Pinky Says:

I am delighted that art historian and collector Pinky Kase has offered to do guest articles from time to time. Pinky has a Master’s Degree in art history from the University of Missouri Kansas City. She is the author of UMKC Monographs and Helicon Nine Articles on Art History. She has served on the boards of the Nelson-Atkins Museum and UMKC Gallery of art and is a past President of the Midwest Center for the Literary Arts, Inc.

Pinky says:

Art can have many meanings and avenues of expression.  I have recently come face to face with a number of pejorative opinions about modern art.  To my understanding of the term art these are not kind, understanding or relevant.  But let me cite a few of them.  Art is deceitful cleverness.  It is a human effort to imitate, supplement, alter or counteract the work of nature.  It is a non-scientific branch of learning–one of the liberal arts.

And in their place I would like to stand behind several definitions
that I have espoused and that appeal to me, to wit:
Art is the window through which I gaze upon reality.
Art is communication by means of line, form and color.
Art is great when it turns a corner in the process and thinking of art.

Art in general is seldom about life or not quite about life.
Art is discovery and design and reasoning with chaos.
Or, as Pascal so aptly put it –The heart (or art) has reasons that
reason knows nothing of.

Now for what is new and current.

Museums are hard put to continue their objectives in the throes of
the continuing recession.  Many are forced to dip into their
endowments witness the almost total demise of that of the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Riding to the rescue was Eli Broad
with a bequest of $30,000,000 to the museum.  Many in the art world
are dismayed that one benefactor will thus be in the catbird seat to
dominate policy and determine selection of a leader and curators for
the collection.  Time will tell only after the winnowing down process
is completed.  Throughout history the benefactors have played an
important and often controlling role in the creation of art. More on this later.

If you would like to be a guest blogger here, send me your ideas.

Space Dust by James Rosenquist