To begin this article, I started by trying to state what exactly Drucker meant by conceptual art. She seems to concentrate on the idea as an art form, regardless of how it was produced or as she uses multiple times "instantiated". I took it to mean a piece where the concept or idea of the art takes precedence over any material value or interpretation it might have. After I could better understand the idea of conceptual art I also found it easier to comprehend some of the bigger ideas she has within her article.
Something Drucker discusses that I found to be of particular interest to myself was that of the relationship between linguistics or the spoken word and the interpretation of an art piece. As she states "Difficulties arise when one asserts that the ideational premise of visual art is always only linguistic. This is a point of view that seriously misinterprets the physical, material, dimensional, and phenomenologically available sensations that have no equivalent in a linguistic idea."(256) I completely agree with Drucker on this point and I think it is an extremely important concept to acknowledge when studying the reactions people have to an art form. While Drucker may not have been specifically addressing personal observations, this quote reminds me of the initial reaction one can have when they hear a song or look at a painting that truly resonates with them. While a person could write a book analyzing one piece of artwork, I do believe also that there are certain initial, deeper reactions that are harder to put into words or to describe in plain english. I think that is also why she so correctly calls it a "sensation" because to me it can often be much more of a perception or response than a conscious observation. Similarly, she also states "visual perception certainly, although highly coded in cultural and historical terms, need not pass through linguistic representation to be processed." It makes me think that if a person could truly strip their observations of any developed biases, without trying to immediately describe it in words, they could have an extremely interesting insight into the conceptual ideas of an art piece.
I find your interpretation of her quote to be interesting because I kind of saw it differently. I saw it more as of Drucker saying that linguistics alone have trouble conveying an idea and that they are better with a visual representation. Kind of like the image you choose. I believe it would lose some of its essence if the words WALL DRAWING were merely drawn on a plain white background.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything you're saying here. I like the way you chose to step away from the reading and look at the way you, and people you know, react to songs and paintings in ordinary life. It's true that many times the feelings that you have when examining any art form create an idea or opinion within you that surpasses any words that could describe it. I've always found that this is one of the many ways that words fail us. This sort of reminded me of one of my all time favorite quotes "when words fail, music speaks." I think someone could very easily replace music with art and the quote would still be honest.
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