In Art there can be a fine
line between arrogance and truthful self-expression.
In fact when fighting to get
a project up, or create an artistic product, the drivers of creative projects have
to resist all temptation to lose faith and plough on regardless of doomsayers
and critics. The director, the writer,
the producer, the actor, the designer, the arts administrator, the architect,
the artists of many genres must believe in their work and keep believing… for,
if not, the work will never be realized… or their idiosyncratic interpretation
and vision will be watered down until it’s unrecognizable.
This is what jumped out at
me when watching a film about Andy Warhol at the MAC in Belfast
This left the interviewer
speechless. He expected a defensive
response. Later he threw down the baton further
with: “So are you going to keep doing this commercial art?” “Yes” Warhol replied matter-of-factly. “But don’t you think it’s finished?” the
interviewer challenged quickly. “Yes”.
That was it. No other reply.
If that wasn’t sufficiently brilliant
to put the interviewer on the back foot, when asked one inane question Warhol
simply stared for a long moment before pleading: “Can I just answer blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah….?”
Talk about funny. Of course it wasn’t exactly ‘blah, blah, blah’ but a sound far more enigmatic and
childlike. Warhol simply didn’t care to
explain himself, even if he’d known how.
And you can call it arrogance, but there’s more to it than that:
Warhol was born to create
and create he did, settled in and unbreakable from his artistic perspective of
the world. And as I watched this film,
and then the wonderful exhibition across several rooms in Belfast's glorious new
Metropolitan Arts Centre known as the MAC, I couldn’t decide whether to keep
laughing aloud or shout BRAVO!
For this exhibition (part of
a well-conceived programme called Artist Rooms On Tour) and the message which
Warhol leaves us with is vital: artists must not be afraid… artists must dare
and keep daring to express their view… shaping and interpreting until they get
closer to the essence of their own (or their collective) idiosyncratic artistic
truth.
For God knows, wouldn’t the
world be boring without the Andy Warhols?
And if a little arrogance is
the price to pay for artistic clarity and conviction, then so be it!
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