An Anniversary - Esther
Were you aware that Leonardo da Vinci is no good any more? Nor was I until
this week. Now that they’ve got all the 500-years-since-his-death exhibitions
out of the way, it’s apparently open season on one of the world’s most
recognised & revered artists. Twice in this past week I’ve heard
well-respected art historians & writers complain about his fondness for
making incomplete works, moan about the flat paleness of some of his portraits
& chuckle that, “He didn’t invent
the helicopter!” as if we were all off our heads for thinking as much. What’s
the world thinking, rating him so highly & doesn’t Mona Lisa look like she
could do with a shave? Alright, I made up that last one but I have been curious
about that. Other people’s negativity brings out my worst.
& that’s the trouble. Once opinion is out there, perhaps an expert drops
a seemingly small bombshell (though it’s rocked my world), everyone starts to
find fault, as if before you had no right to ever be thinking uncritically of
the greats. As if Leonardo had a right cheek to hoodwink millions into
believing him a genius. A Facebook friend that said recently that Rembrandt
couldn’t paint hands & I’ve not been able to look at anything other than
the hands in his pictures ever since. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a point…
Now that the five-century dust has settled, I wonder what poor old Leonardo
has done to deserve such sudden bile. I’m not particularly banging a drum for
his art or invention (if he even did
invent anything ever), but at the same time it made me ponder what I may
have missed in the world of art. Is a true appraisal going on & if so, when
do we see the end of Mona Lisa pencil cases & duck-face memes? Or has this
phenomenon occurred throughout art history? We’ve all heard of artists being “rediscovered”
or “unappreciated in their time.” Will future art lovers one day learn of the
time da Vinci fell out of favour near the start of the 21st Century
& think we must have been quite mad? It’s unthinkable now for instance to
imagine Rembrandt dying in penury as he did. He’d surely now get some reality
TV show bailout & to be honest, it’d be worth a watch.
All that said I do like to be made to think, to re-evaluate. It is good to
think for ourselves & be prepared to open our minds to accepted “truths.”
Besides, re-evaluation doesn’t have to be negative. What have you changed your
taste or your mind about over time? Certain artworks are always well-loved,
sometimes viewed nostalgically & as a younger person I was always more
interested in the figurative up to the point of surrealism. I didn’t get Cubism
& most of it still doesn’t appeal to me. Abstraction never featured much in
my favourite works. Even now I see Cubism as a missing link, a means to an (albeit
necessary) end as opposed to the end in itself. Change my mind if you can!
Having an interest in shape & pattern, over time I began to see the charm
& importance of some abstract art. Other people’s opinions, friends, family
(those whose opinions you respect at least) can inspire or awaken a new
interest in something that doesn’t grab you at once. Or at the very least make
you appreciate its significance or worth. If possible, the best way to change
one’s mind is to view or experience the art oneself.
On a visit to some Berlin
galleries a couple of years ago, I found myself being almost constantly drawn
to works by Paul Klee, an artist I’d frankly found irritating all my days up
till then. There were works here that focused on pattern elements & were
deeply satisfying on a level I’d not appreciated before. Thankfully, even as a
very young person, I always managed to make a distinction between art appreciation
& taste & so largely avoided coming over as a horrific snob (I think). Back
then I could appreciate what Klee was
doing but now I was beginning to like
it & it stirred me to find more. (Actually, this also happened with
Madonna, but I maintain she started
catering to my musical tastes as the
early stuff mostly leaves me cold to the point of shuddering).
On the same trip, seeing Alberto Giacometti’s cat sculpture
first & then works in a small expo captured my attention in a way his art
never had before.
A more recent visit to Zurich triggered a growing interest in Chagall, since his kaleidoscopic
windows in the Fraumünster are considered a tourist attraction. I’d always
found him a little flimsy, twee almost. I wasn’t trying hard enough, I wasn’t
looking beyond the surface into the symbolism & although I’m not yet a fan,
I’m having another look lately. It just shows that being open-minded, being
willing to give something another chance can be a joy, make you happier, help
you find an answer, a distraction or whatever it is you personally require art
to do for you.
For good or ill, we don’t exist in a vacuum. Nurture impacts on nature
& regardless of what our instincts tell us in the face of art past &
present, our environment & life experiences affect & imprint on us. We
then see through new eyes. It’s a beautiful thing to suddenly have “new” likes,
to still be able to change your mind & have new artistic avenues to roam
around.
& become obsessed with.
I’m not going to start giving Leonardo the side-eye just because he knocked
up a few sketches & paintings he couldn’t be bothered to complete. On this,
the 501st anniversary of his death & without being too
sarcastic, I feel he’s earned his place.
Besides, isn’t there something touching about the fact that something as
grand as Mona Lisa or La Gioconda was in his own studio at the
time of his death? Isn’t his perfection of line, his cleverness & endearing
enthusiasm for a range of disciplines more fascinating than his having a bit of
an off day now & then? The beauty of his “less finished” works is that one
can more easily observe his process & if anything that makes me enjoy the
work more. They invite you in to have a little look before they’re done, as if
you’re in on his progress. There’s something incredibly inclusive about that.
Especially for someone so formally untutored in art and art history as me, your windows into that world continue to be enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteFashions are fickle, and any pretense of "settling" an issue of aesthetics is preciously simpleminded. Sure, we're all tempted to do it at some points, and it's a perfectly valid exercise, just so long as we don't forget it's all, eternally, up for revision. The only good that comes from people grabbing a spotlight to aggrandize themselves by trying to tear down A Big Name's reputation is that it may keep us from imagining that any of this is settled. Once we lose the ability to bring fresh eyes to a work or body of work -- sometimes using borrowed eyes -- we start to make ourselves less alive. We become part of the dust that's settled. A very sad prospect.
Looking at art movements and history much as we generally do those in music or literature -- breaks with established style that, in turn, influence others to either make sharp breaks themselves, or build in fresh ways on that work -- is probably a good default approach. Inevitably, reading who loomed largest and most influential for people whose work I most enjoy, finds me hitting up against work that I've simply never cared for. I remind myself that my tastes are always up for revision, and some things I initially turned my nose up at (or closed my ears to) later became cherished favorites and mainstays. I also have to remember that I didn't come up and through the time and life of each of these artistic heroes. Their pool of influences was different and likely less varied. Had I been spawned in the same pool as they I might very well have many of the same favorites. Happily, I had the advantage of growing up on the (to me) superior works that grew from that soil. (Forgive the mixed metaphors. I haven't stopped to eat anything today, and I'm nervously avoiding several problems. It's a lifestyle.)
Carry on, Esther!