Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!mit-eddie!nessus From: nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Since when does a great artist have to be recognized? Message-ID: <5032@mit-eddie.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 04:24:04 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.5032 Posted: Mon Aug 19 04:24:04 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 13:22:02 EDT References: <1446@pyuxd.UUCP> <387@mhuxr.UUCP> <1455@pyuxd.UUCP> <391@mhuxr.UUCP> <4982@mit-eddie.UUCP> <398@mhuxr.UUCP> Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 42 Keywords: Van Gogh > From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) >> [Me:] Marcel, does this mean that a great artist isn't great if they >> go unrecognized, and thus have little influence on others? Hogwash! >> Total and complete! > So how would you know that artist was great if he/she was so > unrecognized? I have a mind of my own, don't I? If I have experienced the art of an unrecognized (or recognized) artist I can decide for myself whether they are great without listening to stupid critics or silly historians. If, on the other hand, I've never experienced any of the art of a great unrecognized artist, then I wouldn't know that they are great. But that doesn't mean they aren't! > Implied in the phrase "great artist" is recognition, even if it comes > belatedly, long after the artist's time. Oh baloney. Recognition is often just a matter of style and fads and luck. None of these have anything to do with the intrinsic quality of art. Vincent Van Gogh was a great artist. He certainly wasn't recognized while he was alive. Does that mean he wasn't a great artist while he was alive? He only became a great artist after he died and received recognition? If his paintings had all been stored in a warehouse shortly after his death, and the warehouse had burned down and no one had ever rediscovered his paintings, and he had gone forever unknown and unrecognized would he have been any less of a great artist? Of course not!!!! He still would have been just as great an artist. How could anyone claim that whether or not Van Gogh was a great artist hinged on the trivial fact of whether or not a warehouse burned down? "You may disappear, you're not forgotten here And I will say to you, I will do what I can do" Doug Alan nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)