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It’s a thing on MidJourney right now that hands are a very difficult thing to render. They come around at times, but, like a cat, only when you’re not trying too hard. Perhaps the perfect little allegory for what has become of this year’s art fascinations: AI-generated images and Generative works.
Certainly, the artist is an artist because they are an artist. And many artists are defined by their concepts far more than their execution. Baldessari — and many others — could create art of an idea. The work itself, quite literally an afterthought. Rauschenberg made art of erasing a drawing by de Kooning. Chris Burden shot himself. Ai Weiwei dropped a 2000-year old urn on the ground and broke it. Art is the idea. And the distance between that and what we take away from it has always been something that moves. We are well beyond believing art is the beauty of its labor. Anyway, Koons doesn’t personally build all his pieces. Neither does Murakami.
So, why should Generative Art, for example, be held to any greater standard? After all, there was an algorithm to make — any different that from placing a soup can on a pedestal? It’s all about intention, right?
