Moral Courage & Art

Courage
Photo: Robert Capa

Clear-cut courage has few detractors, if any. It is above reproach. It is a trait of few words.

Courage can be defined as doing the right thing in a "What are you going to do now?" kind of circumstance. Courage requires things of you; actions, and precious few words, if any.

Once you say you have courage, you have just kicked the ball away. Courage deep down has less to do with yourself, and more to do with an ideal. Courage builds up others, and our culture and civilization depend upon it.

Courage costs you dearly, and it forever adds value to the rest of humanity. There is an intertwining of the moral and the physical sides of courage. In other words, if I act bravely in an immoral cause, what is the benefit? Less than none, in my opinion.

Clear-cut courage has few detractors, if any. It is above reproach. It is a trait of few words.

My searches for artistic courage via Google were less than dismal. The query results are underwhelming in the extreme. Logically, there either is little understanding of artistic courage among visual art, few examples of artistic courage (available to see on Internet text), or else the trait is pedestrian and unremarkable.

How to explain it?

Artistic courage is a more abstract kind of thing than the military or physical trait. How to explain it? It generally is a lot slower kind of courage than the type personified by the soldiers at the "hedgehog" obstacles in the famous Capa photo above. But courage does involve obstacle defeating, no matter where you apply it.

My first thoughts of artistic courage go to Vincent van Gogh. See my posts on van Gogh. The founding member of Modern Art, our Vincent may have been feeble in his physical self, but in pushing the boundaries of artistic possibilities, a hero.

...courage with the brush! Courage with color!

But, courage with the brush! Courage with color! That's what we know our man van Gogh for. He was in the van of making pure color say expressive things on the canvas.

Another artist that comes immediately to mind is Francis Picabia (1879-1953). Picabia cared more for artistic exploration than for his reputation or profit.

Via Pollocks the Bollocks,

With his brilliant reputation firmly established after the exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1909, Picabia abandons the past and his place as its famous protagonist to embark on the adventure of modern art....

A young artist of thirty, he is banished from the company of established galeries, their clientèle and critics. The coup de grace is administered by Danthon, March 1909, at the Hotel Drouot where he auctions off over one hundred of Picabia’s lmpressionist paintings.

Order of Courage:

Van Gogh, 1886
John Peter Russel


Picabia

If your culture demands that you make your art this way or that, what must you then do? Next: How To Have Artistic Courage!

Picabia @ Pollocksthebollocks

In His Studio

The buzz today is over at Pollocksthebollock's, where you can read a very well written post about artist Francis Picabia (1879 - 1953). The courage of this French artist is evident in that he gave up an established gallery-artist reputation to explore the cutting edge. And then he just kept exploring.

Feeling stale? Think about Picabia.

Enough inspiration there to rev me up for the rest of the month! I think I'll put a picture of the great artist in my studio for a while.

Another blog about the artist.
Official Picabia website.

Self-Portrait, 1923
25 x 21 cm, ink on paper
Francis Picabia

Potty Talk - Marcel Duchamp's (ahem) Art

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In previous posts, which are listed below, we have been taking a tour of the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection exhibit.


Matisse, The Woman with a Hat.
Matisse, The Conversation, 1938.
SFMOMA posts.
The urinal we all know and love/hate.


In these posts, I've brought you some awe inspiring works by the French master, Henri Matisse.  Now, we will confront the most well known object d'art in the world, The Fountain by Marcel Duchamp.


From sublime to art crime. 


In the spirit of Marcel Duchamp, I present the following reactions and ideas in no particular order.


Duchamp is a very ostentatious artist. His works and installations are few, but his footprint is large.

Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp

Say what you will, but Mr. Duchamp's Fountain is a conversation starter. Rather than killing art, it probably renewed dialog on ideas and meaning in art. It isn't a beautiful object, but it does get you thinking.












The idea of an ugly object as an installation may be offensive, or it may be a tremendous joke, but I feel that M. Duchamp would be a very fun and interesting guy to sit over a cigar and spirits to shoot the bull with.   

The Fountain is more complex than you may think at first. Sure, the idea of anti art is easily understood, and the rejection of the aesthetic is not too challenging. But, the story is the thing. He entered the object in an exhibition where there was no jury, and everything entered was to be exhibited. Except that they rejected his work. That is funny. Then he resigned from the exhibition group, but the rejection brought him lasting fame.

The Independent noted in a February 2008 article that with this single work, Duchamp invented conceptual art and "severed forever the traditional link between the artist's labour and the merit of the work".[13]

You realize that performance artists vie for the chance to pee on the fountain.  Another no-brainer.

Dadaist art.  Marcel Duchamp is the duke of Dadaism.  His name is the foremost among Dadaists, but I also like Francis Picabia.

There is always room for the absurd in art, and it helps to have a sense of humor about yourself.  Congratulations to Marcel Duchamp for providing us with a laugh, and a conversation.