painting

I came across the following letter which Marcel Duchamp sent to his brother-in-law Jean Crotti when asked about his opinions on an art piece. Duchamp was a trailblazing artist of the earlier part of the 20th century and has arguably done more than anyone else to shape the artistic sensibilities of the modern Western world. He has been a polarizing figure and I have had more than my share of snickering disapprovals (mostly at the hands of MV) for being fascinated by this artist. Something tells my that the ideas in the letter apply more generally to life.

You were asking my opinion on your work of art, my dear Jean - It's very hard to say in just a few words - especially for me as I have no faith - religious kind - in artistic activity as a social value.

Artists throughout the ages are like Monte Carlo gamblers and the blind lottery pulls some of them through and ruins others - To my mind, neither the winners nor the losers are worth bothering about - It's a good business deal for the winner and a bad one for the loser.

I do not believe in painting per se - A painting is made not by the artist but by those who look at it and grant it their favors. In other words, no painter knows himself or what he is doing - There is no outward sign explaining why a Fra Angelico and a Leonardo are equally 'recognized'.

It all takes place at the level of our old friend luck - Artists, who in their own lifetime, have managed to get people to value their junk are excellent traveling salesmen, but there is no guarantee as to the immortality of their work - And even posterity is just a slut that conjures some away and brings others back to life (El Greco), retaining the right to change her mind every 50 years or so.

This long preamble just to tell you not to judge your own work as you are the last person to see it (with true eyes) - What you see neither redeems nor condemns it - All words used to explain or praise it are false translations of what is going on beyond sensations.

You are, as we all are, obsessed by the accumulation of principles or anti-principles which generally cloud your mind with their terminology and, without knowing it, you are a prisoner of what you think is a liberated education-

In your particular case, you are certainly the victim of the 'Ecole de Paris', a joke that's lasted for 60 years (the students awarding themselves prizes, in cash).

In my view, the only salvation is in a kind of esotericism - Yet, for 60 years, we have been watching a public exhibition of our balls and multiple erections - Your Lyons grocer speaks in enlightened terms and buys modern painting -

Your American museums want at all costs to teach modern art to young students who believe in the 'chemical formula'-

All this only breeds vulgarization and total disappearance of the original fragrance.

This does not undermine what I said earlier, since I believe in the original fragrance, but, like any fragrance, it evaporates very quickly (a few weeks, a few years at most). What remains is a dried up nut, classified by the historians in the chapter 'History of Art'-

So if I say to you that your paintings have nothing in common with what we see generally classified and accepted, and that you have always managed to produce things that were entirely your own work, as I truly see it, that does not mean you have the right to be seated next to Michelangelo-

What's more, this originality is suicidal as it distances you from a 'clientele' used to 'copies of copiers', often referred to as 'tradition'-

One more thing, your technique is not the 'expected' technique - It's your own personal technique, borrowed from nobody - And there again, this doesn't attract the clientele.

Obviously if you'd applied Â your Monte Carlo system to your painting, all these difficulties wouldl have turned into victories. You would even have been able to start a new school of technique and originality.

I will not speak of your sincerity because that is the most widespread commonplace and the least valid - All liars, all bandits are sincere. Insincerity does not exist - The cunning are sincere and succeed by their malice, but their whole being is made up of malicious sincerity.

In a word, do less self-analysis and enjoy your work without worrying about opinions, your own as well as of others.

Affectionately,

Marcel

I came across this new iPhone app called Colors (yes, it's American) which is sort of a slightly better alternative to microsoft paint. Except that you have a lilliputian screen to work with as opposed to the 15 inches that you get on a laptop/desktop. Anyone who has worked on Paint knows that it is not exactly 'the killer painting software'. You cannot exactly use it to paint the Monalisa. But that's just you and me, because we suck so much. More talented people have gotten off their asses and done precise that. But that's paint. There is a mouse to work with and the huge screen means that your eyes won't look like the Sun with its corona going bat shit crazy once you are done with your job. But this is Colors. And it's on my phone. Nevertheless, hardly ever to be deterred by a lack of talent, I paid 5 bucks and downloaded the full version. And I have a headache now. Not that I have a masterpiece to show for all these hours. Here is what I painted before things became too complicated:

As you can see it's very incomplete. The droplet looks bearable from a distance. But then almost everything looks bearable from a distance. I have noticed that almost every one looks like my roommate from a far enough distance so distance is not something that I should hide behind. If you can zoom in you would see that a lot of lines have been put just because I could not think of anything else to do. And they do not blend in with the surroundings. Part of the reason is the difficult pixellated control of the small screen but a major reason is my gaping inexperience in making colors blend. As I said I stopped at this point because things became too complicated for me. I have never painted anything in color before this so I have some very basic confusions. But hopefully a pig headed refusal to face one's own incompetence will help in clarifying a lot of those doubts. For now, it's a lot of fun and an interesting challenge.

Tag Archive: painting

Duchamp's letter

Colors!