Many years ago (and I mean many), at College studing Poetry in general and RS Thomas in particular, I was really interested in one of his poems. It was at the time when Nuclear Disarmament was high on the agenda and during the discussion I mentioned that I thought the poem was about this, although it was not mentioned. No-one agreed but I decided to write to the poet and ask him. He wrote back saying that that was the whole point of his poetry - that you could think whatever you liked to think so long as it really made you think.
I have never forgotten that. I was reminded of it yesterday (as I so often am) when I had occasion to go into town. It is a long time since I went into town - it has become almost a chore - the getting ready, the list of things I need to do while I am there, the organising of transport now that I no longer drive. But I had saved up a list of important jobs and a friend, who was going to her exercise class offered to take Priscilla and me.
So I emptied Priscilla's shopping bag of a handful of dead pansy heads, a pair of secateurs and a hand-fork. gave her a wash and brush up - and myself too and away we went. Luckily two places I wished to go - solicitors and savings bank were in the same building so that made for less trouble.
While sitting there I looked at a painting on the wall - I remembered it from pre-Covid (the last time I was there) and I had admired it then. It was part of a church wall (I thought) and its reflection on a wet pavement. Very colourful - lots of reds and yellows (artistic licence?) and it was 'shot' across with a series of fractured lines.
What did it mean I wondered - maybe the artist was suggesting that religion was gradually 'disintegrating', would eventually completely fracture and die out.(I know some wonderful paintings (The Haywain) are purely and simply landscapes which you can look at, admire and get pure pleasure from the scene, but others (Guernica) make you think deeply about the state of the world and the way it is going.)
When the man I had gone to see came back into his office I asked him what were his thoughts on the picture.
It was not a painting at all. It was a photograph (a brilliant one I must add). It was a photograph of the reflection on the pavement of a section of Bradford City Hall (a Grade 1 listed building) on what was obviously a very wet day. Blown up large, unframed and very colourful I found it stunning.
How wrong can you be? But does it matter? And I thought back to RS Thomas's letter saying how pleased he was that his poem had made me really think. Surely that is the purpose of all art forms - to make you think. Whether you like what you are looking at is not really the point - if it makes you stop and think it has served its purpose.
I thought of what Maggi Hambling said of her scallop shell on the beach near Aldeborough- loved by many, disliked by many. She loved Britten's 'Peter Grimes', she put the scallop shell near the sea, where Britten walked almost every day. She said of it, 'I want people to interact with it - whether somebody climbs up on it to sit down and watch the sea or whether a couple creep under it to make love - only then will it be complete.
And I thought, as I always do when pondering the idea of what any art form is for, of Picasso's Guernica - after he had finished the painting it toured the World and helped to bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention. Anti war, anti fascism, the embodiment of peace.
Does it matter as long as it makes you stop and think?
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22 comments:
There is a woman on R4 who has recently been discussing the dilemma of good art made by horrible people. It is not - as far as I can tell - much to do with cancel culture, but whether or not you should make allowances for one over the other. She mentioned how beautiful the works of Wagner were, and how his anti-Semitic rants (so admired and adopted by Hitler) got in the way of the appreciation of his music. Even Jewish musicians are in a quandary about it.
I loved Britten’s music as soon as I heard it, in Ireland aged 18.
Years later I visited Aldbrough and Snape in particular and the landscape was EXACTLY as I’d expected it to be, just from the music. I’ve always found that extraordinary - how music can conjure up a place. Yes it did make me think and still does.
This is a wonderful blog post Pat.
Once again I forgot to add my “name” - Yellow Shoes!
Some works of art "speak" to me, while others leave me completely cold. Why do different works appeal to different people, I wonder? It is probably because we are all made up of a complex tangle of experiences, characteristics, likes and dislikes. And then add our moods and whims that can make us like someone or something at first glance, while we never warm to others for no obvious reason.
Tom comments on something that has been much debated in this country, too.
Anyway, art can take many forms, and if it makes us think, that's good. But to me, it also serves its purpose when it is simply something to please, to add a little beauty to the world and to remind us that it's not all about survival all the time.
It is a no brainer and that is what the poet R S Thomas was telling you.
A lovely post pat
I agree on the “ making you think “ aspect of art but I personally think that how it “ makes you feel”
Is more important .
I saw a Jackson Pollock in the Guggenheim. Which pleased me.it made me FEEL good
I cannot articulate why
I cannot explain my thoughts on it
Just my feelings
I think what we need of and see in art, whether visual or written, changes according to our moods and circumstances. Invigorating, thoughtful, challenging images or words suit some days, but there is also a need for the quietly thoughtful, contemplative work as well.
And I will take your thoughts in a whole new direction. These thoughts of your can be applied to the very vocal advocates of book banning. They look at a book and label it 'trash'. Others may see something else. Art is in the eye of the beholder. No single person should be permitted to define what is and is not art.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we each perceive art differently. I find most art forms ignite a response. Any art form that triggers thought, pleasure or beauty indicates the artist has met his/her goal.
My mind also jumped to books, as Debby said above. Many forms of art are important. I enjoyed this post very much Pat. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Jackie in Georgia USA
Eloquent post today, Pat, and so very true. Might your banker be able to get you a smaller copy of that photo that hangs on his office wall? Do you have a place to hang such a picture?
30*C (86*F) here today and the 2nd day without rain. The sunshine is a bit hazy from the wild fire smoke from Canada, too.
Hugs!
My art is tattoos yours is poetry, I like so many artists and musicians, but I may be the only person who does not like poetry. Maybe it started with having to learn poems and recite them in front of the class., a nightmare for me.
I think you hit the nail on the head! Poetry is there to make you think. It was something that, in all my years of teaching, I tried to get across to my students! The majority of them disliked poetry with a passion and so I attempted to change that. I love poetry so this helped a great deal and if you can teach something with a passion, then you’re well on the way to achieving success. I would also sit and write poetry with the children. At GCSE, I would say to them that they couldn’t be wrong with their thinking and analysis, as long as they said, ‘ It could be that the poet means this…or alternatively, it could be that the poet means this…etc’ That’s how I encouraged them to think..and that’s how they understood that they couldn’t be wrong…because at the end of the day, unless you have that poet in the room with you, explaining why they penned their words, you can’t be wrong. And so we shouldn’t dismiss what someone else thinks about a poem or a piece of art…or a piece of music! If we all thought the same…well, it doesn’t really bear thinking about, does it?
You are thinking today! Yes art is to make us think and reflect on the world. Some of the modern music doesn't make us think at all.
Art is there to make us think for ourselves. Not to be told what to think about the art, but to actually stop and think for ourselves.
A deep post to make us think - are blog posts art?
Was it Martin Amis who wrote "I don't understand science, but I know what I like?
The Eye of the Beholder
Well said, Debby.
I love this post. You have a wonderful mind and express yourself very well. Art is personal and should make you think.
I liked and agree with Debby.
Kaye
Park City, UT
Red: Interesting comment. Thinkimg of what you have written I think of some of the works of Stockhausen and Schoenberg - they certainly make me think - they open up my mind much more than say the beauty of something familiar like Vivaldi which I love but am so familiar with that I mentally 'sing along' with it rather than think about it. Not sure exactly what I think during John Cage's 4 minutes 33seconds - but in a way it troubles me.
Looks like you were up early today.
I don't know what is good art, poetry or well written books are, or that it changes our way of thinking. Only know that we respond from some emotional thread in our souls.
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