É ARTE ?

Anyone who looks carefully at the art of today wil be confronted with a perplexing profusion of styles, forms, practices and agendas. From the outset, it appears the the more one sees, the less certain one can be about what allows works to be designated "art" at all, at least from a tradicional point of view. For one thing, there are no longer seem to be any particular materials that enjoy the privilege of being immediately recognizable as the stuff of art: recent art has used not only oil paint, metal and stone, but also air, light, sound, words, people, food and much else besides in its making. There are few, if any, techniques and methods of working nowadays that can guarantee the finished object´s acceptance as art. Conversely, it frequentely appears that one can do little to prevent the outcome of even the most mundane activities from being misconstrued as art. Although painting may remain important for many, alogside tradicional artists there are some who use photography and video, and others who engage in such varied activities as going for walks, shaking hands and cultivating plants.
michael archer - art since 1960