Thursday, March 22, 2012

Art objects

Jeanette Winterson writes: “Art, all art, […] is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar. […] We have to recognise that the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue. […] I really believe that human beings can be taught to love what they do not love already and the privileged moment exists for all of us, if we let it. Letting art is the paradox of active surrender. […] We hear a lot about the arrogance of the artist but nothing about the arrogance of the audience. [… And] ‘Do I like this?’ will have to be the opening question and not the final judgement (Jeanette Winterson, “Art Objects,” in Art Objects, Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery (quoted by Yeung Yang; Winterson uses ‘objects’ as a verb and not as a noun): p.4, p.6 and p.14).”

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