By Peter Trippi, Editor of Fine Art Connoisseur
From the Fine Art Connoisseur September/October 2023 Editor’s Note:
“The Ancients Stole All Our Great Ideas. And I want them back, thank you very much.”
Mark Twain wrote these words long ago, yet their perversity still has the power to amuse us, and to give us pause. Rather than throwing in the towel, regretting that it’s all been done before, we must draw from Twain’s quip the courage to carry on. We would be fools to think no one has ever before felt exactly as we do or pondered the same thoughts. Yet each individual is unique in the history of the world, casting their eye backward and forward in a completely distinctive way.
The necessity of such back-and-forthing is borne out by a range of articles in our current issue, which have got me thinking about how crucial it is to bring living artists, and contemporary artworks, into proximity with historical ones. This can come through an artist’s lived experience, as it did for the California-based conceptual artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), who spent seven months exploring Europe’s great museums when he was 24. (“Europe,” he recalled, “added the weight of history to the whole picture.”)
Ed Ruscha, Double Standard, 1969. Source: LA Modern.
But magic is also worked when historical artworks are literally presented side by side with contemporary ones. I’m thinking of the revelatory displays we’ve enjoyed recently at New York City’s Frick Collection; please see David Masello’s admiring article about them on page 77 of our September/October issue. Far from making the living participants seem derivative, these juxtapositions have only enhanced the power of their visions. It has been win-win all around, and these projects should happen more often — at similarly high levels of quality.
I have never met a living artist — no matter how “edgy” — who does not stumble into something thrilling while walking through a museum display of Old Master or 19th-century art. There one artist recognizes another, across the centuries; their methods and markets may be different, but that inner drive is fundamentally the same. Artists ask each other not just “how did you do that?” but “why did you do that?”
Rembrandt van Rijn, REMBRANDT AND SASKIA (the artist and his wife) In the Scene of the Prodigal Son in the Tavern, c. 1635, 161 x 131 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Now more than ever, we need more people asking more questions of each other, even of those who have already departed this crazy, cruel, wonderful thing called life. Mark Twain could see that, and those of us who love visual art should, too.
Join Peter Trippi and Eric Rhoads on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the great museums of Stockholm and Madrid, October 20-29, 2023. Fine Art Connoisseur’s Behind the Scenes art trips aim to help you see art from a new perspective with excursions to museums, visits with artists, and iconic art experiences that take advantage of deep contacts in the art world. Find out more here.
The People Have Spoken!
And They’ve Awarded Becky Rowe the Peoples’ Choice prize in the monthly PleinAir Salon.
Becky Rowe, Blumen Garten, oil
Becky Rowe, Blumen Garten, oil, snagged the People’s Choice Award from the competitive PleinAir salon. The monthly PleinAir Salon rewards artists with over $33,000 in cash prizes and exposure of their work. A winning painting, chosen annually from the monthly winners, is featured on the cover of PleinAir magazine. The deadline is ongoing, so visit PleinAirSalon.com now to learn more.
