Hardly a new question. And certainly a meme in its own right: so much so that artworthiness has not only been comically contemplated in the British hit series, Absolutely Fabulous, but even locally long before the days of Edwina and Patsy.
Several high profile works, contemporary and classic, continue to bring up the question of their status as real artworks. The recent drama surrounding the painting by Cape Town’s Mr Brett Murray culminated in a court hearing. I was disappointed to note that the discussions around the big question, How far may art push the boundaries? were pretty thin. But once this question is thrashed out properly, it will mean that we shall also need a super-duper definition of what constitutes art. Which brings us right back to that old bugbear meme.
So, if the problem of what is and what isn’t a work of art can’t be solved once and for all by a magnificent set of clear thinkers such as yourselves, I’m afraid it never will. So lets hear it.
Rigil