Thursday, November 30, 2006

Singing up a Storm

Singing up a storm
This is Dada music... you know: da, da, da

Painter IX



On Radio 4 today (Ha Ha: Art) there was a programme that was looking at humour in art and about art. Most of the laughs in this programme are at the expense of artists. They seemed to think it was hard to have humour in "serious" art.

And its true a joke is normally a throw away - not something to be gazed at over and over again - so is there scope for humour in art?

What do you think?

11 comments:

Johnnynorms said...

Like your singing head - and it reminds me of me at the moment, since I do a lot of it.

Good question about humour. Without having heard prog, but respecting and enjoying DADA artists (Schwitters, Ernst, Arp, who were deeply serious about their humour) my thoughts: humour is an essential part of being human/humane so why exclude it from Art; Humour on different levels - being funny doesn't have to be being frivolous or flippant - it could be very profound; Seems to be a dearth of humour in pre 20th C painting - but plenty in literature. Or is it the funny stuff just doesn't get into the Art History books?

Ian russell said...

humour in art? try stopping me! ;o)

but I think before any debate we must answer that age old question:
what is humour?

regardless of the intention, the beholder should respond to the work as natural and honest as possible - if they find humour that's okay, isn't it? it doesn't matter what the artist thinks.

an intentional joke? yes, why not!

a picasso and a magritte go into a bar. the picasso says to the magritte,

''I'm just feeling so blue these days, you know. I don't know why but for the last few months everything - I mean everything! - is... just... so....blue! I mean its..... HEY! Will you look at me when I'm talking to you!''

is it a total accident that gilbert and george look like morecombe and wise? they make I laugh. :D

Caroline said...

Sage - thanks for visiting - I still can't read your blog by the way. I was playing with a new image hose I'd made in Painter and this was what happened - glad you like it.

Johnnynorms - I did think of you probably because of what you'd said in your interview over at Steve's...

Since I see all of life through laughter I can't but agree with you! On the prog they did mention the humorous pictures in the margins of illuminated manuscripts but said the humour went out when the idea of genius came in.

Artists taking themselves too seriously?

Caroline said...

Ian - I wouldn't want to stop you!

:-)

I'll have to look up Gilbert and George...

Anonymous said...

I'm gaga over your DaDa art @_@

Sorry - that was bad wasn't it? I think Art (and much of the rest of the world) takes life too seriously... Life is too serious to not enjoy a good laugh whenever we can!
xo

Caroline said...

Tinker - not too bad to make me smile! I agree without a smile how would we cope with for instance, train journeys that take about 8 minutes being turned into taxis that take an hour!

steve said...

Ha ha--was the group called "Trio" I believe. It was a catchy little tune featured here in the states in a commercial. Looks like you just started a new genre called Da Da Da! Way cool drawing!

Anonymous said...

You know, I love this...and of course there is room for humor in art. I think you did a super job of proving that.

isay said...

thi is cool and i like how you the notes and the texts.

i have not been here because i am sick but i'll read on later. i hope i can do your camel exchange. 'saw it from steve.

andrea said...

Ooo ooo -- I wish I'd heard this programme. A topic after my own heart. I think there's plenty of room for humour in Real Art, but it needs to be subtle, quirky, not immediately visible, and the other elements need to be just as strong. I think most art is TOO serious.

Caroline said...

Steve - thanks - Da Da Da De Dum for long?

Sioux - hi there! - thanks - I suspect the programme makers would consider this a "cartoon" rather than serious art... they had a bit of a habit of defining anything that was funny as not art which meant hter ewasn't room for humour in art - I've only just seen this now... and its probably an over-genrealisation...

Isay - thank you - I'll look at what you've been up to now I'm back on line and functioning!

Andrea - did you try the listen again? I of course agree with you!

P.S. Thank you all for commenting and sorry for the delay in replying - my keyboard went into delete-everything-just-typed mode - glad it truned out to be a minor problem to fix!