figure skating -- art at the olympics

So I’m watching olympic trials for figure skating with my wife, and I’m thinking here’s a sport without any sort of ball, without goals, without physical opposition, and yet who could question the athletic ability, or the dedication and accomplishment of the skaters? There are essentially two elements in the sport -- competing up to the very edge of impossibility, while at the same time making a practiced routine look spontaneous and effortless, dancing without friction, leaping in reduced gravity, at one with the music played. The very notion of spending months preparing for a only a few minutes on the ice, and the sheer courage required to face such a trial, represents a pinnacle of artistry. Every member of the audience analyzes like an expert, making their own estimations of degree of difficulty and ease of execution, and together they’ll even pass judgment on the judges, and let them know. They’re an awesomely knowledgable crowd making quick distinctions between bravado and bravery, costume and content, hype and heroism. They use their own eyes. 

Painters should be so lucky as to have such an audience. Let’s pretend. What would they look for? First would be degree of difficulty, and figuring it out won’t be easy. With skating, a little personal experience at the rink is helpful, and we’ve all tried art sometime, when the playground was too muddy or the gym was busy, but few bring that experience forward and apply it to the art they see. Remembering how hard it was to draw an animal an adult could recognize might inform their notion of difficulty these days, but seeing and comparing enough original art as an adult eventually does the same. The other element would be spontaneity and economy of execution, personal vision expressed without extraneous ingratiation, simple and direct. Here’s the difference. Skating, dancing, singing, acting are all art-forms best experienced live and in person, and are each ephemeral, once they’ve happened there’s only a memory. Their digital reproduction, no matter how crisp, will still seem second-hand, lacking a perceptual dimension.

A painting, along with all forms of visual art, has duration. It’s a tangible object that embodies those ideals in physical form, projecting the same elements so admired in the skaters, and all the other art-forms, ongoing. What’s been missing so far is a knowledgable audience, who while they may have their own favorites, generally agree on the level of effort and accomplishment, who apply their own experience, and who use their own eyes.