You are correct about everything here. I've been pondering the same thing but about writing and the reactionary current that wishes to return to an older age of the novel or short story, but without innovation and forward momentum the result is just pastiche.
In my case I was in the process of buying a cheap property in Umbria, head full of ideas of some kind of Balthusian return to the figure, essentially a pastiche twice over. 9/11 put a stop to the scheme, saving me from myself. Scott Bunn, the guitarist, calls this "reaching out for someone else's results." At best this makes you an inferior version of another artist. We all start out in imitation, but just as is said so well here, you finally have to accept yourself as a product of your time and figure out how to make art that makes you feel the way your heroes make you feel, without copying them.
Absolutely. We need to take on the burden of artisthood by treating it seriously by becoming artists who live in their era even if they are not of their era. To oppose the forces of today you will need new tools and use new languages - the very fact that such forces are in the ascendance tells you that they have overcome the old defences.
This is all very true. Artists shouldn't be self-conscious. Most go with the flow which makes sense because they are going with the cool kids and where the money is. This is understandable. If you go self-consciously against the dominant high culture this can lead to bad art too.
Any thoughts on Odd Nerdrum? They got him for tax evasion and he spent some time in jail I believe. He even wrote a book about kitsch being okay. Pretty funny. He had a group of followers but they couldn't recreate his genius in my opinion.
I have mixed feelings about Nerdrum's art but he is definitely a serious artist. There is a show of his in Poland now, I believe. If I get the chance, I would like to visit and review. I hope that eventually my Substack income will allow me to travel in a limited way to review international exhibitions.
You are correct about everything here. I've been pondering the same thing but about writing and the reactionary current that wishes to return to an older age of the novel or short story, but without innovation and forward momentum the result is just pastiche.
In my case I was in the process of buying a cheap property in Umbria, head full of ideas of some kind of Balthusian return to the figure, essentially a pastiche twice over. 9/11 put a stop to the scheme, saving me from myself. Scott Bunn, the guitarist, calls this "reaching out for someone else's results." At best this makes you an inferior version of another artist. We all start out in imitation, but just as is said so well here, you finally have to accept yourself as a product of your time and figure out how to make art that makes you feel the way your heroes make you feel, without copying them.
Absolutely. We need to take on the burden of artisthood by treating it seriously by becoming artists who live in their era even if they are not of their era. To oppose the forces of today you will need new tools and use new languages - the very fact that such forces are in the ascendance tells you that they have overcome the old defences.
This is all very true. Artists shouldn't be self-conscious. Most go with the flow which makes sense because they are going with the cool kids and where the money is. This is understandable. If you go self-consciously against the dominant high culture this can lead to bad art too.
Any thoughts on Odd Nerdrum? They got him for tax evasion and he spent some time in jail I believe. He even wrote a book about kitsch being okay. Pretty funny. He had a group of followers but they couldn't recreate his genius in my opinion.
https://nerdrum.com/
I have mixed feelings about Nerdrum's art but he is definitely a serious artist. There is a show of his in Poland now, I believe. If I get the chance, I would like to visit and review. I hope that eventually my Substack income will allow me to travel in a limited way to review international exhibitions.
Don't mean to answer for AA but I reviewed a Nerdrum show in 2012 and touched on a couple of the points raised above: https://franklin.art/writing/2012/being-odd-getting-even-odd-nerdrum/