peter

Art is the highest form of hope

I saw this piece of graffiti today:

“Art is the highest form of hope
Hope is the first sign of despair”

It’s got me thinking. I think Art involves questioning … viewing things differently … seeing things as they could be … and for me that often involves thinking about how things could be better – how I wish they were better. There is hope in the way I conceptualize art.

But I’m having trouble with the second line. “Hope is the first sign of despair.” I think the premise behind this is that hope is unlikely to be realized – resulting in despair at the ‘failure’.

I know the world I hope for will never be realized … but I don’t stop hoping. I don’t despair for to despair is to invite inaction and give my hope no chance of life.

I disagree that hope is the first sign of despair.

Pilgrim, about 1 year ago

Hope only gives way to despair when we stop hoping!
Bob Abrahams, about 1 year ago

“Hope” confirms the possibilty of a better world thatwe can aspire towards
RandomAlex, about 1 year ago

I think that the graffiti artist is saying we only hope when we have BEGUN to despair, because if you’re not despairing in the world why are you bothering to hope to change something?

I, too, disagree with the second line. Not convinced I agree with the first, either, but that’s beside the point.
crowe, about 1 year ago

Art isn’t hope. Hope is resignation. Art is not to wish for a better state of things…it is to embrace the existing state of things.

He got the second bit right.
crowe, about 1 year ago

Consider the artist who goes to a tiny beachside town to paint the waves and decides that the whole place is so beautiful, he buys a house on the beach, packs away his paintings and never touches them again.

Art and life are not mutually exclusive. In a lot of ways they are one and the same.
Adrian Rachele, about 1 year ago

Do i detect a touch of irony in this street art?

Maybe?
crowe, about 1 year ago

Could be…but the way in which the paint trails off in a downward spiral from the last letter…dunno.
Matt Penrose, about 1 year ago

Makes you think. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Alice Robinson, about 1 year ago

I think that it is a catch-phrasey line that even the author doesn’t believe in or understand. Art has nothing to do with hope or despair, it is simply a thing some people have to work hard to achieve. But perhaps that is a cynical and not very attractive way to view the process.
peter, about 1 year ago

Thanks for all the responses – I feel like I’m grappling with a slippery concept on a wet day with my eyes shut. I need to do some more thinking on art … and what it means for me. The reality is that my creative ‘side’ has been safely locked away for many, many years. Career, education, and all that stuff just dominated. Time for that to change …
Anne van Alkemade, about 1 year ago

It’s a provocative phrase, isn’t it Peter. Very existentialist – understanding that we are alone leads to true despair and all that guff. The word ‘hope’ I don’t think has any place in an existential dictionary. As to the question of art – I’ve seen lots of academics grapple with this one. It is many things to all people – bit of a cop out there. For the graffiti artist to make the quantum leap from Art to Despair has to mean they are a ‘glass is half empty’ kinda person. I believe art only becomes thus in the way it is received. We could be the most skilled, creative, innovative person, but the minute those words “I don’t get it” leave the receiver’s lips, it is lost. (Ouch – I was setting out to be a glass half full person!!! Honest!!)

It’s great you are unleashing your creativity. I’m hoping to do the same. Mine hasn’t been safely locked away – I’m not that tidy a person. Unfortunately, it has tended to gather dust, got dog eared corners when I’ve attempted to pick up where I left off, got a few dints and scrapes and generally needs a good, concerted effort to get some life back into. Not even 7 days with RedBubble and I can already see it stretching out a sleepy paw patting at sunbeams.

I’m a bit slow on the uptake of this one, but thanks, it has got me thinking.
Marie Micallef, about 1 year ago

thanks you for sharing your thoughts everyone. art will save the world
Kaitlin Lawler, about 1 year ago

Hope is the only thing we can grasp when everything else has fallen beyond our reach…even despair itself. Interesting thoughts.
Jordan Clarke, about 1 year ago

Wow. Tricky one. I agree with Anne that this is easily a catchy phrase. I liked the sound of it when I first read it – it reminded me of how closely despair can be linked to creativity for many people (I know I certainly used to become very creative when I was depressed). At the same token however, art shouldn’t have to be stuffed into a pigeon-hole where artists are melancholy souls in an existential mind trap.

I really like the first line though. I’ve found as I’ve grown older that there is an untapped source of creativity in positive things. My carnival series grew from that – which surprised me since I’d always been a ‘glass half empty artist’ before.

I definitely think this graffiti is an existential catch-phrase – but I like the idea of art being the highest form of hope. There is something infinitely powerful about creative people and how they see things in the world, discovering connections and hidden meaning in the everyday. And to think that there is a creative side to every person, actively creative or not, with the potential to create change in the world – is a truly hopeful thing…
jegustavsen, 9 months ago

Hope, is what most of us survive on. I liked what you shared. I realize this is an older post, but hope you find it.
kokeeshi, 6 months ago

Gerhard Richter, text for catalog of “Documenta 7”, 1982.

“So, in dealing with this inexplicable reality, the lovelier, cleverer, madder, extremer, more visual and more incomprehensible the analogy, the better the picture.
Art is the highest form of hope.”
Samantha Van S..., 6 months ago

edit the second line out!

hope is life
Josh Dean, 5 months ago

As life is the only prerequisite for death,
hope is the only prerequisite for despair.

I don’t think we have to write this off to philosophy, and I don’t think we can cheerfully disagree with it, it is logic; without a positive there can not be a negative, and hope opposes despair.
Apache, 5 months ago

Hope! When I hear this word Peter..is resignates a feeling of pain, disillusionment and a sense of beginnings…Hope is to feel the earth move, to feel the flower bloom, to feel the epitomy of humane existance..the depth of learning what hurts and what makes us laugh..to breathe a sigh for those who have passed…This is what Hope can vividly paint itself to be..the works of art that escapes none of us! Hope!
peter in reply to Samantha Van Stralendorff’s comment, 5 months ago

Could agree more sunset!
David Lay, 4 months ago

I still have hope for this world as well – thanks for the reminder.