Text-Number: 0124E
Available: 18/09/1996
Category: CultureNumber of characters: 5183
Author: Robin Stein
Title: A log-book on art (2)
The Question of Heels and Creases and Academic Apethy
Copyright: Robin Stein

Robin Stein

A log-book on art (2)

The Question of Heels and Creases and Academic Apethy

We knew that it is not easy to make a quick decision. In our first entry, that opened our log-book on art, we distinguished between art and Art and presented, as a well-shanghaied member of our crew, Samuel Beckett. We introduced him as a sailor who knows to handle the sheets and who is able to distinguish between the veils of Art and the sails of art. But everybody knows that you cannot start an expedition to unknown seas and perhaps an unknown continent without preparation and preliminary discussion. Everybody is eager to start. But a couple of questions, for shure, impede precipitation.
The difference between Art and art depends not only on attitudes of mind concerning artists and their work. It is dependent on items of locomotion too. People who are used to hesitency because they are rattled by experts of Great Art run into obstacles when they face art and its hastiness. Haste of art embarrasses and serves as an obstacle that impedes art to become Art. 
Hesitating people are longing for insurances. And they want to make sure that the journey pays - one way or another. Why should they trust promises? Well, we don't promise anything. Concerning art the only answer can be: take it or leave it. And: embarking for art is not embarking in Art. (And when we said that we own a map of a treasure island, we did not do market-rigging.)
But on the other hand we don't want to leave people annoyed. That's why we understand suspicious glimpses at our plan. Who really has trust in unknown adventurers who have no reputation?
We understand this. But we are only able to answer: It's the same with art. Who needs a testimonial better stays with Art as a save residency. A log-book on art only would need a letter of recommendation, if it was not a letter of introduction itself. The expedition we plan is not a missionary one. We already have started its preparation - and we are looking for associates and participants, not for a supercargo. And we have already an entrepreneur: it's art itself.
But we don't mind to give some hints. (People always want to know where you come from, what job your parents have, who was your teacher, what institution was responsable for the rites de passage that qualify you being an expert. At least they glimpse at the labels of your dress. Or at your heels. Or at your creases.) Well, we are down at heels since we are at heels of art. And Art is responible for a couple of creases in our faces too. But in the end we think it to be boaring to give portaits of appearances. And they would not serve appeasement anyway. We are no experts on art either. Yes, we have parents and they have a job, there were teachers - and who could avoid comming from Art, if he or she wants to explore art, as long as the rites de passage are only leading towards Art? Once upon a time we had to look at those presentations, at those folders that contain those assembled works of young artist who knock at the door of Art and ask for admission to the Holy Halls of Academic Art. That time we thought it to be necessary to have watchers of the treshold beyond which art seemed to be too precious to be tackled by everbody. No trespassing! the usual utterance was.
Besides the fact that Academy of Art usually is a Vanity Fair - where vaporous men cultivate vaporous criteria - it is an institute of privation too. Sometimes artists worked on this place, usually before they became Artists (that means: after their death). To honor two of them, the writer Franz Kafka and the painter Andrea Di Gennaro, we don't want to dive into details now. Later on we'll take an opportunity to use a plumb line to explore the shoals of Academic Art. Who knows Kafkas "Report for a Academy" understands what we allude to, if we say that the Academic Spirit not seldom condenses as an aperitive for art that produces apathic Artist and leads them to an apex of appreciation which can be found in that board of three examiners who clasp their hands on ears, eyes and mouth. Alas, the cultivated ape - who reports for an academy - says in Kafkas Text, alas, one learns, if he has to; one learns, if he searches for an exit. What that means to Kafka everybody can measure, who read "Before Law" or "The Famine-Artist". A short time ago a book was released that contains the Ape-Report and Andrea Di Gennaros paintings which are more than illustrations. They are an example of nonacademic art about Academies in general, because they treat Art academically in the most precise technique imaginable, a technique that was not learned at Academies but by having a close look at Art - while making art. Di Gennaros journey is not the same that we plan. But - concerning academic obstacles - we know what play he staged.
We left this kafkaesk trial of landlubbers that were fascinated by the ideal of an Artist, when we stoped discussing criteria with colleagues, because we discovered them as fraud on art. We started a first expedition to art - and that's where we want to return now. So we are going to assemble our crew. The next experienced sailor to shanghai will be Joseph Beuys.