Writings / Essay: Mykyta Isagulov

Pages: 1 2

Spread the love

Based on the spectators’ twice-mediated reflections they might be able to re-create their own divine story of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (1503-17) or invent personal artistic technique. Other spectators might not be moved to create or innovate. For this set of people that painting might simply remain a masterpiece of the Renaissance just because other people believe it to be so. While the divine quality of art seems to be very personal and linked to the genius of the individual artists, it still directly depends on the spectator. Due to that fact almost all successful artists ironically devote greater attention to the aesthetic expectations of potential spectators than to the works they create. Convincing one crowd means convincing everyone. True gods need fertile ground for their artistic seeds; and it is the art world, which gives value to any kind of art. Not so many will dare to contradict the official viewpoints of the art world. And this is why Michelangelo’s David (1501-4) is the greatest statue ever and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the most mysterious painting ever, even if some might be extremely fond of Antonio Canova or Bertel Thorvaldsen’s sculptural compositions and William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s realistic depictions.

In his 1889 essay, “The Decay of Lying,” Oscar Wilde proposes the idea of anti-mimesis. By that he means that, what we observe in the objective world or in the beauty of nature, is not real. Rather the objective world is made of all the things that musicians, writers, poets and painters taught us to see and, it goes without saying, to admire. Divine art provides spectators with important interpretations of the world and life instructions, which they follow. Angels are believed to be plump little kids with white wings; storms and the shipwreck should arouse greater emotions than the ordinary sunset on the beach. “Life imitates Art far more, than Art imitates Life,” says Wilde in the essay and he is right. Artists have the divine power to unveil the things no one else would ever conceive or see in a different way. An example is Charles Baudelaire’s poem dedicated to a dead animal “Une Charogne” – “The Carcase” (1857). That work is not an imitation of life but the vision of a poet, who explores new ideas and creates new poetic worlds. Since the new world is presented to the spectator or reader, the vision is likely to be changed to some extent, modified by the spectator’s subjectivity. Some will develop admiration for dead animals, while others will never see the horse’s dead body in the same way they did before. Thus, ordinary life undergoes artistic influence and starts imitating the author’s message or vision and serves as an artistic mirror.

Pages: 1 2

Leave A Comment...

*