Monday’s quote – Gauguin
“Painting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed; contemplating it, everyone can create a story at the will of his imagination and.. with a single glance.. have his soul invaded by the most profound recollections; no effort of memory, everything is summed up in one instant. A complete art which sums up all the others and completes them.”
Paul Gauguin
I have always wondered about the time element in visual art. We actually talked about this in our Comic book podcast – how the thing about a graphic novel versus a movie is that you can take as long as you like to read it. And its the same with a painting. A movie, a piece of music, a dance performance, theater, all include a sense of pacing within it, and the viewer is required to take a certain amount of time to view the work. A painting, on the other hand, can be digested very quickly. Almost too quickly most of the time. I am very guilty of nearly running through art galleries, trying to see everything. I also get this sense that when I am looking at a great painting, I am gorging myself, trying to stuff it all in, so I can move on. Or I feel I am skimming the surface way too often. An image can be consumed instantaneously and perhaps therin lies our demise. One glance can be all one needs to read a painting, and then the artist has not too much more to draw you in with. Or maybe not? Maybe thats why contemporary art can be so confusing – we need to get folks to stay a little longer!
OK, Im yammering on now. I’ll save that for the podcast.
I’ll be Back Wednesday as tomorrow is a Holy Day for me. Have a lovely day.
