27 August 2006

[art] Why Cheap Art?

With little further ado, I lead off with Bread & Puppet's Why Cheap Art Manifesto:


I love this broadsheet. I love the play of the type, and I love the rough look of the type. I love the appeal to freedom ironically dated 1984. I love the way majuscules fight with minuscules; I love the way the type in the lower half is varied from exuberant line to exuberant line. I love the way the composer didn't give a flying damn about leading, letterspacing, kerning, or in some cases, even the baseline.

I first saw this a year or so ago when I was taking an art class at PCC Sylvania; it was photocopied and stuck to the wall over the sinks in one of the painting studio classrooms. This particular graphic was nicked from the Art Manifested site (I don't think they'll mind) whose aim is wholly laudable, though I find thier self-impression at the rather droll and obvious joke that inspired the name somewhat irritating. They advance a subject sadly missing from the current cultural conversation. Notice how there's a continuing call for the Portland Art Museum to stage events that the working folk can afford? Notice the (at least as far as I can percieve it) dearth of affordable opportunities to see orchestra?

The only time I've been to the PAM was with school field trips. My The Wife™ has never gone, and wants to. This is sad.

The only affordable events that the orchestra holds are on the weekends. I work weekends, and must arrange well in advance to get time off for things. And I certainly don't have an unlimited vacation bank, so I can't make it a habit.

There's a perception that fine art is for the élite, and there's a good reason why most "reg'lar folks" don't think real art has anything to do with them.

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