knives as art

This keeps popping up, so I thought I would throw in my two cents worth, well actually an art professor's two cents. I asked one who has years of experience in the classroom and is now a Dean of a university. Her opinion was that knives would fall under the same guidelines for art as sculpture. A knife can be art and judged as such. Some might be judged highly, while some would not. Just like a piece of rock or steel someone worked on and calls sculpture. I got the impression that some "art knives", to her, were busy looking and difficult to figure out what the maker wanted people to see, while some more simple, undecorated knives were classic examples of good sculpture. By her own admission she is very critical of "art". She is familiar with a wide range of custom and handmade knives since her husband is a collector. Her opinions and acceptance of knives as sculpture were a welcome surprise to me,
 
cockroachfarm said:
There's my Cooper knife - again! :D

(PilL - have you actually held that knife? If not, I will bring it to Atlanta with me - it is MASSIVE.)
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Holger, I have not handled your knife, but I do own a fixed blade from Mike, so I can imagine when you say massive. Mike does give you your moneys worth.

I think when Mike first finished your knife I saw some pics he had taken of it. Photography was not Mike's thing. and I asked him he'd mind me working on it a bit. That was right around the time I was doing the other illustrations shown above, so I used it in the the series.

I hope to see you at Blade, but I haven't booked yet, if I do make it it will be at the last minute.
 
newshooter04 said:
....u can't make a silk purse outta a sows ear but i got a boar hog that thinks sows ears are art....
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Priceless! :D As for the rest of your comments - very well said. :thumbup:
 
I consider knives to be Art-Deco. A smooth curving line suddenly becomes a very hard angle changing directions into another smooth flowing line. Look at the patters of lines on something called "Art-Deco". Paintings, Furniture, Arcitecture(Frank Lloyd Wright), Automobiles(especially the Ford's & Chevy's of the 1930's were heavily influenced). Knives are right there with them. It may be that since it is one of the most used and common tools in all of History that it is overlooked in this respect. Can't see the Forest for the Trees?
 
Some random thoughts 'cause it's late and I'm still sitting at the computer. I would say that knives are a medium. Art is a process and a product. Knives can represent the ideas of the craftsman. Anytime someone uses a medium to express an idea, I think it can be considered art. If the craftsman produces a tool without the intention to communicate any particular idea, that's a tool. I think it's all about the intention and perception of the person making the item and the person using the item, whether it's a knife, a painting over the bed, a photograph, a dining room set, or a poem.
 
This Ray Cover Jr. creation certainly looks like a work of art to me.

Cover_Koi_folder-w.jpg
 
One of the things I have said about knives, is that they are useable art. I have said this for years.
 
The way i look at it,You should show them the knives on this forum,in blade magazine etc. every hand made knife is a work of art. We take a piece of steel and stag etc.that it plain and ordinary and sculpt it into something extrodinary,just like an "artist or painter" makes a sculpture out of steel,wood,plaster etc. or turns canvas and paint into a picture.People should be more open minded and realize that just because we don't make something that hangs on a wall and collects dust doesn't mean we're not artist.
 
Good grief. :eek: Anyone know what the price tag was on that Cover "Best of Show"? I don't even remember seeing it! :(
 
i'm an artist of several disciplines and i'd say your friends have a limited knowledge of what art is...ART depends on and has to involve the intention of trying to present human creative activity, or idea and from here different ART FORMS are born.
 
Perhaps a simple answer is, if the knife would be ruined by using it, and it was produced for display only, it's a piece of art!

(All damascus blades are wrecked by real use, aren't they?)
 
The latest Blade Magazine (paraphrasing) states that Bill Moran revived a dying handmade industry w/ his reintroduction of damascus.

So, if that's the case, one could say it has been the "art" of damascus that is responsible for the popularity and success of alot, practically everything in custom knives today.
I wasn't there, but would be interested to know.. Was the forged knife really at a dying point in the early 70s?
David
 
I think that many knife makers had thought that it was art to make good knifes...
On the knife I had from my father from WWll it's written on the side of the blade "urbeit adelt" which means "work ennobles".
urbeitadeltww2.jpg
 
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