Art, Cartoons and thoughts

The importance of cartoons in dailies is diminishing as the time progresses. Considering the history of cartoons in dailies does not go a long way back, the change graph has almost been that of a sinusoidal wave. The peak being the era of non-political cartoons getting the maximum exposure and attention. Dailies gave more space for cartoons and people took them seriously. The funny side of political cartoons and its impact on society are not considered here in a granular form.

The Comics are now a bunch of xeroxed talking heads because there is no space to tell a decent story or to show any action. The commons should write to the dailies demanding more responsiveness for our interests than adjudging themselves what the customer/common man needs. There might be brows raised on the ‘funnies’ to be taken seriously. However lunatic, others consider the ones who seriously look into these matters, the fact remains that the sinusoidal wave is NOT at its peak!

When we consider the impacts, on the one hand, it is a good sign for artists that in this age of visual bombardment from all media, a simple drawing can provoke and shock viewers. It confirms that images still have the power. On the other hand, there are people, who actively devour on the type of art which is incomprehensible for the common man. They probably are culturally illiterate and can not tell a good art from a hole in the ground.

When artists of calibre have their say, through their artistic creations, it challenges the know-nothing complacency of those who prefer safe, pre-digested bucolic genre scenes. When these artists are avoided, we can certainly stand then on the cutting edge of avant-garde*.

Then the hardest part for these self accomplished avant-garde post-modernists is to decide whether to embrace the commercialism for the sole purpose of survival.

The critics would subscribe to what we can term as ‘commercial post-modernist agenda’. This would establish a trend for artists to follow on, to survive and probably make a life out of the fraudulent art creations which actually neither represents their interests nor what they stand for.

Should they allow their work to be hyped and exploited by a market that is simply hungry for the next-new-thing?

Should they participate in a system that turns high art into low art so that it suits the mass consumption?

Of course, when an avant-garde artist goes commercial, he makes a mockery of his status as an outsider and free thinker. He buys into the crass and shallow values art should transcend; He trades the integrity of his art for riches and fame.

When an honest incarnation of high end art is produced, which does not buy in to the crass of current commercial burgeon; the self-proclaimed apostles of art will get obviously irritated. They try to pinch it in the bud and wage the sword of a ban before them. The freedom of expression is squelched at this point. Any view contrary to their own will be tried to be silenced. We need to question whether this war is against the art which do not classify themselves into a particular order or against the people who can stage a classification of their own.

Let us take an example of complex conversion of low art into high art and vice versa.

When a painting is viewed by a non-subscriber of an avant-garde thought school, he sees the actual painting as a moving, spiritually enriching and sublime piece of ART – HIGH art.

When they view a cartoon, it presents to them a vapid, juvenile and commercial hack work of sorts – LOW art.

What if they are presented with a painting of a cartoon strip? Do they envision it as a sophisticated irony? Or is it philosophically challenging? – HIGH art?

And if we go to the depths of a cartoon of a painting of a comic strip, it goes to the levels of sophomoric and intellectually sterile piece, which would be translated as LOW art.

We can come to a partial derivative conclusion that the system is not the follower of ideas, but styles. Hence, those who look forward of buying into the cram should decide the crucial part of his career: which is the ‘ism’ to choose. ‘ism’s are again derivatives and hence it can be argued that a derivative of derivative doesn’t work as a constant unless it is derived from zero [A little spooky there? Read principia mathematica]. When we consider then styles to seek for, the questions pose before us in a hideous shape. Are the styles of sidewalk painters lesser in class than those who draw on a canvas on their own studio? Since the answer in the minds of readers can be read right now, I can hence say that the quality of art is not what we consider here as the baseline. A sidewalk painter can be dubbed as a suburban post-modernist. This can be weighed against the weighted words of a neo deconstructionist and the balance, I presume, would be almost equal. The side weighing ‘suburban’ art can be more appealing to a critic, considering the fan following lately for ‘ism’s with that label.

The times are tough for a suburban post modernist though. People are reluctant to pay for a sidewalk drawing [otherwise now termed as suburban post-modernist painting]. They stay where they are and the mere pleasure of enjoying it can not be retained by even a serious customer as the canvas is public. No corporation would underwrite such a painter who is not famous enough to effectively advertise their cultural enlightenment.

That goes without saying for art. Now, coming to the matter of cartoons or comic strips in dailies, I wonder what influences the caricatures being portrayed there. The women are portrayed as indecisive whiners, nagging shrews and bimbos. Do the men get better? The answer is a big NO. They are befuddled morons, heavy drinkers, gluttons and lazy goof-offs. All the kids are obnoxious brats as well. If there are any good ones, they are impersonated only to be ridiculed by the other messed up ones. All this makes one think that there is a behind-the-scenes insidious social programming going on. We need morally uplifting and politically correct figures in the comic strips to say the least. At the least, the moral ones should not be ridiculed on a comic strip.

People always mistakenly understand art as something that is created for them. But the fact is that art is a private language of the sophisticated to congratulate themselves for their superiority to the rest of the world. Sometimes a statement from an artist explains what he is conveying through his art than what the art itself does. This is understandable as mentioned above. It is a private language for the sophisticated. The statement might add that the art conceived is utterly incomprehensible for a regular audience who do not understand its deep significance.

*Avant-garde (pronounced /ɑvɑ̃ gɑʁd/) in French means front guard, advance guard, or vanguard.[1] People often use the term in French, English, and German to refer to people or works that are experimental or novel, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.

Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm, or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of the existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Postmodernism posits that the age of the constant pushing of boundaries is no longer with us. Postmodernism posits that avant-garde has less applicability (or no applicability at all) in the age of Postmodern art.



[A wayward comment instigated THIS. Full context will be set with the follow-up article.... - retarded]