Customer Reviews

The Reenchantment of Art

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Reenchantment of Art is a passionate plea for artists to reacess the thought and practice of a century of modernism. Gablick`s earlier book, 'Conversations before the end of time' was a collection on interviews and discussions with critical thinkers on environmental issues. The Reenchantment of Art refines the issues raised in the interviews of the earlier book toward a contemporary art focus. It speaks against individualist thought in art making, pointing artists toward new possibilties in art practice.

Using examples of environmental artists, Gablick provides insights into new working methods of important contemporary artists. These artists are using their creative abilty to ammend the destruction of modern society by engaging in art practices that give 'something worthwhile' back to the earth and its people.

Environmental art is of critical importance in this next century. Gablick`s book shapes the foundation of perhaps the most important movement in contemporary art theory.

This book is definitely not a light read, but if you're looking for a good book about art that will make you think, then this a good one for you. I also felt like the author gives a lot of strong opinions in this book, so watch out for that, but I do agree with some of those opinions, and they do give one something to think about. This is a book for those who are serious about art and where the art world is going.

Those with eyes to see and hearts that can still feel, can readily see that the one thing we need most, if we are to save ourselves and our planet from collapse under our appalling and arrogant abuse of nature, is to re-establish ourselves in the web of interdependent relationships with each other, the earth, and all natural and spiritual beings. Suzi Gablik's vision in this book is in line with this healing vision, which after all, represents art as it was at the dawn of time: ancient art was healing art, magical art, connected art, folk and naive art.

With increasing "civilization" , Gablik points out, art has lost its magical, mythical and earth-derived power: its power to enchant. Any person with "common" sense, which is an earthy sense, can see that where the art world stands now is often so idiotic: as Gablik points out so well, art has capitulated to the forces of the marketplace, and idiots gleefully delight in the way their commodity-art provides a nice income for them, because the who's-who's of the capitalist corporate marketplace just love that art too has become a prostitute to their greed and lust for power and wealth. Those who want to do meaningful art need not to become prostitutes, and Gablik's book points the way to the older ways of art, which, just like the older, Pagan ways of religion, ironically emerge as part of the vision of the needed way forward.

Two areas where Gablik's vision for art could be expanded, areas she didn't explore as fully as might be explored: the benefits that can be gained from viewing the role art played in the most ancient societies, the Paleolithic Goddess statuary and cave paintings, the shamanic aspect of art, and thus the link of art with various "Pagan" religious/spiritual orientations. Here lies enormous meaning. In this direction too, we can contemplate that as art returns to its archaic roots in search of meaning, the distinction between "professional" artists and folk or naive artists, will very likely diminish, and this is something Gablik makes no mention of.

It is evidence of a lack of both social and psychological integration, that any society, rather than viewing EVERYONE as capable of creative work, and calling us to it, prefers to "project" its own creativity onto an "elite" group, which performs this necessary function, presumably for others, though this elite has done so since the early 20th century with varying degrees of contempt for and disengagement from those others. An astute observer could read behind this contempt, the natural result of psychological splitting. No one in their depth is really satisfied with a situation where "we" create for "you", because you all refuse to take the responsibility to awaken to your own creativity. If you shove off your creativity onto us, naturally we will eventually become contemptous of you. Thus we can understand the contempt and arrogance of modern art as a predictable result of an unhealthy psychological and social situation.

In ancient times, art was not the exclusive province of some highly trained elite corps. It was done by the plain "folk." The value of one simple, untrained individual now striving, against all cultural programming, to create something with pen or paint or clay out of a vital and real NEED, is an act of a far more profound significance and touching pathos than 99% of the idiot trash created by a self-indulgent and cynical, snobby and increasingly irrelevant "art elite." Many have written on the spiritual and psychological significance of the PROCESS of art, wholly apart from the PRODUCT that may be produced: MIchell Cassou, Pat Allen, and Joanna Field and many others. The emergence of a new vision of art which is inclusive of the efforts of plain common people to paint their world out of a vital psychological and/or social need, is of enormous value for the future.

The Reenchantment of Art was one of those books that shifted my life view for the better. Every page is rich and engaging. I love the strongly written tone and the solid intellectual thought that provides a platform on which to build a more vibrant and wonderful future - if we are to have a future! This book leaves the reader with a wealth of hope and purpose for our shared future.

