Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

What is art? What is beauty?

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Pluto
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Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
Walker
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Walker »

Anything is capable of being a medium of truth, even a rock, or the expanse of depthless sky.

Two factors determine the actuality: situation and receiver.
artisticsolution
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by artisticsolution »

Pluto wrote:The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
No. Art is a mirage...it is a magic trick...it is an illusion of aesthetics.

Truth? There is no such thing. Truth is a delusion of the gullible.
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Walker »

artisticsolution wrote:
Pluto wrote:The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
No. Art is a mirage...it is a magic trick...it is an illusion of aesthetics.

Truth? There is no such thing. Truth is a delusion of the gullible.
This may in fact be no truer than the light flash of energy across the span of a brain synapse, a space of almost infinite length when compared to the quantum, certainly a fact known long ago to the Kriya and its ageless discoverer in the holistic sense of cellular consciousness receptors. That is to say, no truer than the relative, however all the relatives you know are based in life and it is Christmas-time, when all the relatives in orbit gather to the sun, in varying proximities.
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HexHammer
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by HexHammer »

Pluto wrote:The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
Your point is moot as ...yes it can ..but also can be a medium of lies, therefore no one knows when it's a lie or truth, and the result is inconsequential.
Impenitent
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Impenitent »

Pluto wrote:The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
if art can predict the future...

art is rarely done ...

-Imp
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Terrapin Station »

People can read at least aspects of artworks as forwarding propositions that they then assess in terms of truth values, but I'd say that insofar as they do that, they're not parsing the work as an artwork.

That's not to downplay the ability of artworks to comment on various aspects of the world, including psychological and social aspects, especially from an meta, interpretive level, but that's more about the interpreter using the work as a catalyst for thinking about the world.
Pluto
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

The question comes from here:
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/71/60513/ ... th-of-art/

If truth can be held or can exist in an artwork, then in what way and how?
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Terrapin Station »

Pluto wrote:The question comes from here:
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/71/60513/ ... th-of-art/

If truth can be held or can exist in an artwork, then in what way and how?
That essay is nonsense:

"The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth? This question is central to the existence and survival of art because if art cannot be a medium of truth then art is only a matter of taste."

First off, it's not as if all there would be to art is truth-value and(/or) taste. So if art has no truth-values, then it doesn't follow that it's only a matter of taste.

Beyond that, "If art is only a matter of taste then this has implications for the existence and survival of art" is nonsense. Or at the very least, the author has absolutely no argument for this (and any argument for it would require empirical evidence, since it's a speculative empirical claim).

"One has to accept the truth even if one does not like it."

That's not true, either.

"But if art is only a matter of taste, then the art spectator becomes more important than the art producer."

The spectator becomes more important than the producer to whom?

"In this case art can be treated only sociologically"

Zero argumentation for this ridiculous claim. Why couldn't it be treated psychologically, too? What about in terms of its material composition? Etc.

"or in terms of the art market"

Again zero argumentation, and I hope he's not equating "sociologically" and the art market. Because that would be stupid.

"it has no independence,"

If it has truth-value, how is it independent of people?

"no power."

No argument. Seems completely arbitrary.

"Art becomes identical to design."

Again, no argument. Seems completely arbitrary.

What a garbage essay. I skimmed bits after that opening paragraph, and frankly, I didn't see a sentence that didn't have serious problems.
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

Great that you think so, I also find it problematic, yet I think the original question an interesting one and worthy of further thought and investigation.
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

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Terrapin Station
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Terrapin Station »

I hope that's not a bid to dig oneself out of nonsense.
Pluto
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

It is heavy going. I skimmed through it looking for traces of ideas pertaining to the topic of the title. I see the title was taken from Cezanne, so that is something. What would make a painting become a thing that held aspects of the thing called truth. If a painting depicted something real in the world then it couldn't be a truth but just an illusion, a lie. Art is a lie that shows the truth, said Picasso. If a painting depicted something that does not already exist out there in the world, but just depicts itself as a thing, is it's own thing, maybe it could be seen to be a truth to itself. The canvas is flat and so the paint sits on top of the canvas and does not try to create depth where there is none. Clement Greenberg. An Ad Reinhardt black painting flat on the canvas - no subject matter other than itself. No image on the canvas just paint. The painting is an object, it is a front and back and sides, a top and bottom.


"Can truth be found only in painting or solely in text?"
http://aesthetics-online.org/?page=CostacheTruth

Though not paintings: Advertisements are lies mostly and below in the film They Live have been rendered as a truth, maybe.
they live.jpg
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they live two.jpg
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they-live-billboard.jpg
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Pluto
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

artisticsolution wrote:
Pluto wrote:The central question to be asked about art is this one: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?
No. Art is a mirage...it is a magic trick...it is an illusion of aesthetics.

Truth? There is no such thing. Truth is a delusion of the gullible.
When you ask your kid to tell the truth, that exists. Who broke the vase, how did it happen, to tell the truth would be inline with what happened. I'm moving away from art here but maybe it will come back round to it.
Pluto
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Re: Is art capable of being a medium of truth?

Post by Pluto »

sometimes-people-dont-want-to-hear-the-truth.jpg
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