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Can a Painter also be a Photographer?

March 29th, 2010


“Two Ducks in a Pond”, The river Doubs, Leica M8, 35 mm, Summicron, 2010/03/22

This is not intended as a rhetorical question. Today, when asked the seemingly inevitable question “What do you do?” (Yes, even in France) my response is now “I am a painter – also a photographer.” So, I think maybe the question is “Can a person in today’s world be a generalist?” I’ll back up a bit, say 50 years or so. During this time I’ve spent the majority of my creative effort in the process of the understanding and the practice of painting. No doubt much more time spent in the understanding. Much study and reflection. During the times when there was some clarity the painting itself was relatively easy. This, of course after years spent studying the practice and the understanding of how different pigments behaved in different mediums and so on. However, doubt has dogged my every effort. Painting is, today, very very difficult if you approach it sincerely and consciously. As for photography: this has for me been a breath of fresh air. It can be a creative response to a relatively short period of time – a mere blink in the span of history.It directly speaks to contemporary times. In point of fact, it was invented the day before yesterday – a little more than 150 years ago. We have cave paintings dated something like 30,000 years old. We are not in this case, talking about the same ball game.

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The Pioneer Spirit of Art

February 28th, 2010

Growing up on the west coast of the U.S. gave me the sense of importance which the pioneer spirit plays in art. I am not at all sure that a translation or explanation of this attitude is posssible. But it is what made the art of San Francisco dramatically different from that of New York. May be it was because it was somewhat free at that time from the market forces in the big art world of the East Coast and, of course, the rest of the world. At least that was the case 40 or 50 years ago. Critical thinking was unemcumbered.

As things in this regard began to quickly change a move was in order. Heading East was out of the question. There was only a lot of water to the west. I moved North. A somewhat nomadic way of life followed which ended with my arrival in France 16 years ago. Once again it is time to move. Hopefully it is the last one.

My formative years were spent in the country side in Northwest California close to the Sierre Nevada Mountains. I am looking forward to living in a small French village. It is like a return of sorts.

Published in french as L’esprit pionier de l’ art

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More on Teaching Art

January 30th, 2010

Or, better put in an earlier title: “Can Art be taught? “. For me writing for this blog has contradicted my way of doing things. I’ve never had any use whatsoever for keeping a journal or a diary. I any case, I remember having written an article titled “Can Art be taught?” What did I write? I do not remember and do not have the inclination to reread it. Perhaps a better question and title would have been “Can Art be understood today?” All joking aside, it will, I fear, be a most serious question for some time. And the fear of the matter is that although having spent a lifetime attempting to think clearly about difficult matters the issue becomes more and more obscure. Kant as well as Descartes clearly located the universal with the individual: not with the social/cultural setting the individual lived in! And yet, in these interesting days in which we find ourselves, is it not politically incorrect to discuss philosophical issues? Where does this leave Art?

Published in french as Plus sur l’enseignement de l’Art

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The Artist as Degenerate Outcast

December 16th, 2009

These days, in fact for a long time now you need a thick skin if you are to follow an artistic painter path. Since being relegated to the status of worker only as a producer he or she been valued. That is, up until just recently. Of course, there are still the selected few always hungry to enjoy these fruits.

Okay, I begin to rant. I know that things in general are much as they have always been. Since Plato the artist/painter has played a marginal role. But, at least he had a role of sorts. Even as a worker he had a role of sorts, may be in many respects a healthier one.

A few days ago I found an English translation of the important speech of Aude de Kerros, pronounced (march 09) at the French “Académie des Beaux-Arts”. It looks at word games played with Art since the Second World War. I highly recommend that you read this. Then I would hope that you can understand that this sort of chicanery has been going on at least since the time of Plato. Recently, Courbet was imprisoned and then run out of France. Cezanne was stoned by village children and so on. Not to speak of unknown artists who starved to death in their garrets.

The thing interesting about this article is the suggestion that a big change in the business of art is taking place. It seems that the financial bubble burst has disturbed the connections between the good old boys who manipulated artistic matters on a global scale. There is the suggestion that art and the world of art is about to become more democratic. Imagine, then if you are an artist you will no longer be a degenerate outcast.

Published in french as L’artiste est un exclu

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