This book really got me to question why we need art, and what roll art plays in society today. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to discover hope in a seemingly dark word. It helped me to realize that art influences, and that we should let art influence us.
"When did it happen, that working with kids became a saintly, do-gooder thing? It's a basic duty of society. The reason the kids are running wild is that no one is there for them." Rollins (108)

"Cultural myths do not die easily, especially when our personal commitment to them is so strong that it is difficult even to entertain explanations of possibilities based upon different premises... Our cultural myths support economic advancement and the hard edged individualist writ large, rather than service, caring attitudes and participation. Though certain individuals are exploring and implementing more communal values, others have not shifted their understanding in this way and may not wish to. For them, art remains a question of radical autonomy." (116)

"When someone seriously questions the accepted way things are done suggesting a new approach, the person may trigger anxiety in others. This anxiety may be turned against the innovator in the form of anger." Carol Becker (116)

"One of the peculiar developments in our Western world is that we are losing our sense of the divine side of life, of the power of imagination... without the magical sense of perception, we do not live in a magical world." (42)

"Negative images have a way of coming alive just as positive images have. If we project images of beauty, hope, healing, courage, survival, cooperation, interrelatedness, serenity, imagination and harmony, this will have a positive effect. Imagine what artists could do if they became committed to the long-term good of the planet. The possibilities are beyond imagination. If all artist would ever pull together for the survival of humankind, it would be a power such as the world has never known" (155)

"Community, as it is being enacted here, is the ability to touch others in ways that matter to them-to give them a voice." (105)

"Our psychic "entrancement" with industrialism is what is pre-still continue to believe it is the necessary condition for our survival, even when its desolating effects have become so obvious, and we perceive the basic life-support systems closing down under its assaults." (93)

"The experience begins with a feeling, a sense of something that wants to materialize itself... What the world lacks today is not so much knowledge of these things of the spirit as experience of them. Experiencing the spirit is all. To believe is okay, but a personal experience is better, a direct feeling with something" Shaffer (44)

"Obviously, how we see the future has everything to do with how we live in the present. For the first time in recorded history, the certainty that there will be a future has been lost; this is the pivotal psychological reality of our time. According to the French social philosopher Jean Baudrillard, there is no future. Everything has become "nuclear, faraway, vaporized"; and the ending of the possibilities for art merely reflects the more general ending of reality itself. Since everything has already been wiped off the map, Baudrillard finds it useless to hope, or to dream. In an amazing essay called "The Anorexic Ruins," Baudrillard claims that the great artistic visions were those of the years from 1920 to 1930. Since everything has been done already, today we are only inferior imitators. Intrinsic values have been replaced by simulated, synthetic values. "The maximum in intensity lies behind us," he states. "The minimum in passion and intellectual inspiration lie before us." Quite simply, according to Baudrillard, there is no life any longer in our societies, although the vital functions continue. One comes to an arrangement with the situation; reciprocal indifference is negotiated." (19)

This book is particularly resonant now after the recent Arizona shootings. Such quotes as this could very well reflect the state of our society:

"The visionary function, which fulfills the soul's need for placing itself in the scheme of things, has been suppressed, with the result that as a culture, we have lost the gift of vision. We have lost access to the magical world of archetypal myth and symbol, the world of the "Dreamtime.""

"The loss of myth, the assumption that the only valid ways of knowing are logical and linear, has resulted in a profound loss of moral orientation and meaning for life."

This book is full of similar great quotes and insights. Lots of research was put in to this and it shows. Very conclusive.. I found this after reading Alex Grey's The Mission of Art, which covers very similar ground, and which makes a great companion to this, each is great in it's own right. This book also lead me to a great documentary titled Prisoners. Google "borofsky glassman prisoners" to see it.

Most importantly, the book reiterates and concludes: "Art must take an increasingly responsible role in pointing to a new direction for our culture." I couldn't agree more.

The previous review tells you very succinctly what to expect from the contents of the book - this is to say what excellent, speedy accurate service Bradbooks, where my second copy came from, delivered. It said 'minor notes', and they were only on 2 pages; and "minor cover wear" - which turned out to be the sort of erosion on the lower front corner that just comes from putting books on shelves ! And it took 4 days,from ordering to delivery, so it was also very resonably priced for the quality, and accurate adherrence to amazon.com's guidelines.