| ART FOR ALLWe want Our Art to speak across the barriers of knowledge directly to People about their Life and not about their knowlegde of art. The 20th century has been cursed with an art that cannot be understood. The decadent artists stand for themselves and their chosen few, laughing and dismissing the normal outsider. We say that puzzling, obscure and form-obsessed art is decadent and a cruel denial of the Life of People.
PROGRESS THROUGH FRIENDSHIP Our Art is the friendship between the viewer and our pictures. Each picture speaks of a „Particular View“ which the viewer may consider in the light of his own life. The true function of Art is to bring about new understanding, progress and advancement. Every single person on Earth agrees that there is room for improvement. LANGUAGE FOR MEANING We invented and we are constantly developing our own visual language. We want the most accessible modern form with which to create the most modern speaking visual pictures of our time. The art-material must be subservient to the meaning and purpose of the picture. Our reason for making pictures is to change people and not to congratulate them on being how they are. THE LIFE FORCES True Art comes from three main life-forces. They are: – THE HEAD In our life these forces are shaking and moving themselves into everchanging different arrangements. Each one of our pictures is a frozen representation of one of these „arrangements“. THE WHOLE When a human-being gets up in the morning and decides what to do and where to go he is finding his reason or excuse to continue living. We as artists have only that to do. We want to learn to respect and honour „the whole“. The content of mankind is our subject and our inspiration. We stand each day for good traditions and necessary changes. We want to find and accept all the good and bad in ourselves. Civilisation has always depended for advancement on the „giving person“. We want to spill our blood, brains and seed in our life-search for new meanings and purpose to give to life. Gilbert & George |
This manifesto is called ‘What Our Art Means’ by Gilbert and George. It is a manifesto written by them about their own work; however I feel that once I had read it, it relates to a lot of current art. The manifesto first describes how they want their art to speak across barriers of knowledge and about people’s lives. They feel that the 20th Century has been cursed by art that can’t be understood, therefore they want their art to reach out to all people, rather than just people who understand art, as it were. They say that puzzling art is a decadent and cruel denial of the life and people, therefore, they are describing that art should be creative yet mundane so it can be understood by everyone.
‘The true function of Art is to bring about new understanding, progress and advancement.’ – This means that art should be understood by everyone, it should be current and it should be modern. Art is not just for critics or people who have a deep philosophical understanding of renaissance art. Art should relate to everyone, and not just to an exclusive club of critics. Everyone should understand the development of art over the decades.
The manifesto also describes how they are constantly developing their own visual language through their work. This means that no words or description are needed, that people should view a piece of work, and the only thing that is important is how the piece translates in their mind. They describe how they want to change people, not congratulate them on being how they are. I agree with this statement, as the majority of art is created towards what people want, not what is already there. They also describe that the art material must be subservient to the meaning and purpose of the picture. This means that the topic that art is based on must be reflected in honesty and with appropriate references in the work, not manipulated into something it is not. ‘What Our Art Means’ also describes true art coming from three main life-forces: The head, the soul and the sex. They describe that the forces are ever-changing into different arrangements and that this is reflected in their art, which means that they describe combinations of different aspects of life through their work and practice. They also describe that as artists we want to find excuses to continue living, to find and accept all the good and bad in ourselves, to spill our blood, brains and seed in our life search for new meanings and purpose to give life. This means that we want to find things to excite our every day and discover things new through creating, to accept everything within ourselves in an attempt to appreciate art, and to literally do anything and give our all to discover creativity and through this discover new life.
I feel that all this is very significant in society as it describes art as being for everyone. I think this is important as art is a major part of education, without art, learning and discovery would prove boring.
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