Vivienne’s Diary: 14 April – 9 May

This Diary entry is long – My comments on the play about Ai Weiwei turned into a complete essay on modern art.

The  Arrest of Ai Weiwei

Quote by Howard Brenton, author of the play:
But it was also about the work: the whole play conformed to 20^th century dogma on art and Ai Weiwei is one of its missionaries, everyone – from the audience to the playwright to the actor to Ai Weiwei himself – believed his art to be worthy and true. I was shocked by the acquiescence.

Ai Weiwei still does not know why he was arrested nor why he was released; his friends thought not to see him again.

His interrogators thought they had to deal with a murderer, they always did murderers. But then they looked him up on the internet and got back to him with new accusations: he was rich, not a real artist and a fraud. “No!” was the genuine cry from the heart of Ai Weiwei. “You are an art worker.” “I am an artist.”

The interrogators studied the art world to build a case against him; they confronted him with Duchamp’s urinal and with his own work which they claimed insulted the Chinese state. Gradually Ai converted them until they finally got it: Ai’s art was for them. The art itself was not important: important was what they thought of it. “Yes!” shouted Ai.

I don’t agree. At this point, with the enactment of this statement, the play identified the crisis in art which happened at the beginning of the 20^th century with the launch of the abstract art which smashed tradition.

What follows now is my explanation of what happened. It is an attempt to puncture the dogma of the academies (Ai’s art is academic) and a testimony as to the true nature of art which leads to culture.

Abstract art denies the need for subject matter. By this you deny the value of the work in itself  – because there is no way to begin to judge it – as representing reality, as an Imitation. As an art lover, you are cut off from reality and left to your own devising, meditating on your own.

A shift has occurred from the fact that a work of art has its own intrinsic value to the pathetic idea that the value lies in the response of the observer.

Cut off from each other of course we can’t share in the work of art. We’ve all got a different idea. We can only come together by taking part in the same experience. This is culture.

Once you are cut off from tradition and the traditional view of art there is no need for skill as Duchamp demonstrated with his urinal. This could have alerted people to the need for it and sent artists back to work but they preferred the easy (but impossible) option, to repeat the shock: the shock can’t happen twice and “something different” is always a bore –  especially when it has to be explained. Simply choosing things and presenting them in a gallery or space (conceptual art) is not enough. It is certainly not original.

Without skill expression is impossible. True art is always original.

I agree with Matthew Arnold’s definition in “Culture and Anarchy”. Writing in 1869, he recommends that culture is “the great help out of our present difficulties”. Today we are dangerously short of culture and that’s why we are in this mess. Everything is connected: culture – money – politics – climate – in a terrible worthless system – all the wrong values which Climate Revolution is fighting.

Arnold’s definition: Culture is a pursuit of our total perfection
by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most
concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the
world; and through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh
and free thought upon our stock notions and habits.

 When I say there is no progress in art I mean that through the test of time the new art fits in, makes its own space in the tradition, and yes, the new art makes the world a better place.

Art is timeless and can never be obsolete. Ai thinks past art is inadequate to express today’s world. How does he know that?

I do accept that Ai’s installation “Remembering” – 9000 backpacks on the facade of a Munich art gallery in memory of dead children whose poorly constructed school buildings had collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake –succeeded with its sad message in exposing the Chinese cover up. He had previously been beaten- up for his activism. There is no doubt he is brave and sincere. In this case conceptual art worked, with its political subject matter, in communicating to our Best Self.

And yes he communicated his fanatical rejection of the past by filming himself as he smashed a precious (old) Chinese vase. No one could ever have made that vase or make it again but the man who made it. It was perfect. This rejection of the past is the received theory of our age.

20th century Iconoclasm: old art is dead; it was created for a privileged few. Smash the past! New art is for us the people;
from now on art will be democratic (actually it’s anarchic).
We’re all equal. Anybody can be an artist; anybody can have
his opinion on art. Skill blocks our creativity. We just have
to be our selves. We are art!

How about telling this to the scientist? “You are science. Close your laboratory.”

The play closed with Ai the actor somehow telling off the audience for not thinking. I agree as they had approved throughout his theory on art. He said that freedom of speech is the most important thing in the world. I agree but how much better if you have something to say.

Quote by Howard Brenton: I believe that talent is rare.

P.S. On this piece on art and culture – I will jump to my time in New York, 4 – 7 May.

I met Julie as we were both walking home from my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I had been looking at art, she worked there.

She told me how excited she had been to come to New York (from Columbia via London) and that she was disillusioned. At first she had worked waiting tables and people were angry and mean to her, though, she was so happy (She really was a lovely girl, still excited and she had a boyfriend and they were in love)

Part of the week she worked free for some artists. She felt she had so much to give and she hoped to find creative work in New York but the opportunities were rare especially for women. I didn’t ask her what specifically she would like to do: creative is such a vague and broad term.

But I felt her problem was a problem of the age in which we live and a problem of the education system.

Referring to the definition of 20^th century iconoclasm, anybody can be an artist. Art academies accept this; they function by laying down rules for success – “presentation skills” I call them.

