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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (80867)	6/6/2000 11:33:00 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 108807

You are ultimately a reasonable person, and I am not propounding anything outlandish, or trying to be mean. I am glad for your input...... I think that, ultimately, the artist is making an object to be admired, although other purposes may vary. Therefore, it is of capital importance how it looks or sounds. One may have an absolute necessity to create, but one chooses one's medium purposively, and with a view to excel. I think, therefore, that an audience is crucial, although an artist who is confident of his work, and cannot find an audience, hopes that he will find one in the longer run. After all, Van Gogh still tried to sell his paintings, even though he was about as mystical about his artistic vocation as anyone could be. Similarly with Cezanne, who was the very image of the dedicated painter: he still hoped that his work would make a difference, and was pleased that it was esteemed by other painters.... Communication may or may not be a goal of a painting, in the sense that there may be no additional idea beyond the painting itself. I saw a show at the Phillips collection of canvases by Richard Diebenkorn, who is mostly a California painter, and has worked in both figurative and abstract styles. Particularly in his abstractions, there is nothing communicated except the startling beauty of his geometric juxtaposition of colors. I suppose one might discern an emotion here or there, and call that an idea, but most of the canvases are "cool", and not particularly expressive. But even in Degas or Rembrandt, the "message" is not nearly as important as the painting, and would be more efficiently conveyed in prose. Some people think that the point is non- verbal communication, but I am doubtful...... I think there is something to what Delacroix said, in the sense that big ideas inspire many cultural objects to give them body, and whole movements derive from such a yearning to give them form. Thus, democracy will develop an iconography, and seek appropriate styles, such as the neo- classical. It will then seek to fill the world with its "esprit", through the multitude of art objects inspired by it. But it is not the whole story....... In the same sense that a tree is presumed to have the requisite impact, and consequent vibrations, but does not have sound, which is a subjective apprehension, a Rembrandt in the forest is a Rembrandt, but, unless recoverable, devoid of meaning.........