Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203270293
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK SCALA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Attendance at recent contemporary programs at the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts has belied this claim.
Museum visitorship nearly doubled during "Nooks and Niches," Patrick Dougherty's exhi- bition of sapling sculptures (funded, incidentally, by the National Endowment for the Arts); standing-room-only crowds attended the opening of Carol Burch Brown's show of exquisitely detailed autobiographical paintings and the concurrent performance of Barbara Carlisle's "Secret Violins" (mounted with assistance from the Virginia Commission for the Arts); and the museum's lecture hall was filled to capacity for the January symposium "Content in Contemporary Abstraction" (supported by the NEA) in conjunction with the "Abstract Icons" exhibit.
As we fulfill our mission of fostering the understanding and appreciation of the broad spectrum of human expression we are well aware that contemporary art is perceived by many to be foreign to their life experiences or antithetical to their cherished beliefs.
To address this perception, we offer lectures, gallery brochures and tours showing how contemporary expressions, derived from art historical traditions, are important and appropriate responses to the complex culture in which we live.
It has become fashionable, especially among conservative politicians, columnists and Sunday painters, to condemn contemporary art as too intellectual, or worse, reflective of a point of view that diverges from the imagined norm.
"Good" art, it is maintained by people like presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, must be immediately understandable. It must soothe the anxieties of the maximum number of passive consumers. "Good" art should promote only those ideals that are deemed to benefit the soul - the beauty of nature, love for one's parents, the good old days, etc.
Bad art, on the other hand, reflects social complexities or multicultural viewpoints, engages in difficult intellectual inquiry, or suggests that society can sustain conflicting values or viewpoints.
The implication is that quality in art can be objectively measured against self-evident standards of beauty and truth, and these remain constant from one generation to the next. A person should be able to just "know" what is good; if a work of art is puzzling or paradoxical, it is bad; if one has to read something in order to appreciate the art, then it is to be rejected as unworthy of further attention.
Of all artistic endeavors, only visual art is expected to be thus appreciated without knowledge of its syntax. Nobody claims to understand the Scottish vernacular in Robert Burns' poetry, or the elaborate construction and language of a Wagnerian opera, without first being aware of the culture from which the works arose. Similarly, it is unlikely that the native of Borneo or Ceylon will get much pleasure from Andrew Wyeth's "Helga" paintings; appreciation requires intellectual as well as visual exposure.
Art is richer, deeper and more vital than is admitted by simplistic divisions of good and bad, traditional and contemporary. Art is a language that "speaks" in complex and subtle voices about the human condition.
Though steeped in tradition, it is a living language, constantly changing and evolving through the cross-fertilization of ideas and influences. Contemporary art, notwithstanding its occasional challenges to conventional taste, helps us adapt and respond to the new conditions and changing contexts of modern life.
Mark Scala is director of education at the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts.
by CNB