Art and the value of biography
John Ritterbush, a colleague of mine from Northwestern, has a fantastic new blog, Anatomy of a Psychictoad, with an interesting post on Beauty and the Biography. In it he asks, “can you admire art without the artist’s biography?” His post is a great point to start, and this began as a comment there, so perhaps read what he wrote and continue on…
I’ve often thought about this as well. Clearly, there are levels of appreciation of art. Last night I saw City of God. It’s a great film even if you don’t know how it was filmed, but it becomes much more interesting when you learn that it was filmed in the slum with real slum kids for actors. In a more direct example, Mulholland Dr. is a great film to the average viewer, but understanding the background of its production is absolutely vital to understanding why the film is the way it is. And with Bill Viola, his work it great, but it takes on a whole new level of meaning to someone who, like Viola (and, incidentally, Lynch), has devoted years to meditation.
That said, typically when someone judges what is or is not art (whatever that is supposed to mean), it’s really just a discussion about whose opinion they want to adopt. Appreciation of art is not about some objective worth or value. Value of a work of art seems more rooted in the depth of justification a creator or admirer can come up with and how well they can defend that position, much like Marcus’ explanation to Titus Andronicus for why he killed the fly.
However, this is also an artificial view of art that doesn’t really get to the root. IMO, understanding of art is all about, well, understanding. If all action is art, and I think beyond question that it is, appreciation of art is about being able to relate to the artist. Thus, we return to the problem John posed from the beginning: how much do you have to know about the background of the artist and/or work? I’ve no idea. However, the first step in appreciation of art is appreciation of oneself. Understanding how an artist makes his decisions first requires understanding on a personal, unarticulated level about how decisions are made within. In order to recognize how one relates to a work, one must understand those parts of himself that relate. Thus, in my view, appreciation of art has more to do with appreciation and understanding of oneself.