P3D Quarrels about "Art"

["Sergio Baldissara" <winter@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I subscribed this list because I wanted to learn more about 3d, so I
promised myself not to enter this discussion. I find tones are getting
"hard" and nasty, so I'll break my promise. May be in Italy we are fed by
discussions about "art" since in the cradle, but I don't care any more about
"what" is art, or "what" an artist should do.
May be someone forgot that only 2 centuries ago the only images available
were paintings or drawings, and 3 centuries ago the only 3d was sculpture.
Few people could understand the difference between an artist and a craftman.
Skilled craftmen were reacher and more famous (at their times) than many
great artists. Any example? Caravaggio wasn't considered an artist by many
contemporaries, but his followers became all reacher than him. Gauguin, Van
Gogh, Modigliani, were considered only after their death. When alive they
hardly sold something. Picasso or Miro had much more luck, but photography
was already a well-known medium, so critics and collecioners already
understood brushes may be used for someting different from the faithful copy
of something. I think most of today's production is junk. But something is
certaily not. What? ask your grand-grand-children (I whish you all live
enough to do that). At the moment I'm just glad to live in a world where
"artists" can make out their living doing experiments. History of mankind's
culture is made by experiments. Think of an italian pharmacist, who
unluckily tried politics, then made a literary experiment: he wrote 3 long
poetical books in florentine language. His name was Dante (Heard about him?
was he an artist? do you REALLY think nobody else tried anything like
before?)
BTW: before our grand-grand-children are born and grown up, PLEASE... stop
quarrelling about art!!!
Sergio