On Art

Art is not subjective, but it is personal. And since there is one absolute person, there is absolute art. But it is still personal. Jesus reveals Himself saying, 

“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

The first thing that we know of God speaking is in His creation, His art. His art had a purpose and He sent His word out to fulfill that purpose. Therefore we immediately see that ultimate meaning of art is to accomplish the purpose for which the creator sent it out. The Creator in Genesis is God. But we as people are made in the image of the Creator. We are creative after Him. So we cannot say that art is subjective. It either does or does not accomplish the purpose for which the artist sends it out. The more unclear the artist's purpose, the more unclear will be his success. Let's define art for a second. Art is the expression of identity. Craft is the creation of art. With these definitions we find the crux of the issue of modern art and the subjective movement. We have artists who do not know who they are creating things which do not have a clear purpose. Then they revel in the subjective nature of art saying that there is no, "good or bad art." But there is good art, bad art, life giving art, and art that corrupts. 

Good and bad, I confess, are personal matters. What is good for one person is simply what they prefer and what is bad for one person is what they do not prefer. There is ultimate good and evil which arises from the ultimate person of God. What is ultimately good is what God in His ultimacy prefers: there is no higher good than God's preference which arises from His character. Ultimate bad or evil is what God does not prefer. Which brings as to an interesting theological sidenote. 

It was not ultimate evil that Jesus was crucified. Jesus was sent by The Father to be crucified to redeem humankind so that they may live eternally with God. This was God's plan and it was in place from the beginning. Jesus did not rebuke His accusers, judges, or executioners because- even though what they were doing was horrible- they were still accomplishing God's purpose. Jesus did, however, rebuke Peter when he tried to keep Jesus from going to the cross,

“But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."”

Matthew 16:23 ESV

So satan does not become God's adversary by only doing things humans would consider bad or evil. Satan becomes God's adversary by continually trying to disrupt God's purposes. We might have said it was a good thing that Jesus would not die that horrible death on the cross. But it was God's plan to send Jesus to accomplish salvation in that way. So we see that satan can use things that people consider both bad and good to try and thwart God's plan. Similarly, God will bring us through things which we consider both bad and good to accomplish His purposes. Humans are not the ultimate judges of bad and good because we are not ultimate people. Therefore we cannot judge God, Satan, or each other by our own intelligence and we must be deeply rooted in God's Spirit to discern what is His will and whether the subject or situation in question is in line with His will.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:2 NIV

Back to art.

So there is good and bad art. Good art can be viewed in two ways. One is from the perspective of the maker and one is from the perspective of the viewer. 

Good art, from the perspective of the maker is art that accomplishes the purpose for which she or he crafted it. Now the artist may not even be consciously aware of the purposes for which they crafted their art. But there will be cognitive dissonance when the piece of work does not line up with their purpose, whether they are aware of their purposes or not. 

Many artists strive for perfection. But like good and bad, perfection is a personal matter. If art is an expression of identity then one trying to craft a perfect piece of art assumes that the person is, either consciously or unconsciously, seeking perfection in themselves. They are seeking perfection as an antidote or anethetic to their conviction of personal imperfection, ugliness, evil, sinfulness, or whatever way they believe themselves to not measure up. So the perfectionistic artist continually adjusts and reframes and rewords and gessoes and and restarts and rewrites and starts over because they never find perfection in themselves. Nor were they meant to. They were meant to be alive, fully alive, as Jesus brings life.

Or the artist actually does believe that they are perfect and every piece of art they craft is a magnificent expression of an outlandishly sized ego.

So to be productive the artist must be consciously aware of the purpose of their art which requires a deep conviction of their identity. If they are unclear about themselves then they will produce unclear art, no matter how refined their craft is. If they are unclear about themselves, they will continually pour out whatever society or their environment has poured into them and their only defining feature will be the quality of their craft. There is another way in Christ where the artist is acutely aware of their identity which is their purpose on Earth. Their clarity of identity will translate into a clarity purpose for their art and their connection with the Holy Spirit will continually breed new and innovative methods of craft. They will be people who are alive, artists with a life-giving message, who are constantly bringing about new ways of doing things.

