Thursday, July 25, 2013

Bad art won't revive your soul

There are some articles, some quotes that you come across that stay with you forever. Of all the quotes I've written down in my journal, song lyrics that I've transcribed because they explain a particular emotion on a particular day, etc. etc., the following is one of the two or three that really stick with me:

"Bad art won't revive your soul." 




It's taken from this New York Time article.  In the article, Cintra Wilson perfectly explains why I seem cherish and lust over certain pieces of expensive art and expensive clothing without using the word "amazing" (Is there really a more overused, detestable word?).

I can kind of describe it as the same feeling when you see someone you know you're about to fall in love with - your heart starts to beat fast and you don't know why, you are inexplicably drawn to it, you need to know more about it, you need to know it's back story, where it came from, who made it and you can't stop thinking about it.

 If you have ever judged someone for investing in a beautiful handbag or a weird piece of "overpriced" art, I beg you to read this article. Oh! fine. Here are the best three paragraphs:

"There are light years of difference between serious designer clothing and the stuff we buy in malls, hence the vast differences in affordability. It’s the same gulf that resides between mayonnaisey hotel paintings that chimps could be trained to create with a spatula, and the stuff in the permanent collection at the Met. If you squint really hard, the high-end stuff and low-end stuff can look fairly similar, but the fundamental difference is in the artistic energy invested in the garment or the painting itself. Bad art won’t revive your soul.

I was in a vile mood when I walked into Oscar de la Renta, but hanging out in that little oasis was intoxicating enough to boost my spirit. There is such thought, feeling and desire to create beauty in these garments you can practically taste it.

You don’t have to own monstrously beautiful, prohibitively expensive Oscar de la Renta garments any more than you need to own a genuine Kandinsky. But your life can generally be improved just by knowing such gorgeous stuff exists. That Keats guy said it: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

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