Advertising is not an Art form

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs - Marlene Dietrich

Tiffiny Jenkins, asserted last night that advertising is not an art form. Jenkins was part of the panel which eloquently presented the What is good Art? debate at Leeds City Art Gallery.

A truth

Jenkins began the debate outlining that contemporary art critics and commentators are resistant to exclaim their judgements on what is good. Progressing to outline three aspects that judgements entail; a contextual understanding of art, contemporary experience and knowledge  and an understanding that good art speaks a truth. Immediately, I recalled Hegarty during a talk at LCA (2010) stating that creative advertising tells a truth in an interesting way - which is the first point I want to make in support of creative advertising being an art form.

Creative circle

Nigel Walsh unpacked the importance of context to aesthetic judgements, through reflecting back to postwar NY (Tom Wolf, Barnett Newman) and the role of the creative circle. He then pointed at an interesting paradox; our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture (artists) that's resulted in the democratisation of art (diminishing the creative circle) -qualified with the success of Tate Modern, -incidentally a brand judged as 'cool', [good ] by a panel of '39' creative professionals Campaign (2012).  The criteria they used was 'innovation, originality, style, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness' - themes discussed in the debate. 

 Negative Knowledge

Ken Hay, unpicked more complexities regarding criteria and summarised that the interaction between creatives and audiences give meaning to art and that it is this that decides what is good. A view in harmony with this IPA publication. Hay ended with an interesting assertion 'art is the negative knowledge of the world'.  Which again - made me recall Hegarty, who states that Advertising is an Art not a Science -around the time he picked up the Lion of St Mark at the international festival of creativity at Cannes.

Transcending qualities

Antonia Stowe an artist involved in the Trinity Leeds development - (congratulations again Jacob as event manager) asserted the qualities of good art, in transforming Leeds. The transcending qualities of great work such as think small by DDB - springs to mind. Our (Chris, Jane & I) contributions to the debate included are can advertising be good art? and does the creation of good art depend on a particular 'process'? You already know Jenkins' response, adding that advertising cannot transcend time - old adverts are just something to laugh at and are some low form of art -a rather habbitual view I feel. Therefore as a remedy, I recommend a read of Art and Advertising by J. Gibbons who points to creatives such as Tony Kaye who employs methods and themes often associated with high art. I also recommend that we put the panel members on the invitation list to our forthcoming exhibition; 19 degrees from 17th June.