SHAPE 2017 TateExchange Book FINAL Draft - Flipbook - Page 14
Narrative painting is no longer fashionable in art and I think that while
narrative questions can be useful in AD, they are not the only element of
interest to AD users who are as subject to their own particular interests,
fascinations and obsessions as any group of sighted visitors. It is not sufficient
just to know what is going on. Prioritising the story means that a description
is liable to leave out how that story is expressed. Colours, composition,
humour and impact all need either to be conveyed or reflected in the AD.
Art moved on again. The American scholar Arnold Berleant 4 tells us that
“Developments in the arts associated with modernism began in the latter
part of the nineteenth century … followed by a succession of stylistic
innovations that came to a head in the second half of the twentieth century.
In the 1960s and ‘70s, a proliferation of artistic practices emerged that
trespassed conventional boundaries. Innovative practices gave rise to new
perceptual features in the arts, breaking out of the frame of the canvas and
extruding from its flat surface, and other such modifications of appreciative
experience that discarded the traditional separation of audience and art
object. Not only did the arts incorporate new materials and practices; they
reached out to incorporate surprising subject-matters. All the arts began
to intrude on the formerly safe space of the spectator by demanding active
involvement in the appreciative process. Audience participation became
overt and necessary for the fulfilment of the arts… The traditional separation
between the sequestered, contemplative experience of art and the world of
ordinary experience was deliberately breached.”
If we’re thinking about AD as Art we need to prioritise the “how” over the
“what”. Describers need to leave fidelity & representationalism behind as
we jump forwards on our artistic journey to abstract expressionism. With
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