WHY ART FORMS DIE
By Paul Mellender

Dear Arts Journal:

It is becoming very clear, in many different ways, the statement "art is dead" is true. This "art" I am limiting to painting and sculpture. I have denied it for a long time, but after some scrutiny I have begun to believe it is so. A statement of this sort is dependent on criteria. A living and dead state of art must be clarified to declare and believe something so unpleasant. In a brief definition, an art is the side effect of an attempt to manifest something. The first subject drew an owl (the actual object) the next drew the picture of the owl; the third drew the picture of the picture, and so on. When the last person drew what they saw it had become a cat. When applied to art, and attempts to make art this indicates- though one may be attempting to make art, they cannot for it is missing the original intention, it will only and ever be derivative of an invisible purpose.

An art can die truly, and an art can die in form. When an art truly dies, its purpose has been achieved. One of the reasons an art happens, is the artist is translating from a non-form to a form; imagination to reality.When the translation is complete it is unnecessary to continue, it would become ritual to do so. The artist is attempting to kill the form, very literally, to overcome the paint, stone, or whatever, and breathe life into his monster. This can take generations and ages, but will eventually occur, or it will be discovered the nature of the idea is flawed in origin. In either case, the idea ends. When its purpose has been achieved or has been found wanting, it does not necessarily find acceptance in populations who have come to venerate the tertiary idea: art.

When I write painting and sculpture have died, I do not mean the thing behind them has ceased. Unlike the art of memory, however, these two have hit a point of disease that threatens the thing behind them. The name of art is lost both in its intention, and side effects. When art periodicals, books and articles appear, they do not offer help in the idioms of art, nor do they offer information. They are usually updates on how business is going and how to turn art forms into business. They are flattering, self-congratulatory, romantic, excited, and pretentious, but never to any good point. As we become as formed but hollow, as our arts, we lose all those things most vital. The death of intentions, but the survival of form is to become a zombie; it is to be the tool for the black arts, business and politics.

So how is art dead? When the things that initiate art, though ever recurring, are systematically, and deceptively snuffed out, their evidences and potency are brought to an end. The triggers of art are a continuum, as opposed to derivation. If that continuum is stopped (though other things parade under the same name) it is death. For though much of the world is the same, and the physics of the world appears stable, we are far beyond whatever environment and circumstance allowed the first artist, if his long continuous mind stops, we will have met our limit.