The problem with art has become very notorious in some art association. One of them recently hit on an idea to help people with understanding an artist and theirs works. They created Translation Bureau of art. Translation Bureau of art is a web agency dedicated to the art. Mainly they translate the paintings to order. You may refer to them, if you have a problem with understanding the work of art.The office works with translators, people who are working in culture centers and art lovers who are not related with it in sense of employment. Freelancers usually suggest interpretations which are often different from those proposed by the authors and curators. In this way they try to show each work of art as an unfinished form, which is open to different interpretations and encourage us to contribute and create our own meanings.
Because of the fact that currently the huge problem is connected with contemporary art, Translation Bureau of art decided to handle with it and translates mainly XXI c. art.
The idea sounds good. All of Assumptions look really great but is it okay that people don’t think individually and they need a help. I know that the art isn’t simple and it needs an effort to get to know it’s sense deeply. I think that it is better and more valuable to not understand the painting but just feel it internally. Maybe it is the sense of art to understand it through the heart.
The problem is that so many people don’t have the elementary knowledge about the art. They want to know what the author had in mind while he was creating but at the same time they don’t even try to get to know him, his life and inspirations, read and learn something about him. I’m convinced that without proper knowledge about the artist, epoch of his life, creation and maybe what is the most important culture circle, we are not able to understand anything. It relates not only to the art but also the literature, music and film.
I have a great example of book which try to familiarize readers with some specialist topic. “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” or “999 works of art which you have to know” and so on. For me it is a nonsense.
Do you think that currently that kind of office is necessary?
What do you think about Translation Bureau of art?
Great post. I'm a big fan of such stories about art. Thanks for this one. I can imagine that you can perceive some work of art as interesting without knowing its background, but learning about background can deepen your vision. On one hand graffiti is something that can be just shown to people because it may be aesthetic. On the other hand, history starting in 60s is fascinating. There were people that just wanted to show their names. With more and more tries, they started to make those letters more sophisticated. There were people that wanted to showoff in front of others by painting a bigger and better letters on trains.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing for me, but of course you can disagree. I agree to disagree :)
I recommend works by polish writers Sepe (http://sepe.digart.pl/digarty/) and Chazme (http://chazme718.blogspot.com/)as an example of how this may look like.
Well I am afraid that you don't understand me correctly. I said that it is impossible to understand the art without elementary knowledge. That kind of book “ 999….”is just like a draft. That book assumes that everybody have to see some works of art otherwise they are not well-educated or something like that. But in fact even if you saw all of the most valuable and known paintings in the World but you don’t know nothing about them you are just ignoramus. It doesn’t have sense.
ReplyDeleteMaybe those books are for people who don't like art but their position requires knowing at least its names :) For people who are really interested in art it indeed doesn't make any sense:) They just aren't the target for the publishers.
ReplyDeleteYes I absolutely agree with you Jan.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you can never guess what something means, even with the best background known. The secret makes art more fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree with the ignoramus part. If someone is only interested in painting and feel it in his own way, why he or she should learn about the background? It may change the perspective, the meaning of an art. Why find out the answer to the famous question “what an artist mean by that”. Maybe it's better to to find out what I thing about it, what it means for me?
I think a translation bureau of art could be helpful for starters. And I agree with Jan: maybe those books are good for people whose position require it. Art experts of course don't need it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very nice idea when someone needs to know basics of art. Later people just concentrate on things that they like, so they don't need any guides.
ReplyDeleteI don't heard about this kind of offices. But I think it's good idea if people really needs them. As author wrote, we sometimes can't understand art because we don't know how people live in those times.
ReplyDeleteI think such offices are not needed. Nowadays marketing is not about fulfilling people's needs but about creating them. Translation offices can easily be considered service that was created although it is not really needed. In my opinion, people SHOULD interpret art by themselves. Art is not science, it should not be thought of according to some patterns or rules. It is something personal based on feelings and thoughts. Therefore, I think it is not right to impose any interpretation of works of art.
ReplyDeleteI believe that. this is a strange idea. Man can not predict what the author of the works had in mind and what he felt while creating. the authors often do not create art with the idea but want something visually bay looked nicely.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there may be an office for those interested, however, I do not quite know if the knowledge of the art told there to the people will be true.