Monday, November 5, 2012

Great Works of Art

                                                                Olympia Eduard Manet



Great Works of Art
(not quite as rare as hen’s teeth but almost)

I have enjoyed looking at a number of art works (famous, infamous and obscure) but I must confess only a rare few have widened my vision of what makes some works great.  Do we need to be an art critic to recognize a really great work of art?  I think not.  When I was teaching theatre techniques to university students I often reminded them that great works of art in the theatre are truly rare.  Indeed, I could only admit to witnessing three productions I wished to call a great work of art in my forty-five years of watching hundreds of theatre productions.  Though I have seen many worthwhile and engaging productions and an equal number of not so worthwhile productions, truly great productions are once in a lifetime experiences.  I am grateful that I have experienced three such works. 

Theatre is an ephemeral art form.  Its great works cannot wear time but, with care, paintings are lasting and the works of the past are as engaging now as they were in previous periods.   While I believe great paintings are as rare as great theatre productions, we are fortunate that truly great paintings are still with us and consequently cumulative.   We have the ability to admire paintings from different periods, schools and genres  and this gives us something of a false perspective of the number of great paintings produced.  Were great paintings ephemeral, lasting a mere generation, we would become acutely aware that not so great paintings are common place.  
                                                                Pierrot, Antoine Watteau
                  While I am convinced that a great novel or play script is a conscious creation I am not so sure that the greatness of a theatre production or painting is a conscious creation.  Partly, because I can often point out the greatness of a novel or play script whereas a great painting seems to depend on the mixture of colours, texture, techniques, methods, size, rendition, subject matter and presentation in a incalculable way.                                                   
                                                                 Fifer, Eduard Manet
      
There is an element of surprise in a great painting; a recognition that there is something special but unutterable contained within the work.  Of course we try to describe the element that has no name.  We say the work comes alive for us or it seems to float before our eyes or it engages us or grabs us as other paintings do not or it becomes greater than the sum of its parts all the while believing that it is not a subjective aesthetic experience we are having but an experience that all who enjoy art must have when viewing the work.

Imagine those Homo sapiens who experienced cave art for the first time.  On a dark cold rainy day lighting has struck a tree and started a fire.  A prehistoric family is passing and one of them picks up a burning limb and with the family takes shelter in a nearby cave.  Others bring wood and soon a warming fire lights the cave.  Of a sudden, one member of the family stares at the cave wall in wonderment.  Before him is a massive painting of a bull!
                                                                         

But only one member of the family is amazed.  The others go about their business as if they cannot see anything strange and the family member who is standing in awe shouting at the painting on the wall is all but ignored.

It is not difficult for us to look at a painting for the first time because we know paintings; we know how to read them.  There are things about paintings we expect to see but our caveman doesn’t have this knowledge or expectation.  The bull is not on the wall but in the wall; it is not confused with a bull in the forest but it somehow has a life of its own.
                                                           Milkmaid, Jan Vermeer


So what makes a great work of art?  I know it sounds like a cop out but, like our caveman, you have to see it for yourself.   Great art is like a locked door that will only be noticed by those who can open it.  You will have to look at a lot of art works before you notice that door.  Art books are helpful but they cannot expose a great work of art.  What is great about a painting is lost in a photograph. 
                                                                  Chair Vincent Van Gogh
                                                                  
 I sometimes think those who worry about where art is headed, what with those popular young artist who seem to be mocking art and the vast sums being paid for their works, have never truly recognized the greatness of an art work.  Imagine a world of colour blind people and born into this word are some who have what we would call normal colour vision.  Those who have normal colour vision are able to see what most others cannot see; they will use language in way that others do not.  The majority of peoples in this world will describe those with normal colour vision as mistaken; as eccentric and unreliable and this will continue until the majority of people are forced to recognize that these seemingly eccentric people can do something the others cannot do.
                                                                  Goya, The third of May


In every generation there will be some who, on walking into lighted room, will see the greatness of art for the first time.  Our great works of art secure art; greatness will not be lost.

Launt Thompson
 
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