During the creation of a work of art, or even before, through the processes of planning and
sketching, the artist must, at some point, have become conscious of the subject matter with which he or she intends to deal. This is not to say that it is the first time the subject occupiesthe mind of the artist. He may have known of the subject for a long time but certain aspectsof it may have changed and, in turn, altered his perspective of it. He may have been dealing subconsciously with certain ideas which surface in the course his artistic pursuit. Or indeed he may be encountering the subject for the first time and find that it has such an effect on him that he is 'inspired' in that moment of discovery.
So what is it that happens at that point when an artist discovers his inspiration?
How does the subject change the artist from latent to inspired? What is the process of
sublimation which allows or forces the artist to create under the influence of such subject
matter?
Artists act upon a need to express their personal relationship
with certain other things such as people, objects, states of mind, emotions, politics, human
conditions, life, death, truth, the universe and any other subject matter which they find
themselves unable to externalise through words or actions other than art. I can explain this with an example: Let's say that you experience a great shock like seeing someone being knocked down in a traffic accident. You talk about this to family and friends who support you as best they can but you cannot get a feeling of helplessness out of your system just by talking. If you are an artistically inclined person you may find that the only way to externalise this relationship with the pointless loss of life is to create something. You sublimate this emotion into creativity. As such, one would expect the work resulting from this sublimation to have some relationship too with the subject matter, but this not as clear a corresponence as one might think. The direct relationship between inspiration and artwork is a naive expectation.
Ever since man tried to express himself in art he has never been satisfied with mere pictorial or 'factual' representation of the world about him; he has always added a 'perspective' either his own or the patron's or the viewer's or the subject's. The intervention or intercedence of the artist between viewer and subject always reflects his relationship with the subject matter, in fact with the whole discourse of subject-artist-artwork-viewer.
Here we are also interested in how the artist knows when his relationship with a certain subject is going to be fruitful as inspiration. When does he know that he is going to create something which he would like to be considered as art? Artists, in the majoritry, tend to 'doodle'. They leave sketches and plans of works which we can look at, if they allow us, and from these we can deduce a great deal about the point where they considered the subject matter ready for serious attention. Of course we can site the cases of artists who feel an inexorableurge to create something - to externalise inner urges we can and say that in these situations the processing begins with the inception of the idea. That is to say, there is no doodling, just the work.
It could be said that Beethoven has left us a huge legacy of how the composers mind works leading up to the final creation whereas Mozart has denied us this privilage by writing his scores in an almost completely finished version at once.
sketching, the artist must, at some point, have become conscious of the subject matter with which he or she intends to deal. This is not to say that it is the first time the subject occupiesthe mind of the artist. He may have known of the subject for a long time but certain aspectsof it may have changed and, in turn, altered his perspective of it. He may have been dealing subconsciously with certain ideas which surface in the course his artistic pursuit. Or indeed he may be encountering the subject for the first time and find that it has such an effect on him that he is 'inspired' in that moment of discovery.
So what is it that happens at that point when an artist discovers his inspiration?
How does the subject change the artist from latent to inspired? What is the process of
sublimation which allows or forces the artist to create under the influence of such subject
matter?
Artists act upon a need to express their personal relationship
with certain other things such as people, objects, states of mind, emotions, politics, human
conditions, life, death, truth, the universe and any other subject matter which they find
themselves unable to externalise through words or actions other than art. I can explain this with an example: Let's say that you experience a great shock like seeing someone being knocked down in a traffic accident. You talk about this to family and friends who support you as best they can but you cannot get a feeling of helplessness out of your system just by talking. If you are an artistically inclined person you may find that the only way to externalise this relationship with the pointless loss of life is to create something. You sublimate this emotion into creativity. As such, one would expect the work resulting from this sublimation to have some relationship too with the subject matter, but this not as clear a corresponence as one might think. The direct relationship between inspiration and artwork is a naive expectation.
Ever since man tried to express himself in art he has never been satisfied with mere pictorial or 'factual' representation of the world about him; he has always added a 'perspective' either his own or the patron's or the viewer's or the subject's. The intervention or intercedence of the artist between viewer and subject always reflects his relationship with the subject matter, in fact with the whole discourse of subject-artist-artwork-viewer.
Here we are also interested in how the artist knows when his relationship with a certain subject is going to be fruitful as inspiration. When does he know that he is going to create something which he would like to be considered as art? Artists, in the majoritry, tend to 'doodle'. They leave sketches and plans of works which we can look at, if they allow us, and from these we can deduce a great deal about the point where they considered the subject matter ready for serious attention. Of course we can site the cases of artists who feel an inexorableurge to create something - to externalise inner urges we can and say that in these situations the processing begins with the inception of the idea. That is to say, there is no doodling, just the work.
It could be said that Beethoven has left us a huge legacy of how the composers mind works leading up to the final creation whereas Mozart has denied us this privilage by writing his scores in an almost completely finished version at once.