Procrustes,
son of Poseidon, was a figure in Greek story who lived in Attica (sorry, not
Attica, NY or the prison but a region in which is the city of Athens,
Greece). A rude and discourteous fellow,
Procrustes was said to take passersby and lie them down on a bed. If too short, then he would stretch them out
until they fit; if too long, then he would chop off the excess until they did
(as in the vase-painting here).
While
that’s enough to make him a candidate for Attica state prison, it has also
become a figure of speech to describe particular judgements made with
preconceived standards. Granted, any
judgement has a preconceived standard according to some foundational
understanding as to what is appropriate.
And yet, it is one thing to judge the weight of a guinea pig and another
to judge the best flavor of ice cream.
An
Latin adage says it best, de
gustibus non disputandum est or “there’s no point arguing about taste.”
Does
this apply to the visual Fine Arts? I
think so. It’s one thing to judge an
artwork based upon some formal application of what the artist was trying to
accomplish and it is another to make those distinctions according to what you
think it should present.
E.g.,
if the artist was painting a still-life, then one may make distinctions based
upon that. Of course, it’s not just any
still-life as there is more than one way to do this. And so, one makes leeway for the artist’s
take on the method and the subject matter instead of presuming that there is
only one acceptable way.
The
latter indicates the standard of the Procrustean bed by presuming a
preconceived standard. The “bed” is the
preconceived notion as to what is Art, and in making decisions as to how an
artwork is Art, unless one can stretch or shorten the artwork’s ideas to fit
the standard, then likely the Procrustean critic will dismiss the artwork.
I
know that it’s a challenge to me to review unfamiliar artwork that doesn’t meet
what I would consider to be hallmarks of intriguing expression. That’s why, usually, I tend to caution. This wasn’t always the case as decades ago I
would be too quick to dismiss artwork that didn’t meet whatever was my standard.
Now,
however, I try to meet the artwork on its own terms in the dialogue between
viewer and Art. It’s not easy, and
sometimes I still tend to think that “this looks like…” or “this should be more
like…” instead of allowing the art to speak as Art and for itself.
