True Believers Art Issue: https://www.nytimes.com/issue/t-magazine/2020/07/02/true-believers-art-issue
After reading the first article I saw in the New York Times True Believers art magazine, I couldn’t stop. I found myself falling down a rabbit hole of interesting articles and interviews with contemporary artists. As an art historian, especially one interested in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art, I am not used to the idea of actually discussing their creations at the same time they are being viewed and or critiqued by the public. However, I found that these articles provided this new insight into the lives of modern artists. It is fascinating to hear what the artists have to say about their own works. It is even more interesting to compare that with the public reception of the work.
The first article I read is entitled Yoshitomo Nara paints what he hears. This story follows the work of a Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara, and his lifelong connection between the visual and the auditory. It begins by describing the early life and education of the artist, detailing how he grew up in the 1960s and 70s, where he began obsessively listening to American rock and folk music. The piece leads into a one on one interview with Nara, where he discusses his artistic process as well as interesting elements of his personal life. I chose to read this article because I think the intersection between different mediums of art – especially visual and auditory, are fascinating. I think it is extremely interesting how the senses trigger memory, how sound can cause one to picture and image (or vice versa), how imagery and sound can even cause you to feel by triggering your emotions. I think that this connection between sound and imagery can create really powerful, memorable pieces and experiences. This is a concept that I’ve recently become very interested in and hope to explore further in my own art – mainly the visual representation of a sound – not literally, but in feeling, through color and texture. It also got me thinking about how many museums employ this audio/visual stimulation in order to create a more memorable experience.
The next article I read is called Peter Saul Doesn’t Want Any Advice. This article explores the life and career of a New York painter known for his “colorful, cartoony works.” It’s a piece that piqued my interest because of the socially relevant topics explored in Saul’s paintings. I think that art has a unique way of reflecting the world in which it was created. Furthermore, I think artists have an important role to play in the fact that we are able to depict this world, therefore influencing those around us.
