Man, this thread is covering a lot of ground. Beginning with Prof’s attempt to integrate a Rat Rod into the Art paradigm using as a measure, the ‘art’ of Design, then, for good measure throwing in a Giacometti or two as if to say, these little stick figures are crudely done and then invite the question;
if it’s alright for Fine (or Highbrow) Art why isn’t it alright for Lowbrow art?
And therein lies the vexed question of what is art. Entire careers of educated and intelligent scholars have been devoted to this cause, and the debate still continues, albeit the same questions are asked and answered in never-ending marvels of novelty, artifice and sometimes scholarship.
I rather like an old Chinese proverb which divides art and the artist into three groups:
The third (lowest) rank of artist paints what he sees
The second rank of artist paints ideas
The first rank of artist is the collector who may buy one or the other or both
Design, for the most part being highly visual usually falls into the first Chinese category. As with any artistic endeavours there are exceptions and crossovers. The Rat rod question now becomes; is this an extension of automotive design, or such a departure in thinking about what an automobile is, that the Rat rod becomes Fine Art.
To use the Giacometti sculptures as example, in creating his stick like sculptures Giacometti asked; if sculpture usually depicts man as fully fleshed and realistic then can sculpture also depict man in a different way, are not my depictions also of man, is not this idea a valid one? For if you understand what is a man then you must accept that other views and ideas of what a man can be are also valid. Parallel to this question is; if this idea is accepted then by definition the idea of what sculpture is must also change. In opening up a new way of thinking he became an artist who made ideas and expressed them through the medium of sculpture.
So, has the Rat rod opened up an idea, a new way of thinking about what an automobile might be, or become? Is the Rat rod the embodiment of “Punk Music” in the car world? When the Punks, fed up with the status quo of music, branched out by inventing a new way to play and listen to their music they spoke for a new generation which needed to express their ideas by disrupting the prevailing idea that music must be melodious, keep time, and be all the things that music was supposed to be.
The Rat rod is as different to automotive design as Punk is to Mozart. If Mozart is the embodiment of classical music, and if classic automotive design is the embodiment of Design, then does that make Punk music and Rat rods lesser, or the embodiment of ideas for our time. The original Punk musicians are now regarded as seminal influencers on the music scene, and I wouldn’t mind speculating that the first Rat rods were built by visual artists in the Punk vein. All that remains to be decided is, is Punk music and the Rat rod high brow or low brow art?
And I wonder if they even care...
It's all good, even if its bad...
