Daily Meditation: Friday, January 28, 2022

Art - the need for language that is clear

01/28/2022

Why are modern artists so attached to a conception of art that most people find incomprehensible? If they are the only ones who understand what their artistic creations mean – and it is by no means sure that they do understand – other people will never be able to use them to refine their own sensibilities or powers of comprehension. What use is it to you if someone talks to you in a language you cannot understand? There are spiritual groups that claim to be moved by the Holy Spirit to speak in ‘tongues’. But if no one understands what they are saying, who benefits from it? Not even they themselves, so it is completely pointless. We must speak a language that is clear for everyone. If you are an artist and you exhibit a painting or a sculpture, the whole world should be able to grasp its meaning and be enlightened by it. If your works of art are comprehensible only to yourself, then do not exhibit them. If you write a book for your own exclusive use, you must not publish it. There is absolutely no sense in addressing the public in a language that it cannot understand.