aesthetics

["Bill Urmenyi" <bill@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Bill

I would not call myself established. So far I've never actually sold a work
of art. I am certainly not an academic in the sense that I am not an art
historian or critic. I am a practitioner, I make things, all my life I have
made things. It's just that now I make art which involves the use of
electronics and engineering rather than pure electronics. I used to design
and make thickness measuring instruments for rolling mills, mainly for
aluminium foil. I have a very small factory without any staff. Now I also
help people by making things for them. I subsidise my students by making
things for them for less money than it costs me but what the heck, I'm an
artist so I've got used to working for nothing, it really does not bother
me. I am a facilitator. I make people's ideas come to life.

As for Duchamp's urinal, it is not just my proposition, it is also the
establishment's view. As I said I am not an art historian so I'm not writing
with great authority here. The reason is quite simple. This work changed the
way we think about objects and art. He simply obtained a perfectly standard
urinal signed it Mutt and displayed it as a work of art in a gallery. This
act put forward the proposition that art is art if the artists says it is
and displays it at such. It does not actually matter that he has not made
it. This was a revolutionary idea and the art world has not looked back
since. All contemporary art has its roots in that work. I'm sure that an art
historian would have put it better but such is life.

Contemporary art may look perplexing. The trick is to look beyond the
physical object. Some works are not actually offering any answers but only
questions so that can be problematic to those who are not used to viewing
them. You just need to look harder. This is not a matter of exclusion, it's
a matter of trying to move art forward. That does not mean better but
different. This has always been one of the aims of the great artists all the
way back in time.

You are trying to deal with issues that are dear to you. Well that's good.
That's what I've been talking about.

You asked how I got into art. Well there I was, minding my own business,
sitting in front of some mental porridge on the television and my superior
three quarters (other half simply does not adequately describe the
situation) said to me. Why don't you go and do evening classes (adult
recreational education) in painting? So I did some oil painting which I
enjoyed greatly. Then my darling little boy (God bless his cotton socks)
went and did an art foundation course at Chelsea. I turned green with envy
and decided that I would have a go. He gave up art and went into music but I
carried on and after my degree, I did an MA at Chelsea. So It's not where
you start but where you finish. I am now a part time tutor at Chelsea and
also at the Royal College. So when I got married life was easy, I was an
engineer and my wife was an artist. Now things have got more complicated. My
life history already.

Bill Urmenyi