Paintings, photography, aesthetic objects, beautiful communication, and anything I consider to be art, artful, artistic, artsy or whatever.
Art is subjective. It is a quality of communication can be contributed to by the viewer through empathy or agreement with its creator.
A brilliant demonstration of how a misunderstood word can have crazy consequences:
“O Fortuna” is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the thirteenth century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and personification of luck. In 1935-36, O Fortuna was set to music by the German composer Carl Orff as a part of his cantata Carmina Burana where it is used as the opening and closing number. “O Fortuna” topped a list of the most-played classical music of the past 75 years in the United Kingdom.
THE ACTUAL LYRICS:
O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!
O Fortune,
just like the moon
thou art variable,
always dost thou
wax and wane.
Detestable life,
first dost thou mistreat us,
and then, whimsically,
thou heedest our desires.
As the sun melts the ice,
so dost thou dissolve
both poverty and power.
Monstrous
and empty fate,
thou, turning wheel,
art mean,
voiding
good health at thy will.
Veiled
in obscurity,
thou dost attack
me also.
To thy cruel pleasure
I bare my back.
Thou dost withdraw
my health and virtue;
thou dost threaten
my emotion
and weakness
with torture.
At this hour,
therefore, let us
pluck the strings without
delay.
Let us mourn together,
for fate crushes the brave.
This documentary film (below), narrated by Meryl Streep, is a academic analysis of many of the paintings of the Dutch master artist, Johannes Vermeer. Throughout the film the question is asked of the “expert” commentators, all of whom are technical experts in the mechanics of oil painting, “What makes a Vermeer painting a Vermeer painting?” Ironically, none of the “experts” know the answer to this simple question. In my book Vermeer: Portraits of a Lifetime“, I reveal the simple, yet profound answer to this question.
Vermeer and his wife, Catharina, had 15 children. All but one were daughters. The subjects of Vermeer’s paintings are almost entirely of his wife, and daughters. Nearly all of his paintings were created in his own house, owned by and shared with his mother-in-law, Maria Thins. The male subject of many of his paintings is his best friend and neighbor in Deft, Holland — inventor of the microscope and the camera obscura — Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. (seen in the paintings The Geographer and The Astronomer, et. al.)
Technical analysis notwithstanding, what the “experts” fail to comprehend is that Vermeer painted his beloved family members and dearest friends in his own home. In addition to technical expertise, the visual aid of the camera obscura — which revealed the hidden patterns of light in objects — Vermeer painted love of his family, his home, his life, his personal universe. What makes “a Vermeer a Vermeer”? Love and Light.
I will be traveling to visit the home of Vermeer in Delft for the first time in a few weeks. I am very much looking forward to seeing and feeling his love and light.
Sheep Nation a series of photographic works by New York-based contemporary artist Davide Luciano, whom explores this fertile ground through a characteristically satirical yet compassionate lens. http://www.davideluciano.com/sheepnation
