de Duve

After reading about Marcel Duchamp’s famous “ready mades” I can’t disagree of de Duve’s assessment that art is whatever humans call art. Art can only be created if an artist’s intention is to create art. The first time art ever interested me was when a local Native American artist had visited our elementary school to give us a glimpse of his work and introduce us to the world of art outside of the color paintings we were creating in art class once a week. The artist, Ely Thomas, told a story of his past as well as a brief history of his people, the Onondaga Indian tribe, and showed us many samples of his work which interested all of us kids. The one piece that I found most interesting was one that Mr. Thomas had named “The Good Journey”. The painting depicts the Peacemaker gliding in his stone canoe towards a small tree on an island slightly off in the distance. The tree represents the Tree of Peace. While the painting at first glance is a great painting, it’s what’s hidden in the painting is what drew me to it during Mr. Thomas’s visits. Hidden in the sky is the silhouette Grand Council Chief of Mr. Thomas’s tribe looking towards the tree. The painting also has animals hidden in the water and sky all running towards the Tree of Peace. Mr. Thomas’s presentation was only about two hours long but my interest in his paintings and the hidden elements to his work lasted long after. These paintings differ from most others because of its strong cultural connection and it’s relevance to the Iroquois people. His paintings all tell stories or tales of the Iroquois and serve as a way to pass the stories on through the generations. Mr. Thomas’s fame amongst his tribe members and in the area show that his paintings are successful in telling the us of the proud past of the Onondaga Iroquois tribe.
The definition that caught my attention was one of the first ones offered in de Duve’s essay. The definition which states that art “seems to refer to an activity that is either integrative of compensatory, lying midway between their myths and sciences.” I believe his assessment that art is a word that’s meaning often escapes most people trying to define it and is used in many different ways, is a fair description of art. Trying to think of the human race from an outside ethnographers point of view would be very interesting but would confuse most when it comes to the world of art. The individuality of artist’s and the many time periods and progressions that art went through throughout human existence leaves art as the probably the most difficult way to explain and describe the human race. I feel as though art is a word that may get thrown around too lightly. If it were up to me to decide what gets the title of art and what doesn’t I would leave out the style of art referred to as “ready mades”. Art is something that should leave a sense of accomplishment and pride in its artist and the hard work should be seen in the art. An artist who simply takes an everyday object and inscribes his name on it is not an artist but is simply someone who can spell his own name. I also contend that this form of art may be a form of plagiarism. The company who made the urinal used in Marcel Duchamp’s isn’t getting any credit for the supposed work of art the created when they mass-produced their urinal. Unfortunately my lack of artistic ability and art education doesn’t qualify me to pick and choose what art is.