"Visions of today
as well as Yesterday"
The artist has two
possibilities when he or she produces a work. One is decoration
and the life expectancy is as long as the couch. As soon as the
style of the furniture changes so the artist’s work is replaced.
The other option for the artist is to try to represent the time
in which the work was done. The work, therefore, is dug up in
the future as giving people a clue to the thinking of its’ time.
All masterpieces fall into the later category.
The Renaissance time is well represented by the works of
Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphael. The thinking of the Dutch
people was illustrated by the woks of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Mid
19th Century France was well represented by the Impressionists.
The differences between these times led to the kind of painting
differences in each style. In the Renaissance time, the world
was no longer flat due to the discoveries of people like
Columbus . Because Holland was then at the center of European
economy of its’ time, Rembrandt saw turbans that came from the
East. That explains why Rembrandt used so many turbans in his
works. During the time of the Impressionists, the West had
developed the camera and all the painters “played” with them The
interest in light was therefore rediscovered. It was also the
time that the Agrarian Revolution was coming to an end and the
Industrial time was beginning. Thus, the subject matter included
train stations, small boats, Sunday in the park, ballet and
horse racing.
The first thing that any artist should do is think about what we
are doing in the 21st Century. How do we see the world? Can you
imagine how Monet would paint if he had been able to fly over
the same landscape that he loved? Can you think of the paintings
that Seurat would have created if he had been able to use a
computer or a television screen?
Late in the 19th Century, Edison invented the movies.
Immediately attendance at the movies was a box office hit around
the world. A short time later, Einstein said “Gravity is
important but light is more relevant. I give you E=MC2 or Energy
and Mass in Time.” That quote is a great definition of the
movies. Is it possible that Cubism reflected that point of view
during the 20th Century.
We are different today than any other time in history. Let our
work represent the visions of today as well as yesterday.
Yesterday teaches us the tools of painting (composition,
drawing, color, technique). And we must challenge those images
of yesterday that do not relate to what we are experiencing
today.
Saul Bernstein
