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Q. What is this `artsy fartsy` photography
Asked by Gerry Siegel
(K=927) on 6/6/1999
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Excuse the vulgarism, but this is one curious phrase. "Artsy-fartsy" is just how a friend described what she was expected to produce at a photo workshop. She couldn't explain further, but the expression said it wasn't what she expected. I think I know what commercial looks like. (Products, food, weddings, graduation formals, house interiors...) And then there is this "fine art" lump. (I picture flowers, waves on the shore, gulls in flight, out of focus Christmas ornaments, that sort of thing.) Now is "artsy fartsy" another category? Unabridged Webster just says "arty" or "pretentious." So what does it mean?
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Robert Lyman
(K=177) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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Hi
According to my understanding, it's just another outcropping of good old american prejudice. I don't know if there is any significance to the word "fartsy", I think it is used simply because it rhymes and is insulting. The phrase is an over-all way of expressing contempt for art (in the larger sense, so it includes poetry, music, etc.) artists, and people who like art. I don't believe it has an exact meaning. It is a way of taking all of the stereotypes about art, (frivolous, elitist, effeminate, arrogant, etc.), and lumping them all together in one short, easy to remember, phrase.
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John MacPherson
(K=1342) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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I think that in the "artsy-farty" phrase, the "fartsy" bit hints at the content of the "art" as constituting just so much hot air. Taking up loads of space but ultimately coming to nothing. A bit like my response I suppose!
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Howard Creech
(K=3161) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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Contrived, affected, "phony", no substance, designed to appeal to critics/art intelligentsia...as opposed to "art" which says something about the artist, something about the culture in which it is created, and something about what Ellis referred to as real work.
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Alan Gibson
(K=2734) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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It's not just American, the term 'arty-farty' (without the 's') has been used in the UK for decades, usually by the visually illiterate to mean that they don't understand, and don't want to. Yes, you guessed it, my photos have been called 'arty-farty'.
I even heard someone say, just last week, "I used black and white to get an arty-farty look". Well, as I now only use B&W, I suppose I really am arty-farty.
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Pico diGoliardi
(K=1327) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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For a humorous and pertinent response, read a recent essay by Duane Michaels in which he describes the Fartist: one who cannot differentiate between Art and Fashion.
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John Kantor
(K=1664) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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Beginning with the Post-War (WWII) period, there has been a merging of the "high" and "low" arts categories - or really, I should say that there has been an erosion of high art at the expense of the low. This is due both to the leveling of society, which has eliminated an "upper" class which privileged education and the development of artistic "taste," and the rise of mass media, which has broadened the audience for all art as well as repackaged high art in more easily digestible forms (such as popularized remakes of Shakespeare's plays like "10 Things I Hate About You").
To the average person today "Art" exists only in museums and in encyclopedias - two places they go only under the duress of a school assigment - while "art" consists of collections of unicorn figurines, calendars depicting babies made up as flowers, and Ansel Adams picture postcards (though they'd be hard-pressed to identify him as the photographer).
In a society that is emphasizing vocational skills at the expense of education (the current college curriculum for an engineer has little in the way of traditional education - there's no time for that nor any observable salary gain for the effort), "artsy-fartsy" is the term for anything that fails to evoke an immediate "awww" response. Essentially, what used to be considered high art has had its context pulled out from under it - leaving it as nothing but the subject of ironic self-commentary. Like it or not, "Artsy-fartsy" and kitsch are the two poles of contemporary pop-culture.
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tom meyer
(K=2752) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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John!.... what clarity! and with a commendable lack of cynicism. Your explanation goes in my book of quotes! thanks...t
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tom meyer
(K=2752) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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well, maybe commendably controlled cynicism...t
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Gerry Siegel
(K=927) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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This is why I like Alan's forum. You gents,especially John Kantor, take what I decided the second after I sent it was a pretty shallow,what-the-hell question and give it a spin that's fairly profound. Thanks. Anyway,I am beginning to get the picture. In the instance of my friend Mrs L., she was probably being "cutesy," a little self deprecatory too for investing money in her Nature workshop, with an undercurrent of pride I suspect. (I used to think "avant garde" was a descriptive, not so value-ridden term, but it is little used these days. Everything seems to have a subtext) This is a lady who believes her photography hobby must pay its way. That gives a strong clue.
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Shayok Mukhopadhyay
(K=109) - Comment Date 6/7/1999
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It's not just American, the term 'arty-farty' (without the 's') has been used in the UK for decades,...
I think it's not just American, or English either, I think such terms are prevalent in pretty much all societies (speaking for Bengal, definitely).
...usually by the visually illiterate to mean that they don't understand, and don't want to.
I think that's a fantastically precise description of people who use these kind of terms. It is usually used in reference to visual stuff (paintings, movies) that is expected to show the likeness of something or tell the story of something but deviates from this expectation.
