Sunday, November 30, 2008

perspective

It's funny how you can go through life thinking that how you see things, perceive people, is how it really is.  Real life really bears no resemblance to a Michelangelo, rather, a Picasso.  

... artists attempt to revive the idea of art production as it was traditionally understood: mastery of a craft in order to make objects that gratify and ennoble those who see them...


The goal is to deconstruct these images because, despite their clarity, they lack the dynamical aspect that makes them "true to life." In order to paint a more accurate picture you must consider all perspectives and the subjects position in time and space.

When this theory is applied to real life, the points of view are infinite, the subject must be dissected both physically and emotionally.  Somewhere along the line this image you have of someone freezes, the painting is done, finished, lacquered. This inert image becomes the lense through which we view this person regardless of how they change. This image is projected, regardless of how inaccurate, onto this person and when they step out of the bounds of this
skewed portrait it is upsetting.  "Why are they doing this? Who is this person I thought I knew?"  Something that may seem out of character, is really just coming from someplace beyond their image in your canvas.

Abstract art is often criticized as "ugly" or "too hard to understand" while the classical or realistic figure is tauted as "pure talent" and "beauty."  These complex, multifaceted deconstructions are actually closer to revealing the true beauty that is hidden, a diamond in the rough of the human condition.

...instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context...


(the cubist image used is "Woman with a Guitar" by Georges Braque, which I found more fitting than a Picasso, even though he is the artist I originally referenced. The sculpture is Michelangelo's "David" and the accompanying quotes are from Wikipedia)