« On Painting

Can Art be taught?

Originally posted on April, 26, 2007

In the old atelier systems years where spent simply learning technique: genius, the problem of becoming an artist, was not addressed. Conventional opinion was that art could not be taught. It wasn’t until very recent times that this began to change. Today, it is not really clear how to go about teaching art.

Is it best to stick to the art cannot be taught doctrine? Do the questions of design and composition become important? Do we attempt to help the student find their personal style? The questions go on and on.

However we may feel about it, evolution is leading to more and more importance being placed on individuality. Having a healthy sense of self is vital for the artist. But the insecurity that usually goes along with being an individualist can be great. Finding the balance is often difficult.

The question of how art should be taught is an important one. If we are going to teach art it needs to be taught well. A big responsibility. I am going to toast this drink to all the good art teachers.

Cheers,
Denis

Published in french as Peut-on enseigner l’art ?

Posted in Art, Teaching | Comment

On the face of things

Originally posted on April, 17, 2007

Historically speaking, artists have not have a lot to say about their art. They have been more absorbed in the doing of it. Needless to say they gave a lot of thought to this doing. But for the most part they let the art speak for itself. After all, it is a visual language. Up to a certain point this worked out fine. However, when the impressionist came under attack by the “new generation” of the 1880’s things dramatically changed. The modern era required that everything be rationalized and justified. This became problematic for the artist. It is not as if he had nothing to do but to be concerned with what people where saying.

Add to this complication the fact that the artist is obliged to become a businessman or businesswoman. For the professional painter or artist today they are obliged to spend at least one-half of their time taking care of the business and promotional side of things. All of this is to say that being an artist today is a very complex issue. And there is nowhere to run and hide from the complexity. The paramount task in the mist of all of this activity is to create art that speaks to people. It is not enough, and not even relevant, to simply do something considered new. The very long dialogue about which art is the most decadent or who is on the avant-garde cutting edge has now to my ear a hollow ring. There are many more important issues which urgently need attention. Being an artist today has something to do with identifying and addressing these issues. The pundents are not going to do it for us. Not easy. How are we to do all of this and pay the bills at the same time?

We need to walk our talk. Not easy. But where are we to hide? All of the good hiding places are gone.

Have fun,
Denis

Published in french as À première vue

Posted in Artist-Art, Painters | Comment

On life and art

Originally posted on April, 10, 2007

I am of the opinion that we are not able to teach anyone art. But, having said that, we are not absolved from spending our life learning.

In my younger years I studied classical literature and philosophy. Then, for the last 30 years I’ve been obsessed with 19th century art and literature in my attempt to better understand how we got ourselves into this mess. Many years were spent in Portland, Oregon in the United States perusing Powell’s Book Store, one of the largest bookstores on the planet, as well as the Portland City Library. I lived between the two which were just 3 blocks
apart and was transporting piles of books back and forth to my apartment.

In the 80’s I began to concentrate on painting. I certainly waited far too long. Not that I hadn’t been painting. It seems I’ve always had a pencil or brush in my hand. Was I lacking self-confidence? In my mind it was tied up with wanting to communicate something worthwhile.

I had problems buying into the postmodernist trip. But then I had trouble buying into the modernist one also. It takes time to wade through all the spin and hype that writers and critics have put on things. It is interesting to see how, in the mid-nineteenth century, French Art critics became more and more polarized. In future articles, perhaps, I’ll take a closer look at this. The long and short of it is that sometimes the intellectual capacity of society is advancing and sometimes we have a decline.

Anyhow, I finally did really get down to painting as they say. As luck would have it, at that time I had a painter from New York, Kay Heally, living next door to me. A fascinating woman, lived in Shanghai during the 30’s. That is another story. She was a close friend and painted with New York artist Anna Meltzer who gained considerable notoriety considering that she was a woman artist in 1940’s New York. She has work hanging in many museums. My friendship with Kay helped me a lot. Living next door to each other we saw each other daily; Every evening for 3 or 4 years we got together for a glass and talked about life. We lost Kay the year I moved to France in 1994. She had reached the respectable age of 89. A wonderful woman.

I learnt something: for the artist both are important, the theory and the application. More than that though, when you give each its due they work as compliments and amazing things happen. Other paradoxes reconcile themselves: representation and invention, the now moment and all of eternity, the opposition of the subjective and the objective, the intellect and the emotions and so on. I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. Each day the light gets a little stronger. All of this to have something both personally satisfying as well as worthwhile to communicate.

Have fun. If you are not having fun doing what you do the price is too high.
Denis

Published in french as Sur la vie et sur l’art

Posted in Art | Comment

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