Reflecting on Kamhi: The Most Disappointing Article of All Time

I am sure that due to the title of my post, you can guess what I am going to say.  I am assuming you all will say something similar.  This week, I read Michelle Kamhi's article, Rescuing Art from 'Visual Culture Studies', based on a presentation she made at the NAEA conference in 2003.  This article is on the totally opposite spectrum from the other required read from Olivia Gude.  Michelle Kamhi's article details the current ruin of art education due to a lack of understanding of what art is.  Kamhi claims that the visual culture that is being taught in today's art classrooms, combined with abstract art, are causing the demise of art education programs.  She states, "Art teachers who have been immersed in postmodern culture, and in the postmodernist work that now passes for art, have lost sight of the salient qualities of works of visual art. As a result, their interpretations are prone to error, blurring major differences not only between painting, sculpture, and other types of imagery but also between works of visual art and artifacts that are not images at all."  Why should abstract and postmodern art be put on this level?  Just because the skills required for this artform is a bit different than that of photorealism does not mean that it should be any less important or respected.  Maybe Kamhi is missing the point of these works of art.  Later in the article, Kamhi goes into great detail to define what fine art is and essentially says that all art teachers have no understanding on the subject.

I am not sure that I have ever in my life gotten so angry when reading something as I did when I read this article.  As I was trying to understand where she was coming from, I just kept seeing a vision of some snotty woman who is better than anyone because she knows the true definition of art, which is what I was most upset by in the reading.  When I started my classes this year, we began the first day by having a discussion about art.  What is it?  Who says what it is?  Who says if it's good?  I can tell you that the answer is not Michelle Kamhi.  Art can be anything, and that's the beauty of it.  Art is anything that is created.  Anything that is designed.  Anything that has come from someone's imagination with a purpose, whether that be utilitarian or to send a message.  Kamhi's blindness to some of the greatest kinds of art (specific to abstract art, expressionism, minimalism, and even photography) just because their meaning is not as easily seen as Realist painting is unheard of.  I genuinely hope that there are not many people who side with Kamhi on this issue.