 |
| Banksy |
There is a common and dangerous misconception that great art requires suffering.
It creates a skewed and imbalanced perception of art, romanticizes suffering, trauma and is dangerous and yet the myth persists.
This is not to say that it doesn't help cope with suffering, on the contrary. It is therapeutic and it can and does heal. Obviously mental stability is individual as is the art one creates. I personally am at my most productive when I'm in a good mood, which I generally am by nature.
At art school there was a group of students that were the more "artistic" types, they self expressed, were performative, created art that was provocative and disturbing. They put on airs and were very dramatic. Many did drugs as part of their artistic lifestyle, as they assumed they had to. I always thought of Basquiat when I saw them and stayed away. Basquiat was very gifted, co-created the neo-expressionism movement, one of the first to bring urban art and graffiti into modern art. He ended up hating addicts. The artist as tortured soul persists since then, but in the end becomes a victim of their own self promoting making.
I have a good friend who does not have any creativity of any kind. I focused on science, so there was little left over for art supplies. The ones I bought were geared toward the discipline I was interested in, but buying a complete set of acrylics, oils, inks, brushes and everything else in the professional grade materials list wasn't in the budget. I mentioned it to my friend, whose opinion I valued. Rather than help me come up with a solution she lectured me that Picasso created his best work during his blue period and painted on newspaper, because he was suffering. (He was very young and grieving. Hardly his best work.) This was the nonsense she had read somewhere and believed.
The New York art scene is notorious for propagating the myth, celebrating misery and tragedy, especially in conceptual modern art. I have yet to see an exhibit that celebrates everything we did achieve; the animals we brought back from the brink of extinction, the environments we did save; the positive work humans did accomplish especially now.
Art needs to uplift in bad times.
Oddly enough, as an art student and then as a working artist, I did not hang out with artists, had no patience with 'artspeak'. Besides I was a loner, either innate or learned I'm not sure and it's a long story about growing up that I won't go into here, and besides once I committed to being a working artist and started my studio and then had kids who had time to hang out with anyone. I often wondered if I was an 'artist' because there was no angst, no social commentary, just liked drawing pretty things. Most of my etched/carved glass is nature inspired. And I hated having to come up with an artist statement. Even when I started doing my own work in the cast glass. I guess the only 'statement' art I did was the boxes and then only the reliquaries, maybe the botanicas. But, you know, my 'pretty pictures' were/are uplifting I hope to the people who bought them.
ReplyDeleteCodex: Yes I remember. There is a lot of happy kitsch on the one hand. But I'm so tired of the perception that artists produce better work if they're tortured.
DeleteThose wannabe Andy Warhols were such complete messes. (Is that even a word). There is conceptual art where the explanation is interesting and thought provoking. But there is also so much BS.
Not being at all arty myself, I have never understood the "Art Scene" and the Arty types who populate it.
ReplyDeleteCodex: You'll live. ;)
DeleteArt can uplift. It can also be soothing to Create when you're in a Dark Space you're holding. I've met Artists of all ilks who Created Joyfully or Created out of their Pain. I'm in the Zone when Creating, so for me it is Joyful. My Grandson is madly Creative and does his best Work when he is not doing well Mentally. I guess Art is as varied as the Artists.
ReplyDeleteCodex: everyone is different. Think your grandson would do well in an art related career.
Delete