Wise to Art

Between the work of art and the onlooker there isn’t so much communication as there is communion. For art to be Art, merger is essential. Art is a medium and not an end, art reveals shared or kindred emotions. When a work of art not only solicits but maintains your attention, you are in fact already in communion with its author. You’re in a difficult to determine emotive discourse with a maker who, if asked, probably wouldn’t be able to articulate what he actually painted or why. The funny thing is that for your intuitive self precise meaning and appeal will be equally elusive.

Art grows on us. A painting might well be an instantaneous love affair; still it’s with time that you’ll know if the communion is worthwhile. I sometimes buy paintings impulsively, just to discover after a couple of weeks that there are false vibrations, no shared wavelength and that first impressions were false. Some pieces in my collection still stir me as they did 20 years ago. These works are as close as kins and unsupportable is the thought of separation. The paintings that become dumb I sell as quickly as I can; there is perhaps another more fit to take up the broken intercourse.

The pieces that remain, those that stay with me and settle with me, are my daily joy. They come ever closer, their meaning elucidates and their power grows. Art is life, a roaring thunder in the lame duck’s pool of actual life.