Academic theories and their academies – a product of 18^th century Enlightenment and the French Revolution – helped to kill painting. Previously this skill was passed on practically to an apprentice who showed skill, in the workshop of a master craftsman. Through travel, patrons and artists learned what others were doing; a talented apprentice would be accepted to work with a great master. In his 50’s Rubens, in his role of Flemish ambassador to Spain, was copying the work of Titian from the royal collection in the Prado – as did the court painters Velasquez and Goya learn there and later Manet visited.

Generally speaking universal education is a blanket education that is utilitarian, meaning its useful purpose is to pass exams, get awards – diplomas and degrees, and get a job. (Tony Blair: The more you learn the more you earn).

We need to turn again to Arnold’s definition of Culture to know what a true education should achieve. Arnold also speaks of what is natural in an intelligent being, “a desire after the things of the mind for their own sakes and for the pleasure of seeing them as they are”. The pursuit of this makes us more intelligent and it also calls into play the aspirations of our Best Self to love our neighbour, to clear up confusion and misery, “the noble aspiration to leave the world better and happier than we found it”.

The modern utilitarian ethos is against the study of dead languages yet the point of studying ancient Greek and Latin was to rediscover in its original beauty and splendour the genius of the Greek mind (passed on to the Romans). This knowledge formed the Renaissance (re-birth). This example shows us the value of the past in the development of ideas.

Cut off from the study of our past by the superficial, mechanical and global education system we are cut off from the means to develop and express our Best Self and our true genius. We are left with our ordinary selves and Consumption.

Were we to follow our true path, according to our human genius we could eliminate war, create a paradise. Instead the world is heading towards destruction.

Julie, the world of success is very superficial. Everyone should use the talents they have and not imagine they can just be anything (I say, for example, that a great fashion assistant is as rare as a great designer. Not everyone can be anything: otherwise go to your neighbour and say, I think I have a brain tumour. Could you open me up and have a look?) Everyone can discover their talent by following their deep interest; this will cause you to question the world you live in and to understand it.

You get out what you put it. You can’t give yourself to the world; you can give only what you have. Then, even superficial people can appreciate what is true. Nevertheless the art lover is as important as the artist; without judges there is bad art, no art. The recipient and protagonist are equally important in an exchange of ideas.

I told Julie the story that, when I was teaching, I would send students to the art gallery and tell them, “When you pass from one room to another, think, if the fire bell went which painting you would save. If you keep going, in 6 months you would choose a different one. (Art is direct experience). You are developing your judgment; your powers of discrimination are the root of all knowledge. Self-education is the best”.

Having taken up so much space in the Diary so far, I shall nevertheless include a letter I sent to Pamela. After all, the Diary is about picking out what I think is important. I shall rush through the rest.

Sunday, 14 April:  Iris came for a week so Andreas and I spent time working with her and our other pattern cutters, And I worked on the Red Carpet collection and got her opinions regarding fabrics and fit which is so valuable. She has such an eye. It’s important to know what she likes.

During the week I squeezed in a concert with Andreas at the Barbican by the great pianist Murray Perahia. By the end of the last piece – Chopin, I wish we could have heard it all again (especially because sometimes I don’t settle down at the beginning).

Thursday, 18 April: Green Peace came to talk to us about “Save the Arctic” and about the Rainforest. I think we had some good ideas about how we can help, I’ll let you know.

John Sauven explained how Green Peace works. They are funded by the public (they need donations); their credibility rests on not accepting donations from governments or corporations. To Save the Arctic they need, as well as public support, to lobby governments and corporations and hopefully to get support from the U.N.

Look on their website what would happen if oil spilled in the Arctic. It is so crazy that the description left me with an image of not a white Arctic but a black one.

John gave me a present – a piece of intense blue canvass from the sail of the Rainbow Warrior II – which is now a hospital ship in Bangladesh.

Friday 19 April:  A photo portrait by David Simms for French Vogue.

Saturday 20 April:  Barocci exhibition at the National Gallery. Not so well-known to the frequenter of art galleries because his work is mostly in situ in Italian churches where he painted alter-pieces. Marvellous facility, very special. There’s still time to go before it closes on 19 May.

Then I met Andreas, my friend Giselle, my son Ben and his fiancée, Tomoka at the ENB where Tamara (Roja) has recently become director of the ballet. It was the middle one of the 3 ballets that knocked us out! It had a story and ballet has to have one or it isn’t complete (for me the exception is “Les Sylphides” which blends for ever with an orchestration of Chopin’s music).

What a tour de force was this ballet, “Le jeune home et la mort”. It had an existentialist feel but it projected right up to each moment as we watched. It was so original, we were in suspense. It was the creation of two geniuses, Jean Cocteau – the idea and costumes the stage effects, and Roland Petit – choreographer and husband of Zizi Jeanmaire who had danced La Mort together with Petit in the original production. I’m so glad Giselle saw it, she is French and appreciates so well the great ideas of the French (Some ideas can only be French like, for example, Duchamp’s urinal which summed up an age). Andreas loved so much the yellow dress, I think he will copy it.

