“Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
In our post-enlightenment, post-Christian world, artists and artisans are perhaps most susceptible to vanity. The message for more than a hundred years now has been that society values the artist who stays true to their personal vision. To support this we see the wealthiest members of society paying huge sums for “art” that would have Duchamp proud.
This vanity of the artist, fueled by large sums of money is on display every year in December at the Art Basel show in Miami, Florida.
In December of 2019, Maurizio Cattelan caused a stir by displaying a banana, duct taped to a wall. Three editions of this “art” were sold, the first two for $120,000 each and the third at the increased price of $150,000.
The banana itself would not last very long so what the purchaser’s actually received was a certificate of art, with instructions from Cattelan that when the banana begins to rot the purchaser could replace it with a fresh banana and it would still be considered an “original” Cattelan. In short, for $120,000 or $150,000 the purchaser bought the idea, rather than the art.
But of course you cannot purchase an idea. The commodities that are really traded at venues such as Art Basel are fame, notoriety, and money, lots of money. And stories such as this tempt those with artistic talent to take a similar path.
Now of course artists do need money as much as everyone else. They have bills to pay and families to support. But the image of the struggling artist, sacrificing everything, including their health for the sake of their art, their personal vision, is a Victorian construct. The reality is that, artists struggling to make ends meet, are just like the majority of people in the world.
And like the majority of people in the world they are enticed by seemingly easy money. All they have to do is indulge in their own whims and call it art. “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity!”
Artists have a unique calling in the world as several popes have pointed out.
Pope Paul VI was a great supporter of the arts. In the first year of his pontificate he addressed artisans and said in part, (the document is only available in Italian) “It is your tradition, it is your glory, that of having been able to merge the two main activities of man: the fatigue of the hands, work, and the spiritual effort, prayer, in the same and harmonious and normal program of life. (translation by Google).
The treasure that changes hands at Art Basel, not only the money but the celebrity status as well, are of this world and are passing things. Life is brief; if we put all our trust and effort in the things of this world they will leave us empty. Jesus tells us to store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven that is eternal and not susceptible to rot.
We do this by listening to the voice of God, not the voice of the world. All gifts are given to build up the Church and the Body of Christ, not to indulge in our own selfish wants and desires. The artistic expression is as different and varied as artists themselves, but it is the intent of the artist that separates vanity from a true desire to help humanity by adding beauty to the world.
Artists, remember who you are, the great gifts you have received, and the work that you have been given in order to employ those gifts.
At the close of the second Vatican Council Pope Paul VI addressed artists with this very message. The address is short.
“We now address you, artists, who are taken up with beauty and work for it: poets and literary men, painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, men devoted to the theater and the cinema. To all of you, the Church of the council declares to you through our voice: if you are friends of genuine art, you are our friends.
The Church has long since joined in alliance with you. You have built and adorned her temples, celebrated her dogmas, enriched her liturgy. You have aided her in translating her divine message in the language of forms and figures, making the invisible world palpable. Today, as yesterday, the Church needs you and turns to you. She tells you through our voice: Do not allow an alliance as fruitful as this to be broken. Do not refuse to put your talents at the service of divine truth. Do not close your mind to the breath of the Holy Spirit.
This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. It is beauty, like truth, which brings joy to the heart of man and is that precious fruit which resists the wear and tear of time, which unites generations and makes them share things in admiration. And all of this is through your hands. May these hands be pure and disinterested. Remember that you are the guardians of beauty in the world. May that suffice to free you from tastes which are passing and have no genuine value, to free you from the search after strange or unbecoming expressions. Be always and everywhere worthy of your ideals and you will be worthy of the Church which, by our voice, addresses to you today her message of friendship, salvation, grace and benediction.” CLOSING OF THE SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, ADDRESS OF POPE PAUL VI TO ARTISTS, 8 December 1965
Pax vobiscum.