Skip to main content

It's not about being pretty

"The point of art is not beauty but awareness."

I recently heard Milton Glaser say that on CBC radio and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. It's one of those statements that you understand instantly, as though you've always known it, but find exhilarating in its freshness and appositivity (?).

I think I've always had an instinctive, though not explicit, understanding of this awareness principle as applied to story -- both books and movies -- but in visual art I've always been looking for beauty. This accounts for the ambivalence I felt toward art therapy. I know beauty is powerful, but is a bit of pretty really enough to heal?

Awareness, however; I see the point in that. And suddenly, with that simple statement, not only do I understand why art is for everyone, why public art leads to public good, but I also see the point of more abstract art. Piet Mondriaan's cubism, I maybe don't quite appreciate yet, but this statement has brought me much closer.

And it explains why we should care about art. Again, a quest for beauty doesn't quite justify the resources poured into art; but a tool for awareness, a tool for the self-discovery of new ideas and issues -- that has value.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winnipeg Transit woes

  “We’ve increased support for municipalities year after year because we know strong communities depend on reliable, stable and predictable funding increases,” Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard said in an emailed statement to the Free Press Tuesday. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/23/winnipeg-transit-needs-funding-boost-additional-staff-to-follow-new-provincial-accessibility-regulations-city-report This in answer to City of Winnipeg chair of Public Works Janice Lukes plea for the province to cough up money for the needed upgrades. Listen carefully because these are words I won't often say: I gotta agree with Lukes on this one. If the province is handing down new standards, given their higher capacity for raising revenues, they ought to help the city fund meeting said standards. What Simard fails to acknowledge is that those "year after year" funding increases started at the bottom basement after Conservative cuts and likely h...
Post a Comment
Read more

more journalistic malpractice from Canada's national broadcaster

The government has just rammed through legislation to turn Canada into a police surveillance state where all the democratic and processed based guard-rails have been removed.  They used some legislative loophole to force a vote on amendments without debate at a committee meeting at midnight. But this is what the front page of our national broadcaster's news site looks like. Do you see any mention of Bill C-22? Do you see any word of a midnight SECU session with a forced vote? Do you see any mention of MPs in tears at how democracy is being shredded before their very eyes? Do you see anything removing about all legal protections against having your data intercepted, read and kept on file (in a word of hackers and data breaches)? Do you see anything about how experts in Australia (who have already gone partway down the path Canada has just widened, flatted, and turned into a racetrack) are warning Canadians not to do this? No. The CBC is spineless. Just a mouthpiece for whoever wield...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fighting motornormativity one letter at a time

If-you-see-something-say-something strikes again.  Sick and tired of motornormativity, I'm setting event notifications straight. Don't just tell people where they can park when they attend your event. Have some hope for humanity and believe we can step out of our death machines and get around in a more human way. Especially for an event that is pitched as a picnic. This is what they sent: So this is what I wrote:  I know you already have a lot of details in this message. I know that realistically, most of your attendees will come in private vehicles. But can you please add notes for bus and bike travellers the next time you send a message like this? What constructs our view of “normal” is not only what we personally see and interact with but also how our world is talked about. When “where do I park?!” always gets top billing in event information whereas “which bus can I take?” and “is there a safe place to leave my bike?” are never even addressed, it reinforces the impre...
Post a Comment
Read more