All art is a lie that helps us see the truth more clearly- Pablo Picasso - Essay Example

? Number] “All art is a lie that helps us see the truth more clearly”- Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, although a famous painter and sculptor, quoted Art not limiting its boundaries to just his profession, rather, Art in its deep context from literature, music, film or even dance. When we say art, we mean something that a person can look at and interpret. Art is a visual perception of its author; it highlights the main subject to depict its reality. The exaggeration of the illusion can be considered as a lie that reveals the truth behind the scenes much more clearly through the art performed, painted or sung. (Simon, 2007) In his own quote, Picasso illustrates an artistic touch to call art, a lie. By that he meant the illusion, the self created image of any topic and the observed scenario which an artist creates to send the message through. Hence, using all the human senses, the artist uses self expression to make analysis about the truth that lies behind the mirror. It is on one part the mirror image but much more of a deep scan that illustrated all the parts. Many artist find that in variety of subjects, much like Yehudi Menuhin, the famous American violinist on NY Times explained: “I look upon music as the most complete exposition of the body and spirit of man – and of our universe” (NY Times, June 1986) For Menuhin, music was the illusion that through playing instruments depicted much of how he wanted others to see the world. Art for him was the creation of his mind where violin played the notes of how he explained different emotions. Visual Abstraction Where as in many other forms of arts such as painting, Ayn Rand explains it eloquently: “It is a common experience to observe that a particular painting—for example, a still life of apples—makes its subject “more real than it is in reality.” The apples seem brighter and firmer, they seem to possess an almost self-assertive character, a kind of heightened reality which neither their real-life models nor any colour photograph can match. Yet if one examines them closely, one sees that no real-life apple ever looked like that. What is it, then, that the artist has done? He has created a visual abstraction.” (Art and Cognition, The Romantic Manifesto, 47) The excerpt explains it very deeply of how no real apple can actually look like the painted apple but yet gives the direct image of how delicious and ripe the apple is. Art hence covers dimensions of a human brain for it to pursue its desires. Arts that include poetry and theatre performance play a major role in defining how a simple lie, much like Ayn Rands’ Visual Abstractions can sum up major historical events and move people to find the truth amongst the words. In stage direction, now a day, art is being judged on the amount of hits it can get rather the quality of work and the meaning behind the scenes. It is taken as a time past rather, as Harold Clurman says “as a real communication through the mask of a fable”. (Lies like Truth, 1958) Poetic illusions As Art discovers many dimensions, it plays with words and thoughts, creating images and lies that a person is inclined to look into, to make it a reality. Shel Silverstein through is versatile poetic sense creates an illusion of a tree that can speak, “Once there was a tree... and she loved a little boy. And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest. ....... and the tree was happy But the time went by And the boy grew older. And the tree was often alone” (The Giving Tree) In this exemplary piece of art, the poet looks into a lie that is a tree that can speak, but infact is much more than that, for many the tree can be our family on which we stand by every day and they are there to help. Through art, Silverstein emphases that how reality revolves around how human wants are never ending but by the end of everything we go back to nature, where it all start. Too look behind the lie is the art of the reader, the interpretation of which is only seem through the pinhole, the path then becomes much clearer to interpret. For Aristotle, in this book Poetics, he believes that the root cause for the art of Poetry can has a total of two causes, one is imitation and the other is the instinct for harmony and rhythm. Imitation when compared to Picasso’s quote, is much of a lie that creates the visual action and is strictly following the purpose behind the prose. Whereas harmony and rhythm focus on the seriousness of the matter to which the imitation slowly settles down in the viewers mind. Hence, art recreated reality into its many forms from a colored painting to, the soothing sound of music, the dramatic movement of a person and even the metaphorical words in a poem. ( All the artists are thus also inventors of many imaginary shortcuts, creating fiction, lies that portray myths. "what myth communicates is not truth but reality; truth is always about something - reality is what truth is about" (CS Lewis) It is true that reality is what truth is about, as it is been proven many a times how a poet is an inventor first, an author of fiction and then a writer of poem by Sameul Johnson. According to him the truth demands an imaginative leap which combines a scientific perspective as well as philosophical thinking. Much of any art involved is the portrayal of tangible realities that involves Sameul Johnson’s definition of a Poet to accurately represent the conclusions of one’s perceptions. It is necessary for an artist to know that any art that is created is to hide the truth behind the curtain, if that is not possible, than the picture is always unclear. The lies are to cover the reality; it is to push the viewer towards the critical thinking. It reasons with the viewer and makes them realise the truth behind the ornamented