A pot of paint in the public's face!

Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling RocketWhistler made this “artistic impression” based on an actual scene of fireworks (or “rockets”) exploding over London’s Cremorne Gardens at night. At the time, the public considered the fleeting display a questionable subject for a painting. For Whistler, it made a perfect theme for a Nocturne; as an urban, ephemeral, indescribable spectacle, fireworks were beautiful but meaningless. For American artists, the subject was intrinsically modern. As one critic observed, Whistler’s notorious Nocturne vindicated “the abstract appeal of painting, divorced as far as possible from any idea conveyable in words. Whistler never intended for the painting to be a realistic depiction of the lights over the gardens. Rather, he wanted it to convey the atmosphere and his memory of the place.The British critic John Ruskin offered the following scathing review of the painting in July 1877: “For Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of willful imposture. I have seen and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas [210 British pounds] for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.”Because Ruskin was such an influential voice and the criticism was read by a wide British public, Whistler sued for libel. He used his pretrial interviews, as well as the trial, as a platform in defense of his ideas about art.From the trial transcripts:Attorney General: Did it take you much time to paint the Nocturne in Black and Gold? How soon did you knock it off?Whistler: Oh, I “knock one off” possibly in a couple of days—(laughter)—one day to do the work and another to finish it…Attorney General: The labour of two days is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?Whistler: No, I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime. (Applause)Whistler won the suit but only symbolically; the judge awarded him damages of one farthing, the equivalent of a few pennies. The artist later felt redeemed, however, when an American collector bought the painting, without hesitation, for 800 guineas. Whistler gloated, eager to share the news publicly that “the Pot of paint flung in the face of the British Public for two hundred guineas has sold for four pots of paint, and that Ruskin has lived to see it!”As a result of losing the lawsuit, Ruskin resigned his professorship from Oxford, feeling that the legal system denied his rights as an art critic. Shortly after the trial, due in part to stress in his personal life as well as that from the trial, he began to show signs of the mental illness that would plague him until his death in 1900.Nocturne in Black and Gold and the ensuing controversy it caused exemplify Whistler’s enormous efforts to have his art taken seriously. His very public defense of his art and groundbreaking ideas influenced generations of artists to explore new paths and experiment with their own artistic visions.

Sprezzatura

The Meaning of Sprezzatura
The meaning of sprezzatura in art and life in the High Renaissance is difficult to determine. Part of the trouble stems from the contradictions inherent in the word itself; it is paradoxical, closely related to grace, but with slightly different connotations. Castiglione's Book of the Courtier elaborated on what the word meant for social interaction. A character in the book, Count Ludovico, explains the meaning of grace, and in it he mentions sprezzatura. "It is an art which does not seem to be an art. One must avoid affectation and practice in all things a certain sprezzatura, disdain or carelessness, so as to conceal art, and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it....obvious effort is the antithesis of grace." The most important aspect of sprezzatura is its two-layered nature: it involves a conscious effort which is disguised by a concealing act. Things which require effort are to be performed casually. Count Ludovico seems to be saying that grace arises out of sprezzatura. Anthony Blunt interprets it this way: "It will vanish if a man takes too much pains to attain it, or if he shows any effort to attain it. Nothing but complete ease can produce it. The only effort which should be expended in attaining it is an effort to conceal the skill on which it is based; and it is from sprezzatura, or recklessness, that grace springs." In High Renaissance life, the courtiers wanted to put on a kind of performance, a subtle one, without allowing anyone to know it was self-conscious and deliberate behavior.

thoughts worth thinking..

• If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)


• Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. — Robert Frost (1874-19


• There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. One has to go abroad in order to find the home one has lost. — Franz Kafka (1883-1924)