In other words, see the art for what it is and do so without being distracted by the life of the artist. As an artist it took me a while to digest this idea. Probably because my own art is so integrally tied to who I am and the life that I live. But as I’ve mulled this idea over in my head I think I’m finally starting to grasp that as art stems from life, the art explains that which the life cannot.
This quote came from an article in a back issue of Sculpture about one of my favorite female artists, Eva Hesse. Hesse struggled for years as a decent painter but didn’t hit her prime until she began working in 3-D. Her life, by all accounts was a mess. She fled Nazi Germany as a child, experienced her parent’s divorce, survived her mother’s suicide and her father’s death, had a failed marriage, and then she died of brain cancer . . . when she was 34.
The quick fame accompanied by a hard life and tragic death seem to be the lens through which most people view her work. But I agree with Sontag, find life from the art, don’t explain the art based solely on the tragedy of the life. Use the art to learn something new about the life of Hesse, not the other way around. This is where the great beauty of Hesse shines. Her art is playful, delicate, mischevious, and sometimes even comedic. See these sides of her life from the art. See the sides of her life that were actually good.
I can sink my teeth into this. I know when I create, when I paint, when I draw, when I sculpt, that these things are coming from the innards of my being. Intellectualized or not, they are a part of my life coming out. Standing back from a painting I’ve lost myself in creating, I see bits and pieces of my life that I can now explain. Where as before the art, the pieces were buried, known by others and especially unknown by me.
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