One of the most important parts of art, for me, is getting past one's preconceptions and asking what is it really one is experiencing, and then finding the appropriate means to express that. It's a pretty complex system because of the feedback loop one sets up between the motif, the representation of the motif, and oneself. It's rather like the three body problem in physics, which can't be expressed in closed form, while the two body one can. The better one can represent and analyze what one represents, the more one perceives.
So while emotional intensity is certainly a factor, it is not the only one. I would say that really great artists do what they do in such a way that the beholder takes part in that process of coming to understanding, and that in turn changes the beholder. For example, one could compare Lautrec's brothel works - with those of Degas. Lautrec's paintings tend to open doors into the interior lives of people on the margins of society - at their best, they are intensely humane - while Degas' more or less simply confirm social biases. I think my favourite Lautrec of the group is this one: http://www.toulouse-lautrec-foundation.org/Two-Girls-In-Bed.html while this is fairly typical of Degas' view: http://tinyurl.com/bmwhyly Another might be Rubens' various studies of a head of a Negro, as here: http://www.peterpaulrubens.org/Four-Studies-of-the-Head-of-a-Negro.html done at a time when blacks were usually represented as caricatures. Not that such work has to be restricted to what can actually be seen in life - important artists (again for me) extend their work to the purely imaginative, but in a believable way, using the tools and forms of expression available to them, and ranging from the Limbourg brothers to Klimt. And of course there's the great heritage of Christian art. As for waning, I don't know if it it's so much as waning as finding new work that surpasses what I already know. I guess the best example of that comes from music. Back in high school I took a history of music course because it was supposed to be an easy credit; lucky for me, though I didn't think so at the time, we had a new teacher who decided to teach the same course he had at Ohio Wesleyan. So it progressed from plainchant to the baroque, when the teacher introduced Bach's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 80), via the recording with Elly Ameling. It was enjoyable piece of music, but then it hit the aria "Komm in mein Herzenshaus", and for the first time in my life I really felt swept away by music much greater than myself. Now I still have a copy of that (on CD), and I still feel a great affection for it. But I find later recordings that are less lush to be much stronger. Cheers; Chris On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 7:05 PM, saul ostrow <[email protected]> wrote: > so again - is it the intensity of your response that leads you to rank the > works as you do - and have you ever found your to wane? > > > On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 5:55 PM, caldwell-brobeck < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> With respect to the Rubens drawing, I would say that I'm drawn to it >> because it stimulates (within me) a deep emotional response using an >> incredibly efficient mastery of means. Most of the others follow along >> the same lines. >> Cheers; >> Chris >> >> >> On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 5:35 PM, saul ostrow <[email protected]> wrote: >> > and what draws you to such works >> > >> > On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 4:11 PM, caldwell-brobeck < >> > [email protected]> wrote: >> > >> >> I usually point to this one, by Rubens' drawing of Isabella Brant. >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Brant_(drawing) >> >> although there are a number of others that, for me, vie for top spot. >> >> especially Rembrandt's drawings, and certain works of Lautrec, Klimt, >> >> and Schiele. Also Cassatt's "Breakfast in Bed". The first painting I >> >> ever fell in love with was Raphael's St. George and the Dragon (in the >> >> DC NGA); I saved my pennies to buy a print in 4th or 5th grade. >> >> Obviously I'm a sucker for artworks with people in them, though I'm >> >> also very fond of landscape; the first picture that really opened my >> >> eyes to art in general was Turning Road at L'Estaque, by Derain. >> >> Cheers; >> >> Chris >> >> >> >> >> >> On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 4:30 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 12:32 AM, joseph berg <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> > >> >> >> Do you have one? >> >> >> >> >> >> Over time, did it change? >> >> >> >> >> >> If so, in what way? >> >> >> >> >> > >> >> > Is there a work of art that you can point to that best expresses your >> >> > aesthetic ideal? >> >> >> >> >> > >> > >> > -- >> > S a u l O s t r o w >> > >> > >> > *Critical Voices* >> > 21STREETPROJECTS >> > 162 West 21 St >> > NYC, NY 10011 >> > [email protected] >> >> > > > -- > S a u l O s t r o w > > > *Critical Voices* > 21STREETPROJECTS > 162 West 21 St > NYC, NY 10011 > [email protected]
