How Art Can Change Society, with Sarah Lewis
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Sarah Lewis, curator and the author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, on art as a galvanic force.
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Sarah Lewis:
Sarah Lewis is a bestselling author and art historian. She has served on President Barack Obama's Arts Policy Committee, been selected for Oprah's “Power List," and is a faculty member at Yale University, School of Art in the MFA program. In the fall of 2014, she will be at Harvard University as a Du Bois Fellow.
Her book, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery (2014) is a layered, story-driven investigation of how innovation, discovery, and the creative progress are all spurred on by advantages gleaned from the improbable, the unlikely, even failure. Her second book focused on on Frederick Douglass, photography, and the American Civil War, will be released by Harvard University Press in 2016.
She has held positions at both the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art. Her essays on contemporary art have been published widely in magazines such as the New Yorker, Artforum and Art in America, and in publications including Rizzoli, the Smithsonian, The Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
She is currently a board member of The Andy Warhol for the Visual Arts, the CUNY Graduate Center, the Harvard Alumni Association, and The Brearley School.
She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University, an M. Phil from Oxford University, and her Ph.D. from Yale University. She lives in New York City.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Sarah Lewis: One of the reasons that I love writing about the arts, curating work is not even so much that you’re able to honor one person’s expression and pay tribute to that. But because of how much it can shift things in us. Frederick Douglas during the Civil War surprised his audience when he spoke about this idea. His idea was that it wouldn’t be combat that would get America to have a new vision of itself but pictures, right. Pictures, he said. And the thought pictures that they create in the mind are the way that we can kind of slip in the back door by rational thought and see the world differently. I love that. His speech was called "Pictures and Progress" and then he retitled it "Life Pictures."
And as I came across his speech I thought this is why I do what I do. How many movements have begun in the world when one person’s work, one song, one impactful aesthetic experience shifted things entirely for a leader, for a group of people. The environmental movement really catalyzed and began when we saw that earth rise image taken from the Apollo VIII. And we saw that our world was in an environment that we needed to honor. Or think about the way that Brown versus the Board of Education would not have had Charles Black there, that constitutional lawyer if he hadn’t seen Louis Armstrong perform that night in 1931 in Austin, Texas. And in that moment say to himself well there is genius coming out of this man’s horn. And if there’s genius in this black man then segregation must be wrong.
And to know in that moment that he was walking towards justice as he put it when he describes what got him to be on the Brown versus Board of Education case. There’s so many examples where really aesthetic force more than rational argument alone has been what has shifted and turned the tide in the face of massive injustice. So I think of the arts as far more than just a respite from life, a kind of a luxury. I see it as a galvanic force really that undergirds some of our most impactful changes and movements in this country and in this world.
Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Dillon Fitton
One of the reasons that I love writing about
the arts, you know, curating work is not even so much that you're able to honor one person's
expression and pay tribute to that. But because of how much it can shift things in us, you
know. Frederick Douglas during the Civil War surprised his audience when he spoke about
this idea, you know. His idea was that it wouldn't be combat that would get America
to have a new vision of itself but pictures, right. Pictures, he said. And the thought
pictures tha
t they create in the mind are the way that we can kind of slip in the back
door by rational thought and see the world differently. I love that. His speech was called
Pictures and Progress and then he retitled it Life Pictures. And as I came across his speech I thought
this is why I do what I do, you know. How many movements have begun in the world when
one person's work, one song, one impactful aesthetic experience shifted things entirely
for a leader, for a group of people, you know. The enviro
nmental movement really catalyzed
and began when we saw that earth rise image, you know, taken from the Apollo VIII. And
we saw that our world was in an environment that we needed to honor. Or think about the
way that Brown versus the Board of Education would not have had Charles Black there, that
constitutional lawyer if he hadn't seen Louis Armstrong perform that night in 1931 in Austin,
Texas. And in that moment say to himself well there is genius coming out of this man's horn.
And if there's
genius in this black man then segregation must be wrong. And to know in that moment that he was walking
towards justice as he put it when he describes what got him to be on the Brown versus Board
of Education case, you know. There's so many examples where really aesthetic force more
than rational argument alone has been what has shifted and turned the tide, you know,
in the face of massive injustice. So I think of the arts as far more than just a respite
from life, a kind of a luxury. I see it
as a galvanic force really that undergirds some
of our most impactful changes and movements in this country and in this world.
Comments
This is what I've been saying for a long time. Art is very important to humans and all our different societies.
Gotta love the joy in her smile
Powerful trumpeting of Creativity, the Arts and our Human Potential. Amazing!
When she first said "..you know.." with her calm voice that tranquilizes me in a way that I don't know why I am hearing this for the third time while eating my meal and my plate is clean already.
Very inspiring! And true. Beautiful smile btw
A beautiful Lady with beautiful ideas!!
Excellent....Lead with imagery and the words will follow...
I do have to say this put a more of a perspective view on how I can see art in many different forms, such as with a law case and with pictures, rather than only paintings. It shows that there is much more to see than just on the surface and many people, (including myself), need to be viewing the details of art that can be presented in many ways.
It's a revelation! Glory is not in one's own glory!
Yes, what a great person to listen to.
You can't forget though that art has both a positive and negative influence in changing the world. If you take the documentary "The Act of Killing" , creators of this documentary had former Indonesian death-squad leaders reenact their killings in their OWN movies. As you watch this doc you learn that these death-squad leaders looooved big Hollywood films that really influenced them to be just like the guys they see in the movies. And it was only in his old age, reenacting the fear of the people he killed, did one of the death squad leaders start vomiting and coming to the realization of what he had done. This situation is something that seems to have come full circle, from art giving these leaders the inspiration to go kill to art giving them the inspiration to learn what atrocities they committed.
Thank you, yes. May I have more please?
Great video. I never thought about it this way.
Beautiful.
Evolution at work. Thank you!
The #Woman , in her essence and itself, is the most #beautiful piece of #art .
It's not the first time this thought has come to me. In our country, the conservative government want to cut the arts, to keep the arts minimised, and I always considered this to be an effort to destroy societies will, to prevent them from having power. It is far too important to be marginalised.
As an artist and philosopher, I very much agree with Sarah. Also, this woman is so beautiful that I had some serious difficulty concentrating.
I completely understand and agree with what she's saying. Apart from when she said 'Lewis' Armstrong.
She has the friendliest looking smile I've ever seen