Artist James Coleman

OK, I'm out of my league here.  The Discoshaman and Joe Carter are ganging up on the rest of the blog world and trying to help help evangelicals rekindle their appreciation for art.

Disco threw the first punch here.

Joe has thrown three more punches here, here and here.

I have to confess that I have never really understood art.  I guess growing up in the south and being into sports, it was kind of unmanly to be into art, at least in my circle of friends.  I have never been able to come up with anything to say about a piece of artwork that is more sophisticated than "that's kind of nice," or "ewwww, you mean people actually pay money for that."

My lovely and talented wife did help me out a bit this past year.  We were in LA and went to the Getty Museum (I wanted to walk into the Coliseum and commune with the ghosts of Carl Lewis and Sam the Bam Cunningham but it was locked, so I dutifully went to the Getty Museum with my wife).  The Getty Museum was actually a good experience for me and my wife explained some art techniques and pointed out how this painter shaded things this way or that, and how another used light and texture and other things and I gained a new appreciation for some of the art there. 

But I still have a long way to go in understanding art.  I appreciated what Joe and Disco had to say but I still can't get past the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and I realize that I am going to get lit up by art aficionados for that comment), so maybe someone can help me out here.

I do know from Joe and many others that Thomas Kinkade is bad, but I still can't quite grasp why he is so bad.  Also, I was in an art gallery in St. Augustine, FL last summer and they had some paintings by James Coleman which I really liked.  They said that he paints in somewhat the same style as Kinkade, but is much better.  Fair enough, but I would like to know what makes him better.
I'm not itching to go out and buy a Kinkade or anything, I much prefer Florida Gator football posters and pictures of Steve Spurrier, Emmitt Smith and Danny Wuerffel for my walls (oh yeah, and pictures, of my wife, lots of pictures of my wife!).   But I would be curious as to what how anyone would compare Kinkade to Coleman.  Here is your chance to give an art lesson to a total ignoramous.  What makes Coleman better, if he is better. Or, are they both bad? The big thing is "does one artist convey a biblical worldview better than the other?"  If so how? 

Here's a link to Coleman's works and here's a link to Kinkade's works.

Here are a couple of Coleman's paintings that I really like - but are they really any good? Or are they any better than Kinkade?

Comments

[The Dane]

Dear Jolly,

Not being one who supports the idea that Christendom should spend any its energy "redeeming culture," I'm far from a fan of the so-called "recovery" of art theory that seems prevalent these days (especially in certain segments of the Reformed church). And so, for the most part, I disagree pretty strictly with the major thesis of both DiscoShaman and Joe.* That said, I do enjoy quality art and hope to see much more of it - and I wouldn't particularly mind if some of it were created by believers (though I also wouldn't mind if it weren't).

Because you express a certain perplexity at art (what it is and why it's good), you might find my primer (and associated comments) on the subject helpful (http://nowheresville.us/arch/bestof/art01.php). I take a pretty straight and easy view of the matter. Being an artist and being born of an artist, I have fairly good ground to put things simply without resorting to that kind of romantic mystification that too often absorbs the professional "appreciators" (seriously... I recently attended a show at a local museum and the tripe that came out of the docent who led me on tour was pure melodrama and over-analysis).

As far as the short answer to why Rembrandt is better than Kinkade? I maintain that perhaps one or two of Kinkade's earlier pieces could be exhibited as genuine pieces of pretty good art (still not fantastic). As soon as becoming marketable, Kinkade stopped being an artist and became a "paint-by-numbers" corporation of assembly-line talents who mass produced works at an inhuman speed. According to the definition of art I give on the above page, this is not art, but simply "good craft." Really, the company does well what it sets out to do, but what it sets out to do is not create art.

Vive l'art,
The Dane

*note: plus, i think they overstate. It isn't just the Christian world that is suffering a dearth of quality artists. This problem is endemic to the entire world of art at present. In fact, there is currently only a single artist working on a large scale whose work grabs me and which I believe to be successful on a world-class scope (and really only his earlier works exhibit this power); I speak of Mark ryden. The art world seems to move in fits and throws - after the renaissance, there weren't any great streams of artistic creation until the 1850s-early 20th century (perhaps a 2nd renaissance). Picasso was probably the last great talent we've seen. Something new and wonderful will come about again, but until then we've got to suffer through mediocre art (in both secular and religious spheres).

[Terry]

You might check out my posting which I am jokingly calling "Football Is Beautiful and Paintings are Ugly"

http://pruittcommunications.blogspot.com/2005/02/jollyblogger-football-is-beautiful-and.html

[manasclerk]

New Pantagruel recently interviewed András Visky, a friend of a friend who is a Romanian dramaturg and teacher and devout Christian. I have always considered his thoughts about Good Friday and Art to be the most interesting on the subject of Christians and Art. The Good Friday premise is much deeper than our normal conversation. I think it gets to some of the reasons why Evangelical art bothers some of us so much, on top of our cultural snobbery.

He did a talk awhile back in Chicago that was transcribed where he went into some of this in greater detail. If it's interesting to you, I can find a copy.

http://www.newpantagruel.com/issues/2.1/perfect_clumsiness_an_intervie.php

[David Wayne]

manasclerk - I would be interested in listening to or reading that - thanks for the mention.

[manasclerk]

David, if you leave me a note at manasclerk at sign gmail dot com, I'll send along Visky's talks that I have.

[Karen]

What? Coleman is another Kincade! Great! (sigh) My mother-in-law bought Kincades like crazy. She had one HUGE Coleman. We're trying to settle her estate (she passed in July) and now i'm trying to figure out what to do with all the Kincades . . .