Blog 10...artiste maudit

This blog has been tough to write as these last two chapters have hit home a little. I'm glad that these things are not graded on organization.

To begin, I shall take the lighter subject that struck my interest: "...(Picasso's erotic paintings) have a playful quality which adulterate the sensuality one looks for in such work...his scenes are more amusing, delightful, and titillating than exciting." (Henry Miller, Hughes 143) For some reason I find the concept of "amusing" and "delightful" in association with scenes loaded with rape imagery to be nothing short of disgusting. I don't believe that Picasso's use of minotaur has anything to do with the duality of the artist and has more to do with his narcissistic, misogynistic tendencies. Anyone who has had more than an elementary level study on the history of modern art would understand that Picasso saw himself as nothing short of superior to women. (I also feel as though his status as "original" should be revoked in light of the work of his contemporaries, but that's another argument for another day.)

Now on the topic of the Irish drinking because it is masculine. I feel as though the only Irish Hughes knows sit in pubs having contests to see who can drink the most shots of Jameson. I would say that as an Irish-American who drinks, masculinity has nothing to do with it when it comes to art. I do not drink because it is cool, I do not drink because it is manly. Many people have hobbies, the hard thing for many artists is that we have accepted our hobbies as our careers. It is not fun having people criticize what essentially is our soul and having a little liquid therapy is not such a bad thing when given the alternatives. I also want to add that unless you are throwing down paint like Jackson Pollock, you cannot paint while drunk! Buzzed maybe, but in comparing my sober art to my drunk art I realized early on that a sound mind is needed to paint things that work. Perhaps a little absinthe loosened the internal restraints to make the idea possible in the planning phase, (and a little more after to celebrate or cope with an opening) but the actual technique came from stability.

Sober art:

Drunk art:

I've noticed a similar trend with my favorite artist Modigliani. In studying his earlier works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his later piece (done a few months before his death) on display currently at the National Gallery, you can see what a mix of more alcohol, drugs, and worsening tuberculosis had on his style. There is nothing romantic about it. He leaves so much of the canvas untouched by paint, it appears more like a growing sense of "what's the use" than any desired style change. It is sloppy to say the least.

I'm sick of insanity and art being so closely associated. Van Gogh only sold one painting in his life. Perhaps he was concentrated to a fault, but when Van Gogh painted he cannot be called insane. Anyone who has studied Van Gogh would realize that he was unable to paint when he had his episodes. Anyone who had read his letters would realize that Van Gogh knew he had problems and was doing his best to fix them. I feel as though to obsess so much over disease detracts from the art. Crazy people cannot paint with the focus and intention that only a true artist can and when it appears focused, it is focused to such a fault that it loses any aesthetic value. It is true that many of the surrealists studied insane art, most importantly it was a window into the symbolism of the mind.

Eyes of painted canvas stare back at me,
Into the gloom of sorrow and regret.
I want to be alone now to pay my debt
To Venus or Eros or none of the above.
The eyes keep watching me write,
As the world becomes dark and not light.
Will you forgive me now,
Or have I exhausted all hope?
The epitaph is all that's left to be wrote.
Now for me the clock ticks away.
You are nowhere near;
Just a canvas painted in tears.

I was about to write what I thought about the connection between creativity and sexuality/love when I decided that it was best to pull up a painting I had done in April following a tough time for me in that area. (I should also probably mention that I was sober and was using my art to cope with a really bad case of depression.)