Defining art

Young Chang

What is art?

We ask that question this weekend as South Coast Repertory opens

previews of “Art,” Orange Coast College closes “Picasso at the Lapin

Agile” and Corona del Mar artist Tony DeLap’s new exhibit is hung at the

Orange County Museum of Art.

In “Art,” a contemporary play by Yasmina Reza, three best friends

argue during dinner about the value of a recently purchased painting made

up of shades of white and nothing else. Serge, played by Stephen Merkle,

bought the piece. One of his friends doesn’t think it’s worth anything.

The other tries to take both sides. The friendships nearly break.

In “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” written by comedian Steve Martin and

directed by OCC theater professor John Ferzacca, Einstein meets Picasso

and the two square off in an art-versus-science match.

But what are these characters arguing about? Is a painting with only

slight gradations of one color good or bad art? Is an artist different

from a scientist although both are creators? Are there rules in art? Can

one define art?

Local cast members, directors, a visual artist and museum visitors

gave the Pilot their answers.

The organized creation of anything. This is art to “Picasso” director

Ferzacca. But the artist has to be able to repeat what he did.

“I have actors that can do something once,” he said. “But a real actor

has to do it again and again and again. Art is something you have

contained in yourself.”

And there are a few rules. They differ from medium to medium, but

artists in each discipline need to know the rules to break them, Ferzacca

said.

“It’s like a river. When you watch a river, all you notice is the flow

of the river, but what contains that river are banks or the shores,” he

said. “The rules are the shores. When you see the river you don’t see the

shores, but without them the water wouldn’t be contained.”

But the rules, in life and on stage, vary. In “Picasso,” Einstein,

played by Scott Ratner, says there is an art to science because in the

same way artists create with their imagination, so do scientists.

Einstein insists that both capture reality through art. Picasso, played

by Craig Fleming, at first says science has nothing to do with art.

Ratner, speaking out of character, says he would not accept any one

true definition that something is or is not art.

“Art is a personal expression of beauty,” he said. “There may be

absolute rules of what is beautiful and what is not. However, as a whole

I seriously doubt humans are fully capable of fully knowing what those

rules are.”

The actor said one thing could be beautiful for its seamlessness and

perfection, while another could be beautiful because it is imperfect.

Fleming, who plays Picasso, points out the distinction between art

today and art in the past: it’s become mostly a commodity. This is why

the question, ‘what is art,’ is an important one, he said.

His answer is one he thinks would differ from most people’s.

“I think most people think art is a subject, a thing or a noun,” he

said. “I think art is a process, a verb. Art is a way of looking at

things, a way of conversing about things.”

Picasso had a way of looking and thinking about the world. He changed

art in the 20th century, Fleming said, and challenged how people saw

things.

“And if art is truly a way of thinking and challenging and a way of

talking, that’s what science is as well,” he concluded.

Tony DeLap, a painter and sculptor from Corona del Mar whose

sculptural paintings are a combination of the two and three dimensional,

wholly agrees that art is a way of thinking.

“It’s a lifetime of work and thinking about one’s work and what an

artist thinks art is,” he said. “What evolves, hopefully, is an

expression that is very particular to yourself.”

DeLap’s exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach

opened Friday. He plays with themes of illusion, magic and edges in his

works. For others, the edge may be where the painting ends, he said. For

him, the edges have content.

One of his pieces, titled “The Floating Beam,” is a long wooden beam

with clear blocks of plexiglass on both ends that extends from one wall

of the room to another.

His other works have sloped edges, differently shaped bases and

multiple geometric pieces that are hung together to form one separate but

whole piece.

Bruce Guenther, guest curator for DeLap’s exhibit, recognizes history

in his art.

“His work questions as much art as the 20th century has done,”

Guenther said. “It questions the historic assumptions about what is a

painting and what is a sculpture and how do they mix.”

For him, art is, among other things, something that recognizes history

and works with the materials of present time.

Mark Rucker, director for “Art” and artistic associate for South Coast

Repertory, said he would not buy the contemporary white painting debated

in the play.

“That’s because I like my art to have kind of an emotionality,” he

said. “But I don’t feel contempt toward it. And there is nothing that

can’t be art.”

Cast members John de Lancie, who plays the angry friend that finds no

value in the white painting, Steven Culp and Stephen Merkle didn’t share

their personal opinions about art during their rehearsals, Rucker said,

because the play is more about a friendship and a crisis than about art.

“It’s a little bit hard for us to imagine that a dialogue about a

piece of art could cause chasm between people,” he said. But he

acknowledges that some get passionate about the subject.

Jill Pollard, who lunched at the Orange County Museum of Art’s cafe

this week, is passionate about respecting art.

To the question, “what is art,” she says: “I don’t think anybody has

the right to judge that. What I think is art can be somebody else’s

trash, and vice versa.”

FYI:

* WHAT: “Art”

* WHEN: Previews run through Thursday. Regular run begins Friday

through Nov. 19. Times are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m.

Saturday and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

* WHERE: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

* COST: $18 to $49

* CALL: (714) 708-5555

* WHAT: “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Sunday

* WHERE: Orange Coast College’s Drama Lab Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

* COST: $6-$9

* CALL: (714) 432-5880