The French writer, Andre Gide, once said, “art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” (well Google says he said it). Gide died in 1951 and therefore he missed out on smart phone apps. If he had lived on and managed to download a handful of camera apps for his iPhone, he might have considered amending his little homily to, “art is a collaboration between Apps and the artist, and the less the artist does the better“.
My recent experimentation with smartphone apps leads me to question much of the accepted narrative of art history. Were the likes of Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Monet artistic geniuses way ahead of their time, or did they have access to a Beta version of Adobe’s new Photoshop Camera App? There are enough conspiracy theories going the rounds at the moment and I am reluctant to add to them – but I think we are due an explanation.
alanburnett.com 