What exactly?

~ Live & Learn

From the beginning, he wrestles with the mute language of the canvas and the difficulty of translating his experience with it to the page: “Sometimes it is impossible to say why and how a work of art achieves its effect. I can stand in front of a painting and become filled with emotions and thoughts, evidently transmitted by the painting, and yet it is impossible to trace those emotions and thoughts back to it and say, for example, that the sorrow came from the colors, or that the longing came from the brushstrokes, or that the sudden insight that life will end lay in the motif.” The passage may be rephrased as a question: What exactly happens when a person looks at a work of art?

~ Siri Hustvedt, Karl Ove Knausgaard Reflects on the Man Who Gave Us ‘The Scream’.  (The New York Times · May 1, 2019)

Notes: I know, yes, yes, the painting is not Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” It is Claude Monet’s Meules (Haystacks, 1890) which sold this month at a Sotheby’s auction for $110.7 million, in excess of its $55 million estimate. See more at ArtNews)

26 thoughts on “What exactly?”

  3. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    How the artist experiences the feelings? … ‘The passage may be rephrased as a question: What exactly happens when a person looks at a work of art?’ … Siri Hustvedt, Karl Ove Knausgaard Reflects on the Man Who Gave Us ‘The Scream’. (The New York Times · May 1, 2019).

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  4. It is all a personal thing, isn’t it?
    I have a picture I want to use for a poem and my words are not coming… I shall continue to stare at it. Maybe they will.

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  5. I have read the (last free article…) about Edvart Munch’s art and yet I still fail to see any corelation between a Monet painting (not the one I personally like particularly, I’ve seen it in an exhibition) and an article on Munch….
    There would be so much to say about any Monet painting without consulting another Munch narrative. Just saying.

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      1. Maybe it was Uncle Duck; he hid his money in haystacks, didn’t he?! 🙂 😉
        I KNOW it was going for that horrendous sum, and that’s why I said I don’t see any relation between the two, because 1) Monet did many, many, many much better paintings and 2) I’ve had enough of Munch

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        1. So, the quote talks about the beauty of art, the magic of the emotions it evokes. What is it that triggers that feeling. And then you have Haystacks, which sold for over $100MM, what exactly did the buyer see that triggered so much feeling to pony up $100MM, as I didn’t get a $100MM feeling with that piece of art.

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          1. Aaaaah, NOW I get you….. JEP!
            NOW I’M ALL WITH YOU. It takes a LONG time to understand and truly ‘get’ each other, doesn’t it! 😉

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  7. I don’t know what exactly. Klimt is one of the few that speak to me. Can feel him right there.
    Other forms of art are a different story. Photography speaks deeper to me than paintings. But I have a soft spot for paintings with humans in them.
    I have great respect for those who spend the money to help preserve.

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