A painting, a song, a meal, a quilt, a sculpture can all be the subject of argument over its artistic merit. To some, the precision in the wee details of a Ken Ferris or Robert Bateman wildlife painting is near the height of what art is, because the image is made by hand but so closely approximates the real thing. Whereas some scoff at realism and applaud the symbolic rigor that abstractly erupts in metaphor from the canvas of Pablo Picasso or Jean Jacques Giguere.
This colourful debate is what ping-pongs across the stage in Theatre North West's latest production, a play simply called Art.
Anyone who thinks such debates are the realm of urban myth or the cultural elite, think back to 1989 when the National Gallery of Canada purchased Voice Of Fire by Barnett Newman, a 16-foot vertical rectangle coated only in two blue stripes separated by a red stripe. It cost the taxpayer $1.8 million and set off an inferno of controversy. T-shirts were made in protest, satirists mocked with glee, and even the book Voices Of Fire: Art Rage, Power, And The State was inspired by the purchase.
"Well I could have done that," is the common refrain of disdain for abstract art.
"But you didn't," is the common retort.
Alongside that is the context for any given piece. Like the same curmudgeon could say to a mechanic "I could have made my own wheel" after looking at a car repair, and cut one out of wood and attach it to the vehicle to prove it. But try to drive any distance and soon enough the curmudgeon returns to the accredited shop for the expertise of the mechanic.
So, too, does this apply to art. A typical working artist studies, rehearses, stresses, agonizes and painstakingly builds a reputation on a foundation of art history and knowledge of tools and principles of the trade. They become to expression what a mechanic is to machinery - the knowledgeable tradesperson.
Voice Of Fire was created by an artist who was an expert in colour fields, which can only be done by learning the properties of light and the relationship between the eye and the natural spectrum so thoroughly these things almost become living things to that practitioner. Newman's reputation extended around the world and his commissions were coveted by the greatest galleries and museums on the planet even before he consented, at the request of the American government, to create something especially for the U.S.pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal, and take into account the geodesic dome the Americans were using as their pavilion.
What Newman painted was a contrast that, when observed straight on, sometimes tricked the eye into thinking the red was orange, and appeared to shimmer between the blues and the red/orange, creating the illusion of the properties of a fire. Sure a curmudgeon could throw three stripes on a canvas, but can they be so knowledgeable and skillful as to achieve this wonder of artistic/biological interaction?
By the way, that $1.8 million canvas is now worth an estimated $40 million for the Canadian taxpayer.
And it is worth considering in the debate about what art is in the first place.
Three actors will now stand before Prince George audiences and wrestle with those concepts out loud in front of a canvas that appears to be blank. Stark white. Purchased by a doctor named Serge to display in his home, paying tens of thousands of dollars for it.
His friends Marc and Yvan confront Serge, and each other, over what right anyone has to claim the thing is art or that it is not.
Serge, Marc and Yvan are only characters in a play, but playwright Yasmina Reza intends them - through artistic symbolism of her own - to represent different sides of us all. These three are portrayed by, respectively, actors Richard Alan Campbell, Garry Davey and David Leyshon under the direction of Theatre North West boss Jack Grinhaus.
"You can have a good script, a good cast, and a bad director, or any combination of those things, so we as artists have a different definition in theatre as to what makes for good art," said Leyshon. "And audiences will have an entirely different perspective. I like to think that the artistic value of theatre is hard to define - that the artistry is in the totality of the production: the costumes, the set, the lighting, the script, and as actors we are only adding one part of that whole final product."
Campbell said he does not visit many art galleries or spend time considering what makes art great, but remembered the flash of realization that came with once seeing an actual Vincent Van Gogh painting then seeing a print of the same painting soon after. The original was so three-dimensional and charismatic by comparison because of the way Van Gogh lumped and smeared his paint on the canvas, whereas the print was lacking that depth and topography. So even a photographically perfect copy has different parameters of what art is to the viewer. Had he never seen the original, he said, he would never have known what he was missing.
This again, like the amateur who claims to be able to slap three stripes of colour on a canvas and call that equal to Barnett Newman, is factual context informing opinion.
As for being that piece of art himself, as an actor playing a part for an audience, Campbell agreed with Leyshon that theatre is not superior art to what painters do, but more complex to think about because of all the moving parts involved.
"When we say yes or no to a role, I think it is not because you regard the character or the script as good or bad," he said. "When you hope for something to happen with your auditions, you are hoping for a good overall experience, an interesting experience."
Campbell said it was just wonderful, in his view, that Canada - with its tiny artistic history compared to the centuries of work in Asia, Africa and Europe - is having this level of discourse over elements of our culture.
"If somebody sees a blank white canvas and feels excitement for that, or just sees an empty space, both of these concepts carry weight, and I love how this play wrestles with those notions," said Leyshon.
He's also happy to have another actor to share the script with. The last time he was in Prince George was to act in the play Billy Bishop Goes To War in which he played the title character plus several others besides. Only one other actor was ever on stage with him. Now, he is only one-third of the cast.
Campbell said he loved getting his chance to make his Theatre North West debut, having only been to Prince George once in the past, briefly on a road trip to Denali National Park in Alaska.
Davey, meanwhile, was recently directed by former Prince George community theatre stalwart Sue Murguly in an Echo Players production at Qualicum Beach and was directed also by former Prince George thespian and writer Michael Armstrong in the production of Armstrong's original script Night of Shooting Stars by Western Edge Theatre Company.
