) know what that means.  RAGBRAI.  Stay tuned.  It's going to be a fun one...