why libraries are better resources on art
Michael C. Taylor
In article <0101006...@yumyum.resun.com> mel...@titipu.resun.com (Melynda Reid) writes:
> my my my. i have reached my limit of tolerance for articles by people who
> want particular art works or information on particular artists zapped to them
> electronically.
>
> libraries and museums and galleries are much better sources for information
> on the arts. why? books have illustrations. scholarly texts contain bliblio-
I think what might be needed is a bit of positive advice to those who
are (I am presuming this) who are not artists and are looking for easy
to read sources of information, something beyond the generality of an
encyclopedia, but readable to someone with very little Fine Arts experience.
Typically a copy of a 1st year Art History book would go a long ways, but
other times a general book on an artist which lacks daunting-sounding
analysis that could make your head spin.
Maybe someone would care to maintain a "Recommended Reading List" of
various books (or other sources of information) which are readable to
a layperson (lay in terms of art) for both general overviews of a time
period, and for various Masters. Then twenty people can zap a copy of
it to their e-mail address, and let the person explore the art world
with a rough map of some known paths where they might be discover
things for themselves.
Just like some people are scared of computers, there are those who
are sort of afraid of libraries, and librarians. Then there are those
who don't know how to use them.
--
Michael C. Taylor - Mount Allison University - B.Sc Mathematics
prefered address: McTa...@mta.ca Don't use mcta...@Zonk.mta.ca
Melynda Reid
want particular art works or information on particular artists zapped to them
electronically.
libraries and museums and galleries are much better sources for information
on the arts. why? books have illustrations. scholarly texts contain bliblio-
graphies which can function like a path through the woods, giving a scholar
a guided tour through the rich and wonderful sources from which the texts
have arisen. museums can sometimes display original art. sculpture and some
types of painting yield so much more information if viewed in person. galleries,
even horribly mediocre or pretentious ones can sometimes display a range of
original works in a variety of media or techniques. these can teach a person
how to tell the difference between an oil, an acrylic, a water-colour; and
between a silverpoint and a pencil work. and so on.
used bookstores as well as bookstores specialising in the arts can be rich
troves of information. i happen to have good luck in finding rare books and
scholarly texts in thrift stores. i have book agents in philly and in london
and in tallahassee who can search for books for me upon request once i have
sufficient information on what i need---and the money to purchase the books.
art works best in a carbon-based reality. silicon based electronically digitised
art lacks weight and texture and scale.
go into mineral presence by seeking out stone sculptures.
i live in a very poor county which has no museum and only a tiny library.
however there are artists around me whose works teach me a great deal. when
i am not withdrawn socially---i tend to be very shy---i can visit the studios
of artists and learn from them. these artists do not have to be particularly
good for me to pick up value from the time it takes to visit with them and
their art. i am sufficiently well-grounded in learning how to learn that i
can recognise when an art work shows me an area i have not yet explored.
i collect exhibition catalogues. often i obtain them free. i am known as a
packrat. even when i have not seen the exhibit---i tend once again to be very
isolated as an artefact of my peculiar shyness---i can learn from these booklets.
i am a member of the huntington, the philadelphia museum of art, and at one
time was a national associate of the met. membership is open to anyone with
some money. the met and the philly museum send their members little booklets
ever so often on different topics in the arts. because i have so little access
to top quality scholarly collections i save whatever information comes my
way.
i also every time i go to chicago go by the field institute and obtain a temporary
permit to use their library. malvina hoffman, my favourite sculptor did the
family of man series for the field. her papers as well as books by her are
part of the field collection. often i sit in the library with tears of joy
streaming down my face because i am so excited by how much i am discovering.
the huntington is one of the top repositories for the english arts. anyone
doing research on blake should contact them.
seeking information on the arts requires learning how to move in space. that is
right. wheel or walk around the world. do not sit at a console expecting the
world to zap by. art can take a person out of the specious present. why not use
curiosity about art as a pretext for an adventure into the world of real books
and real museums and real galleries and yes real artists and real people?
melynda who when she gets annoyed stays annoyed for quite awhile.
i do not shift keys or emotions of positions readily.
melynda reid who wears hats but does not type caps
eel: mel...@titipu.resun.com or nosc.mil!titipu.resun.com!melynda
snail: p o box 378 greensboro, florida 32330
Larry Boswell
In a previous article, mel...@titipu.resun.com (Melynda Reid) says:
>my my my. i have reached my limit of tolerance for articles by people who
>want particular art works or information on particular artists zapped to them
>electronically.
