"Among seekers of truth, painters perhaps come closest to the discovering the secret of the balance of forces in the universe, and hence of man's fulfillment. That is why they are so important in modern life...Painters know that material needs are relative, and that the satisfactions of the mind are absolute"
-Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father, p.395
Friday, February 27, 2009
Art: Why? What? How? NOW
Why we need it, what it does for us (brings us bliss), now is the time for it.
When was the last time you looked at the art on your walls? If not recently, perhaps you should mix it up - move things, add a new piece so the others look different in relation to the new one.
And look more intensely. As one gallery member says: “Many times my day has been enhanced considerably by seeing something new in the same work of art that I pass by everyday.”
Art connects us to the world, to other people, to ideas. This is a hugely complex process that can also seem simple: it comes down to seeing as keenly as possible and with as much intelligence as we can muster.
Through art, we learn more about the world. Art suggests a kind of understanding, of play, of dream. We often need the timeless entity of an artwork to maintain a resting place - a place for contemplation - a place that is part of the outside world but that originated in one human being’s consciousness. All an artist can do is suggest - but a good artist can evoke feeling and emotion through his/her art.
If you’re in a state of visual awareness, your life is like, big-time different. To dwell in seeing and revel in sunny days and cloudy ones too is equally revelatory when we really look and see. Art sensitizes a large number of cells in the visual cortex of our brains (this is my speculation on how art-bliss works). As we develop our seeing and love of art all these visual thought-memories can be accessible to us, bringing us visual joy and a state of existential pleasure. This is precious and priceless and personal in the response it brings; it doesn’t matter what the market place is doing or what the “artworld” thinks. What matters is how much you love the work. Individual viewers put the value on individual artworks.
Of course, art has an economic side as does any human product of work that moves from one person to another in a marketplace. (See the recent Feb16, 2009 article, “Making the Case for Culture as an Economic Force,” in The New York Times and future blogs here.)
The word “artwork” or the phrase “work of art” implies energy and labor. The basic material is the awareness of the artist and viewer joined together. Here’s an example of “connection.” As a friend puts it: “Art conveys the unsaid, and when the artist skillfully guides the viewer’s mind into the artist’s mystery, that beautiful connection happens.”
Which is not to say all is sweetness and light. To appreciate the peace, calm, and serenity of art, you have to acknowledge the savagery and terror. As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in the Duino Elegies “...for beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror... Every angel is terrifying.
Martha Rock Keller
27 February, 2009
"Among seekers of truth, painters perhaps come closest to discovering the secret of the balance of forces in the universe, and hence of man's fulfillment. That is why they are so important in modern life...Painters know that material needs are relative, and that the satisfactions of the mind are absolute"
-Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father, p.395
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Adrienne Kaplan's New Work
Adrienne Kaplan and I sat on the small white sofa where people sit and view works at the back of the gallery and discussed her recent show of landscapes, as well as portraits and figure studies. Our conversation covered art in general and what art means to her. "I want to be true to what I'm seeing but I like to move away so the painting becomes more mine - more what I think. The feeling of movement and gesture is important as well as materials . " She referred to Jim Dine's recent work at the Getty Museum as having an aesthetic she admires. "'Hands on' is critical," she says. As well as directness, energy, focus.
Adrienne says, "I love painting the domestic environment. Whatever I do, I'm always drawing as a way of understanding life and the world; creativity comes out." Right now, she is contemplating using internet images of a falling man in an "event" painting, because she saw a man fall recently and she "can't help making up a story."
Referring to figure painter, Lucian Freud, Adrienne says she loves his drawings and etchings - "the way he captures character." She doesn't care for Freud's color palette in his paintings, however - the grays and earth colors. After doing a number of full-length portraits, shown in her recent exhibition, Adrienne has been attempting a portrait of gallery member Nina Hauser. Adrienne says the work has come to a standstill. "I want it to be Nina - who she is. " This is not an easy task; in fact, we agreed the "ups and downs" of painting can refer to "the give and take of life - the "synchronicity" as Adrienne put it: "art is an interaction."
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