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Trib
(K=2701) - Comment Date 6/8/1999
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to me it adds a connotation to the "fine-art" morass of normally "high-falutin" multi-multi-syllabic art terms. This is blending some more current topics but to me pretentious is pretentious and artsy-fartsy is art for art's sake. More particularly "artsy-fartsy" is a fun word to say..."artsy-fartsy" try it (hehehee) see wasn't that fun? and moreover an impotent nearly harmless word on the order of "avant garde a clue". Now on the other hand ART-FAG... that's a word! Much more dangerous, more thrilling to post and say... an offensive and reckless beeeyoot of a word and probably at it's most thrilling in mixed company at an opening. Well somewhere this side of a huge dip of snuff(chewin' tabackey) in your lip.
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Dan Smith
(K=1407) - Comment Date 6/9/1999
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Try it as two basic ideas. One is the style of work of many who are described by the song title "The Great Pretender". Those who are basically copying, pretending to produce something significant yet wouldn't recognize any art work of significance without someone or some guide by their side to explain it. Those for whom pretension is a way of life. A second would be the result of the attitude of those who "won't" understand, appreciate or take the effort to look seriously at anything outside their own personal prejudices. Most aptly described by the infamous line in "The Blues Brothers" movie by the barmaid when asked what kind of music was played at the bar, "We have both kinds, Country AND Western", as if nothing else beyond their small world was of any worth. The term is used in many contexts, one of the main I have seen being to put down those in a group who would aspire to greater accomplishment than those around them.
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Robert Lyman
(K=177) - Comment Date 6/10/1999
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I guess I agree with John's basic premis, but I am a virulent cynic. The phrase is not about the differences between one style of art and another. It is a reflection of the overall view of "fine-art" that is constantly propagated in the popular culture. It is about the "just plain folks" snobism that masquerades as humility in many people's minds. It's use and prevalence are proof that the "dumbing down" of America is alive and well.
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John Kantor
(K=1664) - Comment Date 6/10/1999
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I'm old enough (unfortunately) to have seen a couple of trends in pop culture come, go, and then return. The younger generation, lacking that perspective, can be naive, but also extremely enthusiastic and optimistic. (Teaching freshman english for 6 years taught me that.) Ideally, age should bring that missing perspective to that boundless energy and optimism; unfortunately it usually only brings with it cynicism.
The great thing about pop culture (any culture) is that it's always re-inventing itself - even if it's in its own (past) image. Except in these rather esoteric posts I don't try to classify anything as Art, art, Artsy-fartsy, kitsch, or anything else anymore. Unless you make your living in one of the niche areas that still depends on these categories (parts of the established arts community such as critics, galleries, art historians, etc.), there is no reason to worry about them. These categories have lost their usefulness in our postmodern world. The trick is to be able to see through the eyes of an 18-year-old again - where the world in which they live is the best of all possible worlds - but to do so without losing the perspective, knowledge, and skills that experience brings.
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Gerry Siegel
(K=927) - Comment Date 6/10/1999
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Well I don't know about that. A symbol is at least useful for opening a discussion and deciding on a community of meaning,or a shared perspective about something abstract. That the symbols and expressions attached to them change is likewise interesting. The perspective of youth,ah yes,- at least its freshness,- is not so much naivete as unwillingness to be too soberly serious about "Art,"and that I can admire. As a paid up member of the Ye Old Farte Club, I still think I can reinvent myself. I just don't have time for cynicism, because as Lily Tomlin said, no matter how hard I try I can't keep up. Aloha, GS
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james mickelson
(K=7344) - Comment Date 6/13/1999
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If'n it ain't a good ole pitchur, it be artsy fartsy. Like thet thar pichur uv elvis on thet thar wall. Yeu know, the one thet's on the velvet. Lumberjack (thanks trib)
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Rich Furman
(K=77) - Comment Date 6/15/1999
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Art makes no statement, it just is. Atrsy-Farty makes the statement "Check out the statement I'm making, aren't I profound?" Kitsch makes the statement "hang me in the bathroom and I will amuse you on the throne."
Although I don't like Ansel Adams' work, I do consider it art. I like Weston, his too is art.
Jerry Uellsmann, like most surrealists, is artsy fartsy. Artsy Fartsy is about playing a college-sophomore mind-game with the viewer. It is struggling for epiphany where there is none to be had.
Kitsch wins most of Pop Photo's contests.
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Rich Furman
(K=77) - Comment Date 6/15/1999
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Oh, and Tribby -- I fled Grad-School to escape all that noise you made above. Now, thanks to you, I'm having flashbacks and some men in nice white coats are coming to take me away.
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Struan Gray
(K=1802) - Comment Date 6/17/1999
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'Artsy-fartsy' is a wonderful, democratic insult, used by both those who love the non-obvious and those that hate it. Only Dan seems to have touched on the former usage, but it's where I hear the term most often. It's usually employed to put down copycats and to disparage those who mechanically produce 'art' for a marketplace dominated by safe choices and over-respect for other people's supposedly expert opinions.
I confidently expect huge waves of Nan Goldin wannabees to don the artsy-fartsy mantle in the near future. They join the seekers of the Holy Tripod Hole, the me-too camera wobblers, the dull-trees-on-IR-film folk and, worst of all, those bottom-dwelling picture editors who think that photoshopping in fake black edgings (all with the same frame number and the wrong emulsion codes) will magically infuse their publications with artistic integrity.
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