Personal and Authentic

Featured image: Gentle Spirit

Art critic and historian, Linda Nochlin, in the 90’s wrote a paper titled, “Why Are There No Great Women Artists?” This was a groundbreaking paper. It shifted the discussions and theories surrounding art to the concept of gender in art and the difference in art. Shifting theories and discussion about art has been going on for centuries. I believe that it is time though to bring the pendulum back to the aesthetics of art. It is time that we go back to art being unable to be defined because it is so unique and authentic.

How is the aesthetic of art understood today? I would say that it is understood through perceptions, sensitivities and personal conceptions of what art should be. Personal conceptions should not go to the extent that art can be everything and anything because then art would be nothing. But, instead, personal conceptions that make art unique, personal and authentic. This type of personal conception does not make art everything and anything. Personal and authentic makes “art” rare, because today too many are just copycats that have no idea how to present themselves in a work of art. It is hard – but that is what makes it unique. That is what makes it art.