Recent content by Masse

Is that it, though, just Vermeer? I was quite caught up in his early work, but in retrospect it now just looks like a product of the times. Of all the work he did I now prefer the work around The Marriage series.

What is it you don’t like?

I think I might agree with Hockney. How important is it that people in the UK can wander into the museum to see it, weighed against the consequences of some accident. And how much is this costing? Who gets to say how the money is spent. I tend to see the museum as just another part of the arts...

By the way, if you use inverted comments then you’re suggesting a direct quote. In this case I didn’t use the term “serious art” or deem anything serious art.

I think it exists in a realm outside of art, like dance. Dance is an action in time. It leaves no trace. That doesn’t mean it’s any the less or less important

I think it exists in a realm outside of art, like dance. That doesn’t mean it’s any the less or less important.

No, music is not art. You’re using art as a catch-all.

I understand the point you’re making, but we can only go by the evidence we have. To build a theory based on what we can’t find, or what doesn’t exist, seems a bit precarious to me, and contrary to how research works. But that’s your position. What evidence we do have suggests that work produced...

No, and I wasn’t suggesting that.

Would you consider this as work done for pleasure, or having some other purpose? “Cave art is generally considered to have a symbolic or religious function, sometimes both. The exact meanings of the images remain unknown, but some experts think they may have been created within the framework of...

I can see that nothing’s going to change your mind about Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens doing cave drawings for pleasure. Which doesn’t leave much room for conversation. Though the conversation so far has been helpful for me.

My feeling is that you shouldn’t indulge them in their adolescent ways. Make them reach for the next level which pulls them into adulthood. It’s not meant to be easy. Set expectations. Girls, boys, they all have their ways of acting as dead weight.

From my experience there are students who love art. They love having a pencil in their hand, making marks. They love the time being involved in it. If you take a group of students outside to draw most will sit around yakking and drawing childish flowers or trees. Those who love it go off on...

I had thought that the Mona Lisa might be one of the first art for arts sake paintings, but it turns out it was a commission. So I then wondered when art galleries exhibiting work first appeared, exhibiting works that had no other purpose than to serve the artists desire to make a painting...

An interesting aside about the idea of art for arts sake is that it allowed anyone to think of themselves as artists (not always a good thing) and not just those chosen and supported by institutions. It also opened up the subject matter.