What is Art? Who is Art?

Student of The Arts

The Question: What is Art? Can—with sleight of hand become: Who is Art? Thus:
Response: Art is Elusive. He (Arthur)/She (Artemis) was last seen slipping out of a drugstore on Main, in Wichita, Kansas (in steam). Why steam? Because I love the words: Wichita, Kansas, in steam, put together. Art might just have well have been in a movie house in Karachi, or in downtown Bayreuth, or Plonksville, or Dinkly, in the Silly Isles. It doesn’t matter. The point is Art was spotted, briefly, but then Art managed to slip away into the darkness of the night, into the cold waters beneath the Verrazano Bridge, down a wooded slope not far from Orleans, not far from that splendid little gem of a museum that has a huge collection of that somewhat neglected artist, Gaudier Brzeska, who died way to young, thanks to the First World War, which only makes you wonder at the love, the joys, the magic, the wonders, the heart, the vision, the images and things that might have been had it not been for the many wars and famines since.

So who is Art and why won’t he or she stay? What are they afraid of? Do they run from the abuse and neglect, derision, indifference of a callous world bent on its own destruction? We need Art now more than ever to settle disputes, and bang sense into the heads of the politicians, the financiers, the bankers and diplomats, lobbyists and pharmaceutical salesmen, the doctors who reap the speaker’s fees, the realtors who forget who they are supposed to be working for. Oh the list is endless. Art must show some backbone and dig in and stare out the sullen aspect of this traumatized planet. Art must take a knife and cut out the poison. Art needs courage now. Art needs your help.

We know this much: Art is elusive, and possibly lost. Only with your help can Art’s role be written.

Answer this:

What is Art?
Who is Art?
Where is Art?
When is Art?
Is Art substantial? Can Art be bought? Was Art ever essential? Did Art change you? Are you mad at Art? Do you have a bone to pick with Art? Is Art the paper he is sketched on? Is Art the dress she wears? Does Art play sports? Does Art cook? Is Art purely subjective? Or is Art flesh and bone?

Henri Gaudier Brzeska