Excuse My Self-Cultivation

It is difficult to promote or self-cultivate. At least for me, it is.

It is one thing to pontificate the significance and the beauty of one so deserving as Albrecht Durer; or, any number of masters through the ages. But it is quite another to take a step back from what I truly love to do and promote a new offering on Durerpost that I believe will do nothing less than enhance an art lover’s appreciation of art even more.

At least, that is how I justify it to myself.

I have often said that an artist spends a lifetime creating an oeuvre that will be admired through time. But it takes a scholar or enthusiast another lifetime documenting that oeuvre in tomes called, catalogues raisonnnes.

These exhaustive studies are just as important to the collector as they are to the art itself.

There are to date, approximately 1400 catalogues raisonnes in existence and most are housed in an incredible institution called the Wildenstein Institute or indexed on-line at Print Council of America by the artist surname.

The list that is compiled on Durerpost is not as vast, but it is just as informative (and free via opt-in). It is based on the graphic oeuvre of my most favorite artists, including: Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler, Sisley, Pissaro, Cezanne, Manet, Icart, Gauguin, Maillol, Lautrec, Escher, Vlaminck, Matisse, Renoir, Villon, Erte, Dali, Chagall, Picasso, Braque, Miro, as well as those raisonnes dedicated to watermarks and collectors stamps.

Again, forgive this moment of self-promotion. I do this, so I can return to the matter at hand: to cultivate and promulgate the beauty and mystery of that discipline we call art.

The Genius of Originality

Sigmund Freud once said that, “…artistic talent is still a psychological riddle”.

I have often thought about what it is that differentiates a master from an artist: those individuals who are written into history as an experience and not just a by-product of it.

I believe that talent is not a mark of genius or creativity; nor,  is creativity a mark of talent or genius; nor, do I think that genius is a mark of creativity or talent. (Sorry for the lesson in Boolean algebra.)

Creativity, genius and talent are all a mark of originality. And originality is a discipline to a style that
inherently becomes one’s own.

Originality becomes a recognizable trademark of the master so even if we, the audience, have never seen this particular piece of art before, we are still able to identify it with that particular artist.

A woodcut or engraving by Albrecht Durer is identifiable by his use of eliptical-linear lines adding a three dimensional aspect and his off-center perspective (the golden section). Although accomplished, both  Schongauer and Goltzius are different in appearance.

The etchings and drypoints of Rembrandt are unmistakeable because of his impossibly-rich burr and meticulous use of cross-hatching which enhanced his use of chiarscuro. Whether the print is a Biblical scene, a portrait, a landscape, an allegory or any other genre, his print oevure is distinct.

Miro employed his playful use of his biomorphs.

Chagall had his reocurring motifs of floating lovers, farm animals with human eyes, fiddlers on roofs.

Picasso utilized his multi-dimensional perspective of cubism.

Goya wielded his burin in satirical renderings of the elite.

These artists distinguished themselves by their brilliance which is not a measure of watts but wit. They have separated themselves not just because they are remembered over time, but in tomes.

These artists have distinguished themselves by being original.

That is the genius of their art!