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September 22, 2007
great art remains eternally young
Sometimes art can be a refuge from life, and in extreme cases it’s a second chance at life. Another way to put the familiar phrase about the relative lengths of art and life is to say that what makes great art great is that it remains eternally young, while we don’t. It is a common place observation that a Henri Matisse or Pablo Picasso or Vincent van Gogh becomes like a new artist every decade his work is shown because, as time passes, circumstances change, generations change, but the artist’s work continues to have something new to say. Although a Matisse painting is a finite and finished object, it remains in flux and permanently fresh, affecting and being affected by other art over time.
That is part of its eternal attraction. We connect with art to share something larger and more enduring than ourselves. Recent history includes exceptional examples of varied young artists who have given themselves over totally to making something truly grand and previously unseen, whose ambition might have even been beyond them, which mean that their efforts carried a high risk of failure. Art being a gamble on posterity, the higher the stakes, the grander the potential reward. These artists provide us with eloquent models for living life beyond what we fear to be our creative limits – which we can’t know, after all, until we try to reach them. Such a life demands some bravery and much independence.
Art, not unlike raising a child, may entail much sacrifice and periods of despair, but, with luck, the effort will produce something that outlives you.
Michael Kimmelman - The Accidental Masterpiece
Posted by amin at September 22, 2007 1:41 AM