essentÊrving±49

CHAPTER 14

CARVING AN ABSTRACT

At an exhibition of my abstract carvings someone once recommended that I make birds, things that people like him could understand. I wonder how many people do understand birds. Picasso, asked what an abstract of his meant, is alleged to have plucked a rosc and asked his interrogator what it meant. What both doubters must havc had in mind was that they liked things that they could recognize from the real world, items that had conventionally been represented by artists and craftsmen, and, incidentally, things which by their closeness to naturÄ™ showed mans mastery of the materiaÅ‚ and tools.

Yct people who profess not to like abstract art often cnjoy unusual shapes in naturÄ™ such as arc found in decayed parts of trees, in Stones or clouds; they may also enjoy the shapes of cars, of elcmcnts of ornament on buildings and furniturc, or the shapes of gcometrica! solids. If they insist that they like these things because they are practical then one might wonder what pracrical

value therc is in a landscape painting or a portrait.

Artists shed new light on the world around us. We all have an individual way of looking at the world. We may cxpres$ this in an art form. The vision may be banaÅ‚ or inadequatcly expresscd, but often it reveals a truth we had not suspected, shows a familiar themc in a new light, cxcites or disturbs us in nameless ways or presents a completely new idea which fills us with wonder or delight.

If one asks why anyone should want to make abstract shapes, one might as well speculate why anyone should choose to make represenrational objects, except as by a sort of cultural momencum. iMoreover, siÅ„ce the arrival of the camera and modern casting tcchniques, copying what is done so much better by naturÄ™ is no longer so important.

Unlcss the artist nccds to sell and knows that no one will buy his abstracts, there is no reason for not producing rhem. True artists, howcver, are the people who make things because they need to make them, not because they need to sell them. Some may starve in garrets.

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