Give Me Soulful Art, Not Objectivity

Marc Chagall (1887 -1985) is one of my favorite artists of all time. The following quote is a simple and direct statement but it says a lot. His work definitely has a surreal, abstract even ethereal quality to it. Good art doesn't need to be objective, true expression is a reflection of one's soul.

“Art seems to me to be a state of soul more than anything else.”

-Marc Chagall

I was looking at an online gallery of paintings the other day on a blog and they were so proud of this work that was an image of a table with a bowl on it. They were getting off on it with all kinds of praise in the comments section of the post. I mean honestly though, geez, who cares about a painting of a frickin' bowl and a table? Not me, not unless it's clear the artist is giving me something new, something from inside of him; something realist painters seem to be afraid of, or unable or unwilling to do sometimes.

Marc Chagall on Nature and Art

The classical role of the artist is to portray nature, or reality. In modern art the artist for the first time gets full reign into a vast new realm of unreality, expressing a trans-formative language that is universal and personal at the same time. Take this quote from March Chagall:

"Great art picks up where nature ends."

-Marc Chagall, Time 30 Dec 85.

Of course one can't help being influenced by nature and everything else around them, but to merely copy it and say 'I am a great artist' is a bunch of BS. You got to make it your own, say something, or go out of your way to say nothing, but just give the world something besides merely copying nature with your work.