Monday, January 14, 2013

Be Inspired


Don't wait for recognition - be inspired and get out there and do the damn thing.

Dirt in your hand and a piece of paper is all you need to create something and to express yourself.

One of the most powerful paintings I've ever seen was created on a common wooden door, by an artist in Germany in the early to mid 1930's.  Back when life was beginning to get all twisted there.

I remember a foreboding seemed to reach into my senses and settle there between the bits of pigment and medium.  I don't remember if there were figures on it or if it was an abstract piece.   It was the utilitarian use of what looked like some left over house paint and color that struck me so.  More detail than that has been lost in the mist and fog of my memory.  But I will find a picture of it. I'll know it when I see it again.  With help from the Art Institute I was able to figure out that I saw the painting at the Degenerate Art - Fate of the Avante Garde in Nazi Germany Exhibition a couple of decades ago.  And that there was also a book that catalogs the art work that was included.

What I do remember is the silence and the way everyone moved slowly through the gallery.  Each person taking their time and not only looking at the art work but reading each of the descriptions and then standing there and absorbing the essence it was communicating.

I remember when I  saw this piece, tears rolled involuntarily down my cheeks and  I couldn't move.  I was numb.

I don't remember if the name of the artist was even on the painting.  Maybe there wasn't a name on it at all.  The power of the image and the truth in it that couldn't be expressed any other way was what has stayed with me all of these years.
Was this artist hiding? 
And I wondered if the artist paid for this work with his life....

I am doing some research to find out more about this painting.  So far, I've found out it was in the Degenerate Art - Fate of the Avante Garde in Nazi Germany Exhibition at the Art Institute in Chicago in 1991 from June - September.  I am excited to finally see it again this week when the catalog of this exhibit arrives at  my library.  I'm determined to find this image and share it, along with the name of the artist. 


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