Talks on art coincide with play, latest escapade

The steel inverted arch by Michigan artist Kenneth Thompson located near the Wrenn House restaurant. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Jeannette Brossart's "We are the problem, we are the solution" in front of the Rowan Public Library. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Clyde often uses found objects in his creations. Salisbury artists are debating what qualifies as art after Clyde taped underwear to his store window and the executive director of the Rowan Arts Council took it. Photo by Emily Ford

Critters displays all types of underwear on Main Street after a local artist taped men's briefs to his store window, which the executive director of the Rowan Arts Council removed. Photo by Emily Ford

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

If life imitates art, Salisbury had a textbook example last month when missing underpants caused residents to wonder what qualifies as art, just as a local play was wrestling with the same question.

“Art,” a Tony-award winning play that examines the issue, had started its two-week run when artist Clyde taped men’s 2X briefs to his antique store window.

Anne Cave, executive director for the Rowan Arts Council, became offended and took the undergarment. Clyde, formerly known as Clyde Overcash, went to authorities and said the skivvies were art.

Were they?

What exactly is art?

“Art comes through the creator,” artist Carol Dunkley said. “Art is whatever satisfies the creator of that art.”

Dunkley and three other women gathered last week at the Center for Faith & the Arts to discuss the topic, part of a series of talks scheduled to coincide with the play and made even more relevant by the underwear escapade playing out in real life.

The Mona Lisa qualifies as art, but what about a 6-year-old’s finger painting, asked Sarah Hall, executive director for the Center for Faith & the Arts.

“Does art take training and skill?” Hall said.

Defining art can depend on who created it, who views it and how it is displayed, librarian Rebecca Hyde said.

“If we’re going to go for a definition, it’s like peeling back the layers of onion skin,” Hyde said.

For Lillian Gascoigne, who has a master’s degree in art history and is owner of Lillians’s Library, art means joining two things together.

“It shows the structure of our world, where everything is interrelated,” she said.

Art can combine artist and audience, or idea and material.

“It’s joining your vision to something very concrete,” Gascoigne said.

“Too many people equate art with beauty,” Hall said. “Art does not have to be beautiful and can be quite ugly.”

Art must evoke emotion, the group agreed.

Some people may look at a piece of modern art and say, “My 10-year-old could have done that in half an hour,” Hall said.

“It amazes me when art can be considered an insignificant part of life, yet evoke almost hostile emotions in people,” she said.

There is more to a piece of artwork than what the viewer sees on the surface, Hall said. To fully understand a piece, the viewer needs to know about the creative process and the stories that inspired the art.

In conjunction with the play, the Center for Faith & the Arts, located on West Harrison Street inside Haven Lutheran Church, presented an exhibit featuring abstract art to encourage viewers to stretch their imaginations and definition of art, Hall said.

One creation titled “Pain” depicted the image an artist saw when he suffered a heart attack.

“To him, this is what pain looks like,” Hall said.

Trying to insure art in the gallery demonstrates the difficulty of determining the value of art, she said.

While some of the pieces are valued at thousands of dollars by the artists, some insurance companies only want to insure artwork for the cost of the paint and canvas.

For our part, rather than have to make a value judgment about what we think a piece of art is really worth, we tell the artists they will need to provide their own insurance, and let them determine the value, Hall said.

When talk turned to underwear, the group generally agreed that Clyde’s installation was art.

But the group also felt the issue was less about art and more about property, and taking that which does not belong to you.

Click here to be taken to a discussion thread in our community conversation forum about what defines art.