Where art thou capital A Art?
Cartoons are better than art. Discuss.
Cartoons are definitely better than art. Cartoons are well drawn and witty. Cartoonists are talented and very smart. Art by comparison is dry and boring, pedantic, and these days, preachy. And as for artists, nobody likes a scold.
But then again, when a cartoon, cooking, or anything really, gets super good, surpasses itself, we say it becomes “art.” What do we make of this apparent contradiction?
Let’s ask Michel Foucault. Foucault (a super famous philosopher, quite possibly also an artist) recalls an ancient Greek term, parrhesia, that describes a kind of fearless speech, a means of expressing oneself openly and honestly, even at great personal risk. This fearless speech is not reckless, says the philosopher, but is guided by a sense of duty towards the truth and the common good. [Ref.] [Ref. 2]
What do we make of cartoonists, jesters, fools and clowns then? Truth and common good?
Great comedians do that; bring up complicated things that make us uncomfortable (truth) and get us to laugh about them (common good). Art, and some political speech, can also broach difficult issues, but only rarely do we experience an aha moment (as in, “You know you are right about that.”) let alone guffaw. Kings and presidents of grocery store chains and countries, Machiavelli said, need fearless truth tellers within their ranks. But in the pulpit or on the soapbox? Not so much.
Like all things, I suppose, it’s a spectrum; from the banana peel to Cassandra.
Foucault got this much right, those Greeks sure knew something about truth and human nature. Cassandra was doomed to be able to see the future but never be believed. Joke’s on….
Today’s “finished” drawing above is loosely based on a famous Polish painting, shown below.
Did you know that sad clown is a psychiatric meme?