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GOOD ART NEEDS GOOD VIEWERS
I have
always felt that a good painting can stand on its own, and shouldn't
need another, or two, ten, or twenty, just like it, to get its'
point across. If it does, it has failed, and so have the others.
Each one of my works is treated as an individual, with its own idea,
techniques, and `style' that suits it. A comment elicited at one of
my shows was "...would like to see a show of just one style."
It is
discouraging to think we aren't capable of viewing one piece at a
time. We fall into the modern trap of the quick surface scan... we
walk into a gallery, take a quick glance, get it all in a few
seconds, ( but only if they're all the same ) and then on to
something else. Is this our defence mechanism to deal with the
onslaught of visual material we encounter? If so, would we not be
better to stay at home, to rest our tired eyes and minds? Good art
needs good viewers.
"Visual
education must be based on the premise that every picture is a
statement." (88)
Rudolf
Arnheim
*
Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion
mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. The
whole arrangement of my picture is expressive...
All that is
not useful in the picture is detrimental. " (89)
Henri
Matisse
From "Notes
of a Painter" 1908
"A good work
of art can in its entirety be represented only by itself."
Tolstoy
88. Rudolf
Arnheim, Toward a Psychology of Art, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal.,
University of California Press, l966), p.148
89. Herschel
B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal.,
University of California Press, 1968) p.132
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