Skip to main content

The Artist



Paul Cezanne
“How do I judge art?”  Paul asked the man who had introduced himself as Ambroise Vollard.  “When I complete a painting, I take it and place it near a God-made thing, a tree or a flower; if it clashes, it’s not art.”

Paul Cezanne had failed every time he submitted his works to the Paris Salon for exhibition.  The true artist cannot change his art in order to please the gallery.  Art is not a commercial product.  You paint according to your artistic taste and sensibility.  If people can appreciate them, it’s good.  Otherwise, it is still good.  Follow your soul’s diktats. 

Paul did just that.  From 1864, when he was 25 years old, he submitted his paintings to the Salon for nearly two decades.  Rejections did not cloud his soul.  After all, his father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne was a successful banker and had left him enough money to live on.  “I was lucky,” Paul explained to Vallard, “selling my paintings was not important to me.  But the irony is that the Salon accepted one and only one painting of mine, in 1882, and that was a portrait of my father.”  Paul smiled gently. 

It had taken another 13 years for Ambroise Vollard, Parisian art dealer, to discover the genius of Paul Cezanne.  “A revolution will start the day people begin to see a carrot in a fresh way,” Paul used to say.

Freshness of perception was Cezanne’s genius.  “I’m going to organise a solo exhibition of your paintings,” said Vollard. 

When Paul entered the gallery filled with his own paintings, he was surprised.  “Look,” he said to his son, “they have framed them!”


“They deserve the frames, father,” said the son who knew that his father was not aware of his own greatness. 

Post-Script:  The exhibition catapulted Cezanne into fame.  Today his paintings are exhibited in the best art galleries of the world.  The Card Players, an iconic work by Cezanne, is currently the most expensive work of art ever sold. It was sold for more than $250 million in 2011. 

'The Card Players' by Cezanne

Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers


Comments

  1. Sir, what exactly is freshness of perception. Is it a developed perception or comming back to our original perception ( a child like perception)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's both, Nishant. Every artist has a dominant child in him/her; but there is also the wisdom that comes from the experiences that only an adult can have.

      Delete
  2. Unfortunately, we writers are forced to write what currently sells. Go to any publisher. They aren't bothered about your plot or flow. They are more interested in what sells. But looked from their perspective, can they be held responsible for it? I don't think so. The same was the case with Paul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, Pankti, I don't agree at all. Any writer who writes for the sake of money is a mercenary. Art was never sold in the old cultures and civilsations. Art is beyond price. But our capitalist culture has converted everything into a commodity. They have bought up even writers, the saddest of all things that happened. Because buying up writers means buying up intelligence.

      Delete
    2. You are right in that aspect...what I meant is, in this era of materialism, I know few writers who give what their publishers want for the sake of their bread and butter, and then they write for themselves...unfortunately, it's their latter work that doesn't reach the public because none of the publishers are ready to publish it.

      And to be honest, I being a content writer by profession and fiction writer by hobby, I can't find fault with them. I too would write what my employers/publishers want (within reason) but I will keep on writing the things that I want for myself...I wouldn't care if that doesn't see the light of the day! Right now I'm working with a publisher. Let's see how much chance do I get to actually bring my work to the public as I wanted and not as my publisher wanted!

      Delete
  3. Hmm... Paul had great talent but he was lucky to have his father's wealth to accept the rejections and STILL paint.If he was not rich perhaps he'd have left painting in order to earn OR might have earned good and made less paintings but still painted..... whatever the case might be.. if you follow your instincts , there's a way to find .may be less but still you will be able to get what YOU WANTED. (in connection with this as well as your other post - Destiny )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Kokila, Paul would have painted even if he had not inherited his father's wealth, even if he had to live in misery for the sake of his art. Such was the integrity of artists in those days. Think of Vincent van Gogh or Paul Gauguin or other painters of the time.

      Destiny, yes, destiny plays a role in the life of people who are really artists and refuse to sell their souls.

      Delete
  4. Real artists are not aware of their greatness. The true artist cannot change his art to suit the gallery. Agree. Van Gogh too sold practically nothing in his lifetime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most painters of Van Gogh's time lived miserable lives, Nilanjana. For them their art was life, not money. Those were the days when integrity was valued, days which were not bought and sold at one night stands...

      Delete
  5. What a lovely post.... loved the thought behind it.. this esp. is a beautiful line *“When I complete a painting, I take it and place it near a God-made thing, a tree or a flower; if it clashes, it’s not art.”**
    I strive to do just this and not what others expect me to..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Seeta, for saying this. I'm an atheist for all practical purposes. Theoretically an agnostic. Yet I put the words of Cezanne in his own words without manipulating, because I consider myself an artist with integrity, an artist who has not sold my soul to capitalism. If we can continue to do what gives us genuine satisfaction (genuine is a dangerous word that needs a lot of explanation), we can make a far better world. Unfortunately, our writers and thinkers and artists are only interested in selling their wares today.

      Delete
  6. a nice post saying that anyone with a true passion for art can become a great artist ...it motivates everyone :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sow, for telling me that it is motivational. I did hope so. So your comment is encouraging.

      But not every artist in the time of Cezanne was so lucky. Most of them lived in misery. For the sake of their art. For the sake of their integrity. Today I come across so many frauds, especially in religion. Have you ever wondered why religion has become such a commodity today? Especially in politics?

      Delete
  7. Yes, an artist is the one who follows the voice of his heart. Art is not to please someone but if it pleases someone it makes the artist happier. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Precisely, Namrata. Just the point. But the artist must have the means to do it :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

The Blindness of Superficiality

An Essay on Anees Salim’s novel The Blind Lady’s Descendants Superficiality is a deadly human vice though most people seldom realise it. It is easy to live on the surface of everything from one’s profession to religion. Anees Salim’s novel, The Blind Lady’s Descendants , tells us a story of superficiality as lived by quite many people. Amar, the protagonist of the novel, is 26 when he thinks that life is not worth living. He became an atheist at the age of 13. He had become a half-Muslim at the age of 5 when his little penis was circumcised partly since he ran away in pain during the process. Amar’s atheism, however, is as superficial as most believers’ religion is. What initiated little Amar to atheism is “Dr Ibrahim’s farting fit.” Islamic prayer has to follow many a rule. “If you break wind during namaaz, you break a big rule, and you are to discontinue the prayer then and there, with no second thoughts.” Little Amar was unable to control his giggles as Dr Ibrahim struggled to