Jacoby, On Art

I agree that there are lots of opinions that "represent a large group of people," but we shouldn't let the white noise made by a million mouth breathers dilute what's important. Of course Boston has already displayed, in both the lite brite and the MIT artist at Logan case, that bright lights make it very, very nervous.

I usually find very little to agree with in what Mr. Jacoby writes , but his disdain for the Creed installation and a deeper scorn for much of art makes him a dubious spokeseperson.

1. The space housing the Creed exhibition isn't an "empty room"- it is a gallery and has been for 34 odd years. This fact Mr. Jacoby could not argue, had he entered the space in recent years, beyond the seeing and experiencing things he would surely deride, compared to other gallery spaces would not be so easily overlooked.

2. Artists think and consider the world differently from say, electrical engineers. At their best they provide the means to inspire discussion that transcends the elements of their work. To say such things lack depth and mock them is a common defense for an inability or inpatience to consider them, and belies that fact that the mocking might be part of the process of understanding.

3. Look outside the "empty room" , and find a neighborhood of riches, in large part preserved and enlivened by artists whose work transcends the beauty standard prescribed here.That the South End's creative spirit (the kind that alarms or raises scorn in his large group of people) made it desireable for those of means to invest and live here is as telling as it is disconcerting.

4. Mr. Jacoby takes delight in perpetuating the dangerous myth of the spendthrift artist- using public monies for obscene or nonsense work slapped together without merit. In a city and time when art's highest calling is often to match the new sofa, such a blanket statement dismisses a majority of art as useless and disconnected from what average people want or believe, without offering fair balance to other work that, being less polarizing, would go ignored by many peopl.e

Beyond its aesthetic values, art has a duty to provoke, comfort, and stun us from one mindset into, even briefly, another with which to view the world.

Not all art is good art, or of quality and depth- but the challenges of bringing people to experience art and peformance being what they are, we have no need to abet people in dismissing what they have not experienced.

Give please. When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.
I am from Mauritania and also now am reading in English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Find antique flea markets in michigan on your next pure michigan travel adventure."

THX :-(, Walt.