bigshot
Headphoneus Supremus
I've worked alongside artists for nearly thirty years now, and it's easy for them to create craftsmanlike work... neat, organized, balanced. All that takes is time and skill. Creating something that expresses strongly and powerfully is another thing altogether. Usually, shoveling craftsmanship on an idea blands it down, smoothing off all the rough corners and blunting its effectiveness. The great artists I've worked with battle to keep the emotion and energy in their work. It's the hardest part of their job. They don't value moderation or neatness at all. They consider that to be a compromise of the idea itself. They want strong, clear, powerful statements.
That's a creator's point of view. I find that consumers of art today are the exact opposite. They value details and little things. They want things to be nice and orderly, not wild and strong. I don't think that has always been the case, but I definitely think it is the way things are today. I think we live in an autistic age where society is so afraid of the unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of emotions, it has forgotten how to feel. Art that is valued the most doesn't reflect the hand of the artist or an individual point of view... the art that is most prized is made with machine like precision and reflects the hive mind of conformism.
When I look at a painting by Reubens or listen to music by Tchaikovsky, I find powerful emotions that I just don't find in modern society. Instead of being ashamed of the excesses of emotional passion, this sort of art revels in it. If I want music or art that's mathematical and objectively up to a certain degree of quality, I can get that in spades from slick and processed modern art and music. When I listen to classical music, I am there to have a subjective experience... to receive the emotional content put there by the composer, conductor and performers.
To me, just playing the notes cleanly with good articulation, proper tempo and dynamics isn't enough. I want an artist at the forefront expressing his interpretation of the work he is presenting. The performers that can do that well are much rarer than the craftsmen. That's why I value them higher.
That's a creator's point of view. I find that consumers of art today are the exact opposite. They value details and little things. They want things to be nice and orderly, not wild and strong. I don't think that has always been the case, but I definitely think it is the way things are today. I think we live in an autistic age where society is so afraid of the unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of emotions, it has forgotten how to feel. Art that is valued the most doesn't reflect the hand of the artist or an individual point of view... the art that is most prized is made with machine like precision and reflects the hive mind of conformism.
When I look at a painting by Reubens or listen to music by Tchaikovsky, I find powerful emotions that I just don't find in modern society. Instead of being ashamed of the excesses of emotional passion, this sort of art revels in it. If I want music or art that's mathematical and objectively up to a certain degree of quality, I can get that in spades from slick and processed modern art and music. When I listen to classical music, I am there to have a subjective experience... to receive the emotional content put there by the composer, conductor and performers.
To me, just playing the notes cleanly with good articulation, proper tempo and dynamics isn't enough. I want an artist at the forefront expressing his interpretation of the work he is presenting. The performers that can do that well are much rarer than the craftsmen. That's why I value them higher.