An Idea about Art as Separate

There is a common tendency to confuse visual art with other things. In order to actually see a work of art, it is necessary to undo this confusion. Art gets confused with what we think about the artist, about art criticism and theory and history, about politics, religion, culture, and with whatever other ideas may be active in our heads.

So the first thing to do [in order to see clearly] is to separate visual art from everything that isn't visual. A work of art is a thing finished, framed, mounted, hung, set aside to be a complete experience in itself. It is a thing separated from our sense of time, from all the things we have to do, from our desires, needs, fears, difficulties, and imperfections, from everything outside of the frame that makes the work separate. When a work of art is separated from everything else, standing on its own, it can take on its real importance. Then the work can be seen as a real thing, not as decoration for some other human activity like story-telling, politics, making money, religion, propaganda, interior design, and so on.

Suppose we consider a Rembrandt self-portrait. It is not an illustration for his biography. It is not a commentary on old age or unwise financial adventures. It is a separate thing never realized before or since, a creation of something for which there are no words, but for which there is one visible thing, once in all of human history, the painting itself.

When we see the work as separate, as a visual and non-verbal thing, we realize that we do not need to say anything.There is no need to have a conversation about rt. We can realize that words are a distraction. It's not the end of the world if we talk, but it's helpful to not confuse our thinking and talking with the work of art, which remains as a silent, separate, unique thing, for which there is no equivalence.