What's In a Painting?
We're always talking about the "art world," but what the heck is it? If one were pressed to define it, the answer would probably be the relatively small coterie of high-end dealers, galleries, and auction houses in New York, London, and Paris that decide what wealthy collectors and museums should acquire and what the price should be. It's hardly a world. They're sustained and supported by the handful of curators, critics, and academicians who set the standards for everyone else and thus determine what is currently fashionable and historically acceptable. Thus a fairly average Renaissance portrait like the Mona Lisa has been foist on us for generations as the epitome of greatness, an icon against which centuries of painting are judged, but without anyone's ever explaining what the rules of this game are. So what's the big deal? It's all because of the "enigmatic smile." On the other hand, let's face it, 17th century Michael Sweerts was passed over by the in crowd, and yet his Portrait of a Woman makes da Vinci's boring effort disappear like drab wallpaper. Check it out at http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=788.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:22 AM
11 Comments:
John... Sweerts Portrait of a Woman is a beautiful painting with powerful emotional content. Thanks for sharing the link.
By asking the question "what the heck is the art world" or even "what the heck is art" we may as well be asking "what the heck is air" Although... there is a perfectly rational and sound scientific explanation for the latter)LOL the former is (and always has been)at best...a bit wafty.
As long as the man/woman in the street hasn't a clue what constitutes "good" art (let alone what it is they like or dislike about a work of art)... academics curators critics and collectors... all with a vested interest... will continue to pull the wool over.
John... I like to think the real art world is right here right now made up of people just like us... turning up in our own space in our own time to do the work we like to do in our own way. The internet has changed everything... it has put artists in touch with other artists and a greater world of opportunity.
Thanks for this rant! I went to your site immediately after leaving AOL
What ARE the "rules" anyway!!!?? I personally find the picture rather bland... kinda like milk of magnesia, but what do I know, Im only a caricature artist!
Elgin
www.subwaysurfer.blogspot.com
Are the videos of you dancing?
da Vinci had a better PR man than Sweerts. Totally agree that the Mona Lisa is way over blown but hey, Nat King Cole sang a lovely song about it. Not sure how one would work "Portrait of a Woman" into the lyrics. Does this mean that a title is more important than the painting itself. Sweerts was an honest and true painter.
Excellent cartoon, John C.
huh?
Whoops, another case of cross posting. I was responding to Kate. Videos? What videos?
Hey, subway surfer, out of 240 caricatures do you get it spot on every time? I hostly appreciate your chiming in.
I can't define "art" but I know it when I see it.
Your rendering of Mona brought to mind a wry poem I memorized back in my adolescence. (Unfortunately, I never got around to memorizing the author's name, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Nash.) It was written in response to an apparently serious analysis of the mercurial smile by a group of medical experts who suggested it could be an indication the lady was in some sort of physical distress.
Don't say me this, Oh never say me this
That Mona Lisa's smile is insincere
Or that her lips, too sweet, too chaste to kiss
Are twisted by some aching tooth or ear.
What profits it these men of science
Who diagnose sheer beauty as disease
And dare to say with scorn and with defiance
Her smile is but a prelude to a sneeze?
Behold the qualities of pious grace
That smile benignly from her eye, her lip;
That blemishless, serene and lovely face --
Don't tell me she's a victim of the pip.
I know those symptoms and I know that smile.
She suffers from malfunction of the bile.
I went to Elgin's blogspot and saw several clips of someone dancing. I thought it was really cool. And not just the dancing. The caricatures are really cool, too.
I think, John, that your blogspot is stalking me It's calling me Katherin again. Only my nearest and dearest call me Katherin.
And telemarketers. And doctors. Neither of whom are in my "favorite people" category.
I think it very cheeky of your blogspot to call me Katherin without my permission. I keep telling it to call me Kate, but it won't listen. It must be male.....
John... Robert Genn's done it again! I swear that guy has a sixth sense LOL I'm pretty sure you receive his twice-weekly letter also... so I'll be brief. But isn't it ironic that he should be discussing brilliant violinist Joshua Bell's foray into busking in the DC subway just as we are discussing "what is art".
Bell busked for 43 minutes on his $3M Stradivarius and earned a "whopping" $34 for his trouble! Only a few people stopped for a moment to listen and just one woman recognised him. Man... what an experiment! Like I said... the average man/woman in the street hasn't a clue about art! It's enough to make u weep...
One of my favoritebooks Vision and Art attributes the Mona Lisa smile to the interaction of of the two systems of vision embedded in the brain. At a glance she seems to be smiling but a closer look and the smile disappears. Sweerts painting is great!roger
Maybe she just had a tummy ache?! ;-)
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