No-one is born to make art, just like no-one is born to cook food, but both processes can be learned. Remembering that will help us value the act of creation - and creations themselves - differently, argues Francois Matarasso.
The idea that everyone can be an artist has always underpinned my work. It seems straightforward to me, but some people evidently find it difficult to accept. Part of the problem is the belief that developed in the early 19th century, during the movement we now call Romanticism, that an artist is a special kind of person. Why that happened is discussed in the book, and need not detain us now. The fact is that in Europe we tend to believe that artists are born, not made. That contributes to another aspect of the problem: the idea that art is good. It isn’t, or at least not by definition, intrinsically and always. It’s a carrier ... Keep reading on A Restless Art
The idea that everyone can be an artist has always underpinned my work. It seems straightforward to me, but some people evidently find it difficult to accept. Part of the problem is the belief that developed in the early 19th century, during the movement we now call Romanticism, that an artist is a special kind of person. Why that happened is discussed in the book, and need not detain us now. The fact is that in Europe we tend to believe that artists are born, not made. That contributes to another aspect of the problem: the idea that art is good. It isn’t, or at least not by definition, intrinsically and always. It’s a carrier ... Keep reading on A Restless Art