it's not that i dislike nice clothes, or that i dislike contemporary creativity. i dislike the enormous marketing component, the money machine which drives our fashions. not only in clothing, but also very prominently in contemporary art.
with the communication speed of the modern world, new newer newest cannot go fast enough. to maintain the illusion of `important buzz', the marketeers in fashion (and art and any other field) have to convince us time and again that `new' equals `better'.
please don't misunderstand me with regard to (post)(post)modern art. personally i feel that a much larger art world has been opened up to us in the past century, for which i'm grateful. but on considering which art works from this period i find exceptionally moving, inspiring...it seems to me that these works breathe the same qualities as the exceptionally moving art works from earlier times.
there is something timeless about these works. they and `fashion' are definitely not in the same existence plane.
vincent van gogh, wheat field under thunderclouds (1890)
5 comments:
Good art is timeless...but also fashion can be relativly timeless. My Italian shirts can I were for some years now, whithout being out of date ;-)
Great painting by the way!
thanx paul for your interest!
yes, it is a great painting. the good news for you is that it is actually nearby, in amsterdam, in the van gogh museum. which is a treasure trove for anyone who is interested in van gogh.
from the museums website:
In Auvers, Van Gogh choose to paint a large number of landscapes on canvases of an exceptional format, 100 x 50 centimetres. A letter to Theo describes the sadness and loneliness he wished these paintings to express, but also his desire to show how ‘healthy and heartening’ he found the countryside.
(about your shirts...you are obviously not a fashionista either... i like nice clothes, i just don't like the idea that every summer and every winter one has to keep up with the latest fashion.)
Hi Frank, Thanks for your comment!
I visited the museum a couple of times, but some time ago. The special exhibition of Van Gogh and Gauguin (2002) was very impressive. I've bought a book, so if your interested you may read it...!? http://www.vangoghgauguin.com/
I certainly agree with you about buying clothes :-) Why wear red trousers in 2007 and they are cool and the next year you need purple and the next year....stupid!
ok paul, i will gladly borrow your book for reading!
the thing about gauguin is that i consider many of his paintings to be masterpieces, but often the colours seem to have faded, as if he didn't use high quality paint.
one of the things many people don't realise is that high quality pigments, the ones that don't fade quickly under influence of exposure to the air and (sun)light, are expensive.
there is even controversy about the restoration of old paintings, because we can (i believe) never be sure in removing `age darkening' that we end up with what the artist originally painted.
well, perhaps a nice subject for some new posts.
sorry not to respond earlier, but i have been busy with other stuff. writing blogs can also become rather time-consuming!
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