Art- The Vibrance of Culture

Looking across the expanse of history, we see that art plays two crucial roles in the stories of civilizations. Art illuminates the truth of the reality that a culture faces, allowing citizens to see their situation clearly. It also serves to exemplify the highest nature of a culture, expressing the most compelling ideals of its people, giving meaning to their lives.

The quality of the art produced by a culture determines in large measure how that culture is evaluated in the eyes of history. It is through the cave paintings produced in Europe some 30,000 years ago that we know their creators were not simply unconscious savages living brutal lives of mere animal survival. We can see that they were sensitive and aware human beings.

There is a deep connection between the vibrancy of a civilization and the quality of the art it produces; the kind of connection we associate with Classical Greece or Renaissance Florence. These are among the cultures that we lift to the top tier of world civilizations- because they produced great art.

Of course the Athenian sculptor and the cave painter didn’t think about their place in history when they did their work. They simply were expressing a deeply felt personal vision, while trying, probably desperately, to keep their families fed. They could have no concept of the magnitude of the gifts they left to the rest of history. They could never know the incalculable value of their vision of what it was to be a human in their time.

We don’t know how these artists were supported but we can be pretty sure it wasn’t the result of commercial success. That’s because about the only thing that can be determined by a broad survey of commercially viable art through the ages is the colors of art buyer’s couches. Art that supports itself tends to reflect a safe worldview that is already well-established. This is not where great art comes from. It almost always arises from the hard labor of one person or a small group struggling all alone, often in desperate conditions, to birth some deep inner revelation that will transform the hearts of the people.

Great art is often invisible to its own time. Michelangelo’s Pieta, one of the crown jewels of Western art, had to be smuggled by its creator in the dead of night into St. Peter’s Basilica. Van Gogh sold only one painting in his whole life. Yet these artworks are among the most valuable objects on earth today, precisely because the artists’ experience of what it is to be human, gives meaning our own lives.

Speaking as a commercially successful artist I confess I’m a little nervous that future historians will find that my work carries a certain resemblance to Montana’s couches, not because that’s what I aspire to, but because the market is where the encouragement seems to come from.

Great art is not always shocking but it is always a surprise. And surprises tend not to sell well, because they have not had time to sink in. How many broken souls have been healed by Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings? How many patriots have come alive upon seeing Picasso's Guernica?

Art has the power to transform our often bewildering and pedestrian lives by giving shape to our longing and direction to our aspirations. I can’t make sense of what’s going on in this weird world, but somewhere, right now, in Pony or Roundup or Circle, some artist struggles over a piano or an easel or glides across a dance floor on the verge of birthing an vision that will transform my life. I don’t know where it will come from- I may not even recognize it when I see it for the first time, but I know it will appear. It always has and always will.

Our culture in our time will be judged by future generations on the basis of what we leave behind, whether that is a conscious choice of not. Think about that for a minute and you can see why community support for the arts is so crucial.

There is no greater role the community can fulfill than supporting this kind of work- in our own best interest. This is our responsibility, both to our selves and our progeny. All of us in this room hold the power to support creative artists who are courageous enough to see beyond the demands of the market. As a member of this council I feel very honored to be able to participate in that process, allowing me to say- I was a part of what made that happen!

Tim Holmes for Montana Arts Council 6/06