from Lawrence, SATURDAY (JULY & SEPT) PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The Function of Art Today

Dear friends

To end the season this coming Saturday we are discussing: The Function
of Art Today.

Next week I'll send out the email to meet on Sundays for drinks during
August. Presumably the same set up we had last year was fine: meet 7pm
Sunday at the Cafe Commercial inside. Let me know if this is ok.

In the meantime Ruel has sent us the link to his essay:
Hello Lawrence,
Here is the link to the very short essay I wrote on Saturday's topic:
https://ruelfpepa.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/the-function-of-art-today/
Hope to see you soon after your vacation.
All the best,
Ruel

-----me
The function of art today is probably the same as it has always been
over the centuries and millennia. Art, as in paintings and sculpture,
conveys messages in the visual form. The message itself might be to
visually please the viewer. But today art is ubiquitous in the form of
advertising, packaging, graphic design and multi media. Art has always
been an important element in commerce especially in retail and fashion.

But of course, art is not only imagery and visual, art can be music and
literature and these also play a key role in today's commercial world.

Hence, art is not only paintings in a museum or an opera at the theatre.
Every day we make aesthetic decisions when we go to work or meet
friends. The clothes we wear are an elaborate dance of shapes and
colours not only to look attractive or stand out from the others, but of
course to identify the function they are supposed to perform. Fashion is
a personal statement of our aesthetic values and this is true even if we
profess that we are not interested in fashion. Anything we wear is a
statement about our aesthetic values. And rejecting fashion is no less a
fashion statement than being a slave to the latest trends.

The biggest challenge for us today is to understand aesthetical values
because we are constantly being exploited in a society where money is
the first value we hold sacred and art plays a key role in parting with
our money. And the challenge is to make the spending of money a pleasant
experience hopefully to repeat the experience.

In the meantime art has an important place in our life today, the only
danger is that art works so well and is so successful that we might be
mesmerised by the art but fail to evaluate the function of the gadgets
we need for our life.

Best Lawrence


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Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
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PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
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Metro: Bilbao
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Thursdays at Triskel in c/San Vicente Ferrer 3.
Time: from 19:30 to 21h
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from Lawrence, SATURDAY (JULY & SEPT) PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The
Function of Art Today