>
Melynda
with all respect, do you really think that the paltry little bit
of info that is put up about a particular artist in response
to someone's question really stops people from looking into
hardcopy sources like libraries? Face it, the net is a great
place to start a search, or to get a quick answer...and
there ain't nothing wrong with that. On the net there are thousands
of literary sources/library reference menus which offer countless
publication references etc. There's no need to keep book agents
here and there... a good old gopher can get you info on 10X as
much... make friends with a gopher, you'll be surprised where
their burrows lead, and they're user friendly...most of where they
lead is to references which have to be followed up in a library or
whatever--but when you walk through the library/bookstore door you
know exactly what you want to order/borrow--I just searched the
entire libraries of 3 states and 1 province inorder to find a
very obscure title--I then tracked it down in a bookstore thru the
net-- these searches are not superficial, just beginnings...
to anyone with a questions/answers:
Keep putting up the questions and keep supplying answers...I've
been put onto the work (and yeah Melynda, I've gone to the
library to find more on them) of several artists and works which
were previously unknown to me...and all because of one of those
superficial questions...
if you're annoyed by people asking questions, maybe you should
pack up the old keyboard...I'd rather see questions/answers than
some of the other philosophical drivel which wraps in great long
threads around the net...
ahh, Mylinda, were you just having a bad day? or getting tired
of this old net...
Larry Boswell (al...@freenet.Carleton.Ca)
--
Melynda Reid
In article <Co44B...@freenet.carleton.ca> (rec.arts.fine), al...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Larry Boswell) writes:
> ahh, Mylinda, were you just having a bad day? or getting tired
> of this old net...
i was concerned when students were wanting other people to formulate opinions
on artists for them. i felt that the information being requested entailed
a repudiation of learning to respond to art as a person.
i am getting kinda annoyed with net breeziness, the instant use of time. i
am much slower in my natural patterns of response. i like to learn by getting
myself in way over my head. the net tends to stay in the realm of words, as
if art could be contained by verbal embrace.
so yeah uhha i am getting old and tired and concerned that the net is encouraging
an insular approach to learning, taking people away from collective sources
of information towards individually isolated cells where information can be
accessed only by magical invocation of the word. what i like about open stack
libraries is the fact i get lost and confused on my way to finding out my answer.
i encounter surprises, i see what i did not know was out there.
information is not just a unitary question answer response. information also
means getting lost in a world outside of the self. it is this ecstatic dimension
intellectually i felt we on the net are in danger of losing.
melynda who is old and tired and grieving for the death of her
nannie who taught her how to cheat at cards and keep
a poker face. her rules were simple---if you get dealt
a set of cards you do not like you do not complain
you change the rules. the honourable person says
aloud i am now cheating, and it is your turn to
figure out what rules i am now employing. damn
good lessons. it enables me to deal with some
disabilities of family members constructively.
Michael Maranda
You know, i am in complete agreement with Melynda on this point about asking
for insta-knowledge. (I phrase it this way not to say that I usually
disagree just as a way of introing the topic.)
It is true that the best part of the internet is in getting unexpected
information --- much like getting lost in the stacks. It takes getting lost
in the stacks to really learn how a library is structured and once that is
down one has to be more and more engaged in pulling stuff out of the hidden
nooks and crannys to get lost again ...
However, "Does anyone have any information on Alyssa Smith, painter" is not
a posting that gives me any information, is not a useful way of learning
something more. There would be more use in stumbling across an article in a
journal on the work and influence(s) of/on Ms Smith, or even in finding
something out there in gopher land on her.
The way to get threads going is to put more in than you expect to receive
... you'd be surprised at what then comes out.
So, I have decided that even if I have a stack of information on a
partucilar subject, I'm not going to answer requests about a particular
subject unless the request includes an addition to the quality of life
around here.
More info less one stop shopping for people with papers due who haven't
bother to find their library yet.
--
......................................................................
......................Michael.Maranda..................................
.......................................mm017g@uhura.cc.rochester.edu....
.......................................................................
John Clemens
>In article <Co44B...@freenet.carleton.ca> (rec.arts.fine), al...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Larry Boswell) writes:
>> ahh, Mylinda, were you just having a bad day? or getting tired
>> of this old net...
>i was concerned when students were wanting other people to formulate opinions
>on artists for them. i felt that the information being requested entailed
>a repudiation of learning to respond to art as a person.
>i am getting kinda annoyed with net breeziness, the instant use of time. i
>am much slower in my natural patterns of response. i like to learn by getting
>myself in way over my head. the net tends to stay in the realm of words, as
>if art could be contained by verbal embrace.
I think melynda (sorry if I'm spelling it incorrectly) has a legitimate
point here. Yes, the net is a great place to get information, but I see
it as similar to having conversations with other paeple. Now, if someone
came up to me and said something like "I'm trying to find information
on <whomever> and everything I've found so far doesn't explain some
important points. What are your opinions on <whomever>, it would very
likely be an interesting conversation, if I happened to have any
opinions on <whomever>. On the other hand, if someone came up to me
and said, "I have to write a paper about Picasso; what should I write?"
I think I'd be annoyed. "Help me out" is a fine request; "Do it for me"
is ridiculous. But it's very easy to fall into this sort of mental
laziness on the net. Why bother to look, when you can just blast off a
request for someone else's thoughts?
It's the not-bothering-to-look that is annoying to me. And if the request
leads one to believe that the requestor has not bothered to view works
by the artist in question, then the library, or museum, or even the local
art-poster dealer is a better place to start than the net. I think the
net is a great place to gain other peoples input on art and artists, but
how can it possibly mean anything if you haven't first done the seeing,
the looking?
-ellie