Guilty Pleasures

A number of years ago a group of my friends had gathered at my home for a dinner. These dinners happened frequently and the best part of all of them was the conversation that followed the food.

On this particular night we were talking about the importance of being able to distinguish between TASTE and QUALITY. This is a situation that will bedevil anyone involved in the fine arts or other activities that have IDEAS at their core. Robert Persig's book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance definitely addresses this topic but it does so over the course of a long ride.

I was looking for something that was a simple test, one question that might reveal the difference between someone who had made the jump to abstract thinking– OR–they were still the center of his or her own universe (I–me–mine).

We got on this topic by a casual comment about some music quietly playing in the background. It was Stravinsky's Rites of Spring. I commented that I would have loved to have been at the 1913 premiere when the composition created a near riot and theater seats were ripped up. WOW! Art can have power. The conversation spiraled into artworks that moved people to ANGER. Like Richard Serra's Tilted Arc. How and why does art anger people? In a world gone mad where complacency has become the state of the nation, a smear of paint can still confront the lumpen masses.

The major statement that is most familiar with this discussion is "I know what I like and I don't like that." What they are really saying is, "I like what I know and I don't know that." People are afraid of what they do not understand and this attitude is easily demonstrated by the 1950 science fiction films where the egghead scientist wants to study the creature but the movie's hero just blasts it all to hell.

We haven't moved an inch toward enlightenment since "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

So back at the dinner party, we are all tossing out ideas on what the litmus would or could be and finally a simple question presented itself that seems to fit the bill.

The question: "DO YOU UNDERSTAND A GUILTY PLEASURE?"

This simple question asks if you understand that Oreos may be your favorite cookie but at the very same time you understand that they are shit.

The question deconstructed: YOUR FAVORITE does not directly equal GOOD. Taste is in your mouth, quality is another issue altogether.

It is great that you love Jackie Collins novels, or any of the 14 Law and Order shows, Jackie Chan, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Tom Cruise. It's all entertaining stuff BUT no matter how much you like it, love it or identify with it, it is still only entertaining stuff. The above will never give Camus, Kurosawa, Virginia Woolf, Tom Waits or Alec Guinness any competition and that is fine because they are doing very different things.

Americans have distanced themselves from critical thinking. Maybe this stems from the moment the Ivy League colleges stopped requiring that PhD candidates defend and publish their thesis. Of course that relaxing of academic rigor turned the colleges into degree mills and even made them profitable! But that's another article. The shift from liberal arts education to narrow focus specialization certainly helped the joy of knowledge dwindle but again, another article. Maybe all of this stems from Americans being intellectually lazy. Ever since we won the big war back in 1945 America has gone from being a producer to being a consumer. What we consume is easy: America likes its information in platitudes, sound bites and from familiar places.

The guilty pleasure question digs deep into our comfort zones.

Our love of burgers and fries is not a scarlet letter and does not need to be hidden from the light of day.

This discussion is about separating our TASTE from issues of quality. Many people believe all non-figurative, contemporary artwork is an evil joke that is being played on THEM by all of the museums, art critics, artists and art collectors in the world. They have all conspired to laugh at YOU. It is a well coordinated, world conspiracy to make fun of YOU. The rest of us are all in on the joke.

If you are going to attack art, music, theater, architecture or just about anything that has a history and critical content you should put out the energy to learn something about it.

Let's move this closer to home. Somebody asks "Give me a hammer." OK! Do you want a...ball peen...framing...claw...dead blow...5-pound sledge...copper-faced...machinist's... wood-handled...steel-handled...aluminum-handled...or fiberglass?

The same is true for the sports fan. You gotta know the rules to enjoy the game (like the infield fly rule) and if you want a deeper appreciation you need to know the history.

Anything that has the potential of providing you with pleasure, hope and joy deserves a little work and your reward is you become a participant through your research.

Why should you think you are equipped with the tools to smash what you do not understand and refuse to attempt to understand?

I guess the worst of this in America was the lynching of blacks because they were BLACK and not white. Another really good one was the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry in WW2. We didn’t hang them. Nope–we gave them a couple of days to quit their jobs, sell their homes and then shipped them to the desert or racetracks to live in stables. But like the Blacks they weren't White. This is the mindless fear that attacks art all the time. Art does have power but is it really out ta gettchya? It usually just kinda sits someplace and you can walk on by and ignore it. But maybe it scares ya, cause you don't know what it is and you can hear the thousands of conspirators laughing at ya. So it probably a good idea to tear it down and keep your corner of the world familiar - please pass another Twinkie.

Fine art is no different than carpentry, dentistry, economics, philosophy or religion. Each is a discipline that demands attention. Each is a subject worthy of conversation (conversation being the act of listening and responding–not the exercise of you talk, then I talk then you talk louder.)

Abstract art seems to attract the majority of the fear-based controversy. This fear of the different or the unfamiliar has spread throughout our culture creating a uniformity within America that is frightening. Our fear of anything different has fueled the spread of identical malls everywhere. You could be dropped in any one of these Home Depot–Pottery Barn–J Jill–Target–WalMart–Boarders– Ross villages and not know what state you are in. America seems to like the security of knowing what to expect, everywhere, all the time. That leaves the uncertain area of abstract art an easy repository for fear disguised as outrage.

Someday you will have the unfortunate experience of death visiting your life. Be it your parents, partner, child, friend or pet. At that moment, what is it that you feel and how would it best be described in graphic terms? Would it be a dark cloud on the horizon? Or maybe one of those clowns with a tear in the corner of its eye? Or would it be a large composition that is dark, a darkness that is so dense that light and sound could never escape it? If you are more sculptural you might consider a very large block of steel that has been forged 40 times and its gravity is so intense that it can’t be supported by the ground it is placed upon and it sinks into the earth.

Abstract art is not abstract. Life is abstract which makes the abstract very understandable.

The good things in life can be easy but the great things in life take work. So before you rant about some weirdo artist making absurd gestures, get your self some ammo, do the unspeakable and read about art. You don’t go bear hunting with a 410 shotgun. So properly arm yourself and maybe you can knock some sissy artist out of his or her gilded perch. Or are you too lazy? It is easier to just to say Twinkies are the best cause I say so!

PS. Lynn Gordon, the author of the very successful series of decks of cards with titles like, "52 things to do in San Francisco" or "52 things to do at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," after this dinner penned "52 guilty pleasures."

— by Cork Marcheschi  |  September 20, 2006  |  Print Version - PDF

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