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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)