Thomas Cole, Youth, from Voyage of Life, oil on canvas
Thomas Cole (1801-1848) lived less than a decade after the invention of photography, but he already recognized what a game changer it would be for his fellow artists. He assessed the impact when writing to a friend:
"I suppose you have read a great deal about the daguerrotype. If you believe everything the newspapers say, you would be led to suppose that the poor craft of painting was knocked in the head by this new machinery for making Nature take her own likeness, and we have nothing to do but give up the ghost . . . This is the conclusion: that the art of painting is creative, as well as an imitative art, and is in no danger of being superseded by any mechanical contrivance."
I wonder how he would respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by today's art-generating machines.
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Quoted from the book: The Painter and the Photograph
2 comments:
I don't think I've seen "the art of painting is creative, as well as an imitative art" put into words so eloquently before. Cole can also put his money where his mouth is, being both creative and imitative (in the sense of verisimiltude, not lack of originality.)
When I think of it, some of the artists I find myself liking the most are those in whose work (fantastic or otherwise) the forces of creativity and imitation (of reality or an art movement) are in balance.
Yes, and I agree with the comment by A.M. - we seem to want that creativity of something new, within a context that doesn't make us so uncomfortable that we stop thinking.
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