"If Artists would explain more, people would like art more. You realize that?"
This statement was made by Abe Cohen, the Jeweller to the character Kavabeekian in Kurt Vonnergut's totally ace novel Breakfast of Champions (*). Now there are almost certainly arguments to be made for either side of this statement, but I think I find myself in the affirmative camp. In many cases I tend to enjoy or appreciate art works more when I have some form of backstory/concept given to me. Some times a clue can be given in the title of the piece or perhaps in the listed materials used, such a small amount of information can be enough to gain a better understanding of a piece. But other times these pieces of information (title & materials) can bare no informative fruits what so ever, they bore some obscure reference, or even more unhelpful is the often used 'Untitled'. I also understand that Artists like to have an audience that can 'think', but in this nano second society that we live in, an artist may only have abour 10 seconds in which to gain an observers attention. Now I can hear the crowds getting restless, and yelling 'get to the point you fool', so in the tradition of the Readers Digest let me explain, there is no time, let me sum up (yes yes kids that was a Princess Bride reference). I think education is the key, the more people know, the greater their understanding and thus the greater their appreciation. Give the kids a chance!