Then there is the viewer. The viewer or audience, like the artist, has purposes, intents, and desires for their viewing of art. These purposes may be conscious or unconscious and may be banal or sophisticated. But they are most certainly there. The viewer may seek to see something novel, witness refined craft, or to consume something that reaffirms of challenges their worldview. Whatever their purpose is for any art, if those purposes are not satisfied then they will be resigned to calling it, "bad." Whether they use that word or not, it will simply not meet their preference. So there is good and bad art for both the viewer and maker. But these are personal terms that do not extend beyond the personhood of the maker or viewer. Life giving and corrupting art extends beyond the maker or viewer.

We are subjecting to corrupting art everyday. We simply do not call it that. Corrupting art is the craft which robs another person of their identity, sacredness, purpose, or life. Life, meaning, and identity are all related but for our purposes here, I will say that corrupting art either robs someone of their rightful identity or imposes an identity on to someone that was not designed for them. We must consider God as the ultimate source of life, which He is, otherwise we must concede that corrupting art does not exist. This is because any identity which could be robbed is of our own design and any identity which could be imposed is simply someone else's design. There is no weight behind either if God does not exist and there is neither life nor corruption, simply good and bad.

We encounter corrupting arts everyday, we simply do not call them that. But every interaction that happens between people carries an interchange of the beliefs and identities of those involved. Therefore  interactions in which the parties involved are not concerned about the purposes for which God designed each person are corrupt. This is not a moral damnation, it is simply mechanical. If I drive my car and do not car about maintaining it (which is keeping it as close to its original design as possible) then my car will eventually fall apart. Similarly, if I have a friendship in which I do not know or do not care about the purposes God designed for that person, then the friendship and the people involved will eventually fall apart. Again, that's not a moral condemnation, it's simply a statement of mechanics- everything in this world falls apart. Even Isaac Newton said that when he said that every system procedes toward entropy. 

Here's an example. Any sales add that says, overtly or subtly, "you want this" is imposing an identity on you. Desires stem from our identity, our heart (cite like every Bible verse). Identity is the only commodity. We buy things we believe align with either our actual, believed, or desired identity. Then we are sold things based on who the sellers believe we want to be to turn us into who they want us to be which is- customers. So a crafty seller will not sell based on their product, but on who they believe you want to be. Crafty sellers will sell you an identity where you are sexy, attractive, rich, valuable, beautiful, charismatic, popular, or any number of things. Once you buy the identity they have sold you then your buying the product is simply a matter of time. Be careful, they may even sell you books or curriculum to, "align your heart with God's purpose for your life" or to "follow God's will." Don't get me wrong, God can use any method He wants to get you on track. But He gives insight into His purposes to your life freely through His Spirit.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

James 1:5 ESV

So there is corrupting art. Evil art is that which intentionally corrupts. A great example of this is pornography in which an objectified and commoditized identity is imposed onto the viewer, the creator, and actors.

Finally there is life giving art. This is art in which the maker is in tune with God's purposes for her or his own life AS WELL AS God's purposes for the maker's audience. In a very general sense worship leaders and preachers fulfill this role. They are made aware of their own purpose and the general purpose of their audience or congregation through general revelation laid out in the Bible. When this happens specifically, we tend to call it prophecy. The Old Testament prophets' forst revelation was their identity in God (fact check). Their second revelation was the purposes that God had for their audience. And God gave the prophet creative power to express His purposes creatively. Prophets worked via wonders or miracles, speeches, works of wisdom like dream interpretation, athleticism (Elijah outrunning Ahab's chariot), poetry, songs, music, performance art (Ezekiel), relationships (Hosea), predictions, and politics (Samuel). So a prophet is simply a person who knows God's designs for themselves and for a given audience. Prophets are, unequivocally, artists. They are life-giving artists who accomplish God's purposes for themselves as well as God's purposes for others. So in terms of life-givingness there seem to be three levels: a craftsman can create a piece of work for a given purpose. An artist can create a piece of work to accomplish his/her own purpose or God-given identity. And a prophet knows and can accomplish God's purposes for themself and some people. Every artist expresses identity. A prophet expresses God's identity.