Of Art and Artists

Man has always created art. From the first cavemen drawing on walls over the major religious works of the renaissance to teenagers using spray cans to draw on walls and subway trains. It is a given need that has always been there, something that even fit into the pyramid of needs created by Maslow. Following our tendency to look at things in similar ways, probably because we are products of the same times as those around us, we furthermore tend to have periods where different types of expression dominate. There is the classic era, the impressionist, the expressionists, the cubists, south side style of graffiti and so on. We tend to move in groups.

Another related characteristic is that we tend to move in circles. From the classic era we moved away from the sensual towards a more purely iconic religious type of art, just to end up back where we started in the sensual art of the renaissance. We move in circles and find inspiration in what has passed before to create the new. This is also what brings things back to the fore for their second coming. Only the second time around we call them retro.

Then there are those expressions which differ from this pattern. This is for instance the case when we deal with pure copies or, as they are also known, oil painting reproductions. For while you can copy a product down to the smallest detail, doing the same with a classic painting required a lot more work every time. Oil painting reproductions are not fickle short copies that are Xeroxed and ready to go. They require the dedicated time and dedication of a real artist. In fact, even Donald Trump took notice their unique qualities and considered filling an entire hotel with reproduced masterpieces. I am sure that a décor of such would have made a significant impression on any guest. A truly modern form of retro.

Which is not to say that oil painting reproductions are original work. Just that the skill to create such is on par with any other type of painting you would like, and have a similar effect once framed. And while it might be a reproduction, it is also an individual work of an artist. Artists will always be able to put their own specific signature on their work, which is why we are still discussing which of his credited works e.g. Rembrandt actually painted.

No matter how we choose our motives, no matter where the inspiration might come from, we need to paint and depict and reflect the times we live in. Whether we do it with a pencil, a brush or a spray can, no matter whether our canvas is a wall, is made of cloth or paper or the stone wall in our cave. We need to be biographers for the times we live, to express our world, our feelings and our thoughts through a medium that allows us to go beyond what we can express with words. And whether we pick the motive ourselves or feel so inspired by the work of others that we repeat it to find our inner selves, the mere fact that we go to this trouble to create expression defines us a humans. It is not enough for us to do, we need to express and share as well. That is what is at the heart of the artist and that is what defines us as human.