JUST ART
FEBRUARY 8TH, 2022
I recently read an article in which the author stated that without the utility of air drops, white lists, and exclusive invites to sought after events, all you had was “just art.” It was clear from the context that this was meant to be pejorative. My teeth ground, my hackles raised, I found myself ready for a fight. Was not art of the highest utility, inherently, in its own right?
When the image above was painted on the wall of a cave in Altamira, it might have been a prayer for a successful hunt, it might have been a mark of gratitude honoring the animals that gave their lives to feed the community, and it may have been a work of wonder to delight the eye and fire the imagination as sated family members gathered round the storyteller by a flickering campfire. It is certainly true that today, centuries later, it delights the eye and fires the imagination still.
Art challenges, art startles, art elevates, art heals, art inspires, art illuminates, art entertains, art educates. It communicates in ways both explicit and subtle, reaching into our subconsciousness to write messages on our hearts that cannot be expressed in the words of any language. Art is a window. Art is a mirror. Art binds humankind across time and space and culture, reminding us that in our human experience we are all basically the same, all our differences superficial. Art enriches our experience of our world in countless everyday ways. Art slaps us, pulls us up sharp, and changes our viewpoint in an instant. Without art, our individual lives, our societies, and our cultures would become pale and empty shadows.
Leave me with “just art” any day of the week and I will revel in it.
The point of the NFT revolution is to celebrate and free art, artists, curators, and collectors, and, in so doing, to usher in a great flowering of human creativity. If we allow it to become simply a means of defining 21st century country club memberships we have botched an incredibly important opportunity.