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In the language of art, each artist must first learn a vocabulary. Each art experience he has is a word. When you have enough words you can make sentences. When you can make sentences, you can tell stories. In the process of learning to tell your own story you learn the stories of others and the stories of the past. Consequently, art history needs to be researched, absorbed and then recreated with an aim to freshness. In the process you may stumble on something unique. However, your art education should not lead you to copy the past but rather lead you to improve your vision. Try to revere the old masters but only in ambition, not by painting like them. The imagination we have and how we put it into pictures gives us a place in the history of art.
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In art history's treasure chest are many stylistic discoveries that were avant-garde for their time. Why should they be relegated to gather dust and become moldy, if they can help a living artist give a painting a required effect? Why should he not use them or modify them to suit his purposes? Is it not, after all, the continuity of expressing our collective memory that keeps art history alive? There is, however, some considerable difference between 'art making' and the creation of art. An artisan merely copies the work of the past, but the true artist understands the process and may be influenced by it. Often a harmony of artistic tricks learned from art history can be used, like a chef who takes ingredients that already exist and creates his own recipe for a masterpiece.
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Art continually redefines itself because the prescription for beauty in art does not last from one age to another. However, art has a habit of rediscovering new ideas. If you're going to be a borrower, it's best to live in a rich neighbourhood. We are fortunate to live in such a rich neighbourhood. We have, due to libraries, museums, privately owned books and computers, the history of art at our finger tips. The artist should not be paralyzed by all this knowledge or frightened that his work may be similar to something that already exists. An artist should be able to move in and out of art history using whatever suits his purposes.
Read on...
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