Endlessly Amazed
Endlessly, you know, amazed
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2020
- Messages
- 1,375
- Location
- Arizona, USA
Thinking about @C.O.T. 's thread on art and magic, can consumers/observers tell from the work alone if something is the result of blood and soul-stuff?
Which would be more objectionable or less worthy? (assuming that distinction is possible)
* the result of the blood and soul-stuff where whatever you object to is an inherent part of the process and product
* hack work done more or less by rote and still embodying the whatever-is-objectionable.
Personally, if I come at something through the object, without wider knowledge, and I find it pleasing or suitable or relevant I am much more likelt to be able to overcome the squicks whwn I find out about the being nasty to kittens aspect.
If I know of the artist and what ever makes me hesitate, and then see a piece which I want to own, I am less likely to be able to flatten the squicks to an extent that makes possessing it satisfying.
I'm interested in how people deal with the non-physical aspects of a physical item. The aura, or numinous quality that sometimes hangs around some things.
"can consumers/observers tell from the work alone if something is the result of blood and soul-stuff?" Answer: no; or at least, not by itself viewed in isolation from other works by the artist.
You are making a distinction, I think, between blood/soul work and hack work which I think doesn't exist as clear categories. After commercial success, famous impressionists churned out hundreds of hack works which sold easily. Monet especially was a brilliant businessman. Not all of his later work was wonderful. He was a very skilled hack who also, in the same time period, produced some soul work.
"I'm interested in how people deal with the non-physical aspects of a physical item. The aura, or numinous quality that sometimes hangs around some things." I bring the numinous quality to the piece of art, and not the other way around. Sometimes the artwork invokes this better than other pieces, but in the end it is just an object. In a commercial art gallery, it is the job of the salesman to figure out the best approach to a potential client. The appeal of numinousity or the soul aspect of the artwork certainly can be used as a sales pitch.