lie. (Simon, 2007) Examples in theatrical performances during the Greek times represent many of the artistic practices that impose the reality through different measures taken. Much like the Skene (The scene house), the arrangement of higher roofs to represent the arrival of many Greek Gods were the imaginary creation in the theatre. The illusions were created of different levels from moving of machines, and the positioning of actors to depict chimera. The illustrations play the most important role to create the final meaning, the story is never told directly as it would be of no essence to the viewer or the reader. The journey to which art takes the viewer is of the main route to which W.B Yates explains very well: “What can be explained is NOT Poetry” It is supposed to challenge one’s mind to think above and beyond what is merely written or shown, it is a journey of realization about a certain fact, a truth that reveals mysteries. Many a times, art is used to voice out opinions. Carl Sandburg uses this dogmatic approach to reveal not only his identity but also the voice of the common man, “Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding” Here Sandburg’s ingenuity shows of how he overlaps the thinking of a dog and his eye of how labour work is happening in Chicago. His artistic eye focuses from the workers laughing of how they are working to the sweat and hardships they are facing doing hard labor. The lies that are hidden behind their smiles are what poets and artists as a whole reveal. The bravery is in amongst them to put the words as eloquently as possible to carve the pattern that can shake the reader into action. (Coulter, 2013) The art must follow of Robert Frost concepts, “I never write a poem about what I write a poem about” The artist is to use the disguise to hide out many elements in literature as well, in Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara the use of metaphors laid the path behind self discovery. The use of words such as “the seven deadly sins” depicts the neediness of a man and unveils the truth behind all the reasons to survive. It is a constructive illusion that tells the viewer the worth of things through words. Around the time when Pablo Picasso was quoted, the concept of Cubism was popular. Inspired by the music, literature and architecture, Cubism is in its true essence a lie constructed through the design, the subject of which is relevant through the deep insight of the art. The subject is constructed through many layers of defined cubes that creates a visual image which is hard to grasp yet is clearly showing a message. Art shows the different sides of a simple figure, the simplicity of the colored painting plays beyond the imagination. It provokes us to think how a certain thing that is painted is perhaps just an identification of wants and needs whereas rationality and reality go against them. Like it is said, a picture is worth a thousand words. To the addition of many viewers the words are more. With each person with a different outlook to life, the lie constructed by the artist gives different results to everyone, individually. As Henry James describes how an artist pick “the faintest hints of life” and “converts the very pulses of the air into revelations.” (Simon, 2007) The artists are thus the very tip of creativity. With their ability to carve emotions and desires, they implicate the truth behind lies. They construct how we see things in the intellectual way, and they shape realities by imitation and imagination. The construction of feeling goes along with the thinking about the matter. Hence finding how realities lay behind the words, painting and scenes, one must think right to feel the true meaning. (Coulter, 2013) In modern art, such as in Quentin Taratino’s films the artistic approach of violence takes over emotions to not inflict hard around but rather in shaping a person. Art is used in double meanings to set forth emotions into actions. (Simon, 2007) Modern Artistic Illusions Modern literature is used as a major art work to make many assumptions about the history and their hidden truth behind the illustrations. Art is combined into fictional assumptions as a personal point of view to things. That gives a new angle to creative thinking. The imitation, fiction is used in modern prose and literature to depict how a certain event or artistic thoughts might be interpreated. To many, the artistic sense of Dan Brown is very charming, where in his fiction he tries to unravel many secrets behind Leonardo Da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa. (Welborn, 2004) Art is used to put forth an illusion of time. With a deeper look from the viewer’s perspective, a person realized the meaning of the image accordingly to a certain time in history or present. Understanding those moments behind the served lies is where the stories unfold. They sum up major event from the past or present, some find them in hiding realities behind words and some through oil paint. (Simon, 2007) Plutarch, the ancient essayist and thinker understood how passions required therapy, the result of which lay in the poetry and painting. He explained how both of these desires imitate the true pain or celebration. It is through these very emotions that a person is lost in the thought of finding the reality and enjoys every part of understanding when it hits them. An artist thus plans his lies well to give the perfect imagine behind the unravelling reality. (Simon, 2007) Work Cited Coulter, Dale M. "SearchFirst Things." First Thoughts The Poets Tell Many Lies Comments., 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. . Leys, Simon. "Lies that Tell the Truth." The Monthly. Nov. 2007. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. . Welborn, Amy. "CERC." The Da Vinci Code: The facts behind the fiction, Web. 13 Dec. 2013. . Read More