The Age of the Artless
We visted our local art gallery a few weeks ago. It was one of the best exhibitions I’ve seen. Monet’s Water Lillies was the anchor piece and attracted enough of a crowd to justify central position, the tasteful lighting, and the included bench seating. As amazing as it was to see Monet’s masterful use of colour and space, what amazed me more were the other artworks included - some of which I never thought I’d see: Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Cezanne, Gaugin, Frankenthaler, Hofmann, Rauschenberg, AD Reinhardt, Albers, Matisse, Mondrian, Richard Diebenkorn, Grace Hartigan. When the swirling yellow haystacks of a Vincent van Gogh occupies a humble corner, you know the exhibition is full of the heavy hitters of the art world from the last century. I went for the Frankenthaler and left amazed at the breadth of art on show.
Imagine my disappointment when I continue to see justifications for art generated by ai with human prompting. The loudest voices seem to emanate from the least skilled: the sellers and marketers, the grifters who imagine themselves now as artists, the basement dwellers who see an opportunity to flog products for coin. I shouldn’t be surprised, as the technorati in charge of the ai push are themselves artless souls who don’t understand human connection (central to all art). The leaders have their cult members.
We’re told by the ai cadre that art is the idea and the outcome. That the process doesn’t really matter. That ai is just a neutral tool and humans are still in charge of the art (technology is rarely apolitical - just consider the overinvestment in ai and the close ties between the US tech companies and the vacuous Trump regime). That the art world is full of jealous gatekeepers who fear the democratisation of talent through ai. Yet, all of this misses one of the crucial pillars of art: the process between the idea and the artwork is not just something we should shortcut - it is where most of the art happens. Engagement with a medium, including the pitfalls, decisions, changes in direction, and re-engagement with the idea, is the glowing core.
When Monet wielded the brush, his decisions were thousandfold - brush type, pigment, angle, pressure. Every decision was catapulted through an initial vision and modified through sheer physicality and presence before a giant canvas. With every stroke, the idea for Water Lillies would have lived and mutated as physical engagement with the work became inseperable from the initial vision. No matter how many hours are spent modifying prompts on a glowing screen, the output will lack the physical process that’s evident in every stroke on Monet’s surface. The journey is the point. The idea is just a beginning.
Artists are often lectured to by the artless that we’ll be left behind if we don’t learn new tools - as though ai is a simple hammer rather than something that can build the entire house. But is the potter at the wheel feeling left behind because they practice an ancient artform with equally ancient tools? Is the oil painter at all concerned they are practicing in the shadows of the great Renaissance artists? Technological progress is often more about the dry stories of economists and globe spanning corporations with investments rather than the day to day activities of artists. And the idea that technology is an ever advancing narrative that replaces preceding technologies is just another illusion often peddled by artless moneymakers.
I’ve been around serious artists and musicians at different times in my life. I can’t think of a single one who’d give up the hard work of creation so they can outsource it to an ai bot. Artists, real artists, understand that the idea is just a small part of art. They understand that the art itself isn’t just a product - it’s a reflection of their inner state. Artists understand that art is a special kind of very human communication that transcends the everyday grind and creates meaning in a terrifying universe.
Ai serves the interest of the artless because it beguiles people with a hall of mirrors. It encloses art, skill, and people, and robs us of meaningful communication through shared art. Those who complain about art world gatekeepers mistake art for a unit to be sold for profit. Likely, they fear picking up a brush or a pencil in case they fail. At best, they simply midunderstand what art is. At worst, they are empty vessels in search of profits from the gullible.
I have no time for the artless archons. I have no tolerance for the profit-seeking enclosure of human art, labour, meaning, and skill.
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