Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 11:39:07 -0500 (EST) From: George Free <aw570-AT-freenet.toronto.on.ca> Subject: Re: Transnacionala review On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Peter Werner wrote: > "TRANSNACIONALA": A New World Order Comes To Seattle > by Frances DeVuono > [from "Aorta: Contmporary Arts and Culture", Oct/Nov 96] > > comment. Neither did they respond to Shapiro's very relevant remarks > that today "it is hard to imagine artists playing an avant-garde role > in contemporary culture [because] . . . everything is culture; the > difference between art and advertising is too difficult to define." I don't find it too difficult to define the difference. Advertising involves--an invariably quite transparent attempt--to manipulate and pre-program a response. Art--or, at least, genuine art--has the opposite aim of liberating the receiver from the neurotic compulsions that advertising dwells on and reinforces. It seems that its "avant-garde" today to insist on this basic distinction. That some artists and critics can't--or won't--tell the difference between advertising and art simply testifies to their own bankruptcy. George Free aw570-AT-torfree.net Toronto, Ontario Canada --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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