Sunday 21 April:  Andreas and I went to work – still choosing fabrics. Evening. Lucky again: Andreas had got us concert tickets for the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez – and friends. Handsome, sweet, powerful, sexy, his voice and his persona expanded so that he controlled the whole space and everything in it.

Still choosing fabrics.

Wednesday 24 April:  Afternoon visit to Tottenham Hale 6^th Form College in Haringey. I talked about Climate Change and how everything is connected.
The students were concerned and asked good questions. The task now is to keep in touch with them so that they build their activism.

My daily work is still to try to pin down the choice of fabrics and Quality instead of Quantity.

Friday 26 April:  11 am. Went to demonstration to save the Bees from neonicotinoid pesticides. The EU has put a ban on it for 2 years to monitor its harm. England has opted out saying the evidence against it is not sure – they prefer to wait till it’s too late. I accompanied Katharine Hamnett to hand in a petition of 700 thousand names. Katharine said she was honoured to represent so many.

The main reason to go is everything is connected. Send this message to all the NGO’s so that we can go on each other’s marches and build massive demonstrations.  To demonstrate against a specific problem is to demonstrate about the global problem. We need to get out on the streets.

Saturday 27 April:  Vogue Conference. I was on a panel of four with Livia Firth, Katharine Hamnett, photographer Dick Page. Subject “Can fashion change the world.” Had I looked properly at the programme I wouldn’t have gone as they gave us only ¾ of an hour between us and there wasn’t time to say anything. How silly to propose such a momentous question and then ask you to give the solution in 10 minutes each. There was no time for questions and for me it was a waste of time, though I think the other panellists got their main points across.

When I was unlocking my bike to come home a young teenage boy came to me and asked if we could have a photo and when would the Climate Revolution T-shirts be back in the shop. He was quite thrilled to meet me and said, “Gosh, I think you’re my most favourite person in the world”.

Of all thousands of people who have asked me for a photo this boy touched me with his youth and his sincerity. His appreciation I shall never forget, it will fortify me. “I would love you to send me your photo – you were wearing a long hand-knit multi-stripe scarf. I will send you a tee shirt.”

Monday 29 April:  My son Ben married Tomoka. I am sure they will be happy. I was very pleased to see my first husband, Derek with his wife, Jean and family. A good man.

Tuesday 30 April:   Sam Branson came to talk to Cynthia and me. I don’t have time to tell you what we discussed. I’ll tell you when something comes of it. It is good to meet up with people who are doing stuff. Discuss mutual support, join the dots. I’m interested in what his dad is doing. I didn’t know about Richard’s big idea, The Elders which includes Mandela http://www.theelders.org/ . If we could get Mandela to re-iterate the support he has previously spoken of for Leonard, the Mandela of the Indians that would be ace.. Mandela and Peltier were both targeted for the same reason. The ruling power wanted to suppress their claims for justice.  We must hang on to the idea like Siddhartha. So that we reach our aim as easily as a stone falling through water.

Later Lorna came and we spoke to Leonard on the phone – he’s allowed to phone her. I worry about what to say to him, I can only tell him how he inspires us with his courage. It was lovely talking to him; he has a rich full voice.

Friday 3 May:   More or less chosen the fabrics. We kept changing our minds about going to New York because I’m not very interested about the punk past though I love the clothes. But we finally decided ‘yes’ – because we wanted to be polite to the Met and express our thanks and also to Anna Wintour. In that case my one important purpose was to express support for Bradley Manning.

I’ll say more of Bradley plus a few impressions of my visit to New York in the next Diary. The important thing right now is that we have to build the campaign to support Bradley Manning. We need you at the demonstration at the American Embassy in London, 2.00, 1 June. I’ll be there! – Click for Bradley Manning’s ‘TRUTH’ template. (Print, insert in plastic sleeve, pin it to yourself).
We need to get out on the streets for this and for other demonstrations. Why? Not only in support of each specific demonstration but because everything is connected Climate Change is caused by our rotten financial system. This system is designed to create mass poverty and to syphon off any profits for a few/Big Business.

This system is backed up by politics and by war. Everything is connected – the power structure needs its victims to prove its power and maintain it. Culture is especially important. We live in a global consumer society – no matter how poor you are, this is the ethic. Consumers just suck things up, whereas true culture is got by investing in the world, by learning all the best that has ever been shown, thought and said. From this you review and criticise all the received opinions and stock notions (Propaganda) of the present age.

Human Rights are connected; Bradley is a danger to the Power Structure.  Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime but Bradley now faces life in prison for sharing a video with Wikileaks of a US helicopter attack that killed 11 civilians and wounded two children in Baghdad.

When you fight for Bradley, you fight to save the world from Climate Change.

By fighting for every cause we hope to build a giant movement – ON THE STREETS. This is Climate Revolution.

Thursday, 9 May: Tai Missoni died.  A big Romance, a lovely family, a good business with knits loved throughout the world. They lost their son, Vittorio, in January. Rosita, you have all always been so nice. Bless you all.