How To Disappear Completely

Art as Idea or Art as Execution?

One benefit of going to museums in pairs or other groups of assorted sizes all larger than The Individual (besides just being fun) is that multiple instances of humanity can share reactions, discuss a common experience, and come to conclusions that inspire that comfortable feeling that One Really Knows Something. My friend and I confirmed these universally ahistorical truths by engaging in a brisk discussion regarding the importance of Skill in making axiological aesthetic judgments. We both value skill, or the ability to do something better than the average joe, but have slightly different appreciations concerning the manifestations of skill.

To my friend, skill resides in the execution of the art work, in the manipulation of the concrete materials: the arrangement of color, the details of lifelikeness, the layout of space.

I value skill in idea: the ability to think of something that no one else has thought of before. The simpler the idea, the more amazing the fact that So-and-So was actually the first to do it.

Of course, the best paintings incorporate both elements, I think. But arguing over whether Michelangelo was a better artist than Pollack makes any afternoon just a little more exciting.