Politics Aside - An Art Inspired Blog

I'm trying to read a three volume history of modern art. You know I love the topic of art in general and believe that most writers, this one included, want to help educate on art. However, sometimes the points they make are difficult to comprehend.

At any rate, the interesting point of the first of these three books is that artists attempt to paint forms of social reality as they then see it. This helps explain why a twentieth century Russian painter living in poverty might have a different reality than a twentieth century American illustrator living in better circumstances. Certainly painters share an appreciation for particular styles and forms often when they themselves haven't been influenced by the underlying social reality. Painters as a group I think are willing to see and judge for themselves the kinds of things they see in the art and real world. Hence you have the rise of painters such as those from the Ashcan school such as Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shin, John French Sloan, Davies, Lawson, and of course Maurice Prendergast. At the turn of the century they tended to paint a social commentary regarding New York as they saw it. And that was as a gritty, sometimes a little dirty place, where life florished in spite of its challenges and surroundings.

The other day I took my seven year old niece and my twenty five year old son to the Brandywine River Museum. I was not surprised that my granddaughter wanted to run around the museum talking to nearly everyone that she met. She is after all living in an age of innocence. I was surprised by the art that my son liked. He liked the oil paintings composed in black and white like some of the works of Remington, Pyle, and even some of the Ashcan school painters. What he liked the most was the level of detail on the people's faces. I knew then that he had been touched to some degree by the visit. He could distinguish the look of anguish on an indian or a beggers face and the looks of happiness in a young girls smile. It was gratifying to see that his eyes were not closed to what he was seeing. It wasn't just a bunch of pretty pictures. They all had statements to make.

How does your family feel about art? More importantly, do you let your granddaughters' color pictures and make shapes and do all the wonderfully creative things that only kids seem willing to do. If you don't (without my getting preachy) maybe you should consider giving them the chance to get the bug. Until next time it's all for arts sake.

Phil