Perfection

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Ganja's see post (see Opinions Needed" in this forum) made me wonder about this: A famous artist (Picasso, maybe?) once said that he always left a small imperfection in his paintings, because only God could make something perfect.

Is this arrogance? False humility? True humility? Laziness? Honest appreciation of his own abilities?

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Honesty. Can't resist posting this by Auden (Epitaph on a Tyrant) because the topic made me think of it:

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

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Navajo silversmiths also make a point of including an "imperfection" in each piece. A silver rope around the bezel is a common element, and the rope is usually unclosed.

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An imperfection in a Picasso would be rather difficult to find! I would say it would matter in a painting by Ingres or one of the Dutch masters. I believe they did strive for a kind of perfection but with painting it would be an opinion on whether they reached it or not. There are too many things to consider other than technique -- color, composition, perspective, etc. God, if one wants to relent that it exists, has left all sorts of imperfections even if one doesn't scrutinize nature closely. So a statement of that sort is subjective and ultimately meaningless.

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Have to agree with Lightwizard here. The statement is self-gratifying and egomaniacal. There is no such thing as perfection, so to comment that you put imperfections in your work 'on purpose' just says 'well, it could have been perfect had I wanted it to be' and is complete hubris.

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Then, for an artisan like glass blower who creates Stueben glassware would want a perfect product. It's not possible there because one could find imperfections even if extremely tiny. Used to have fun looking for a tiny bubble in a "perfect" example of stemware, for instance.

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just out of intreste in a filed like art which is personal and the beauty or perfection of the art relies on each indivudals perception of the piece... whats perfection i mean in the broader sense? One mans perfection is another mans flaw

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i meant to say field in my earlier post Smile

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tagged -- if you hit the "edit" button on your original post, you can correct errors (almost without anyone knowing 'cause if you do it right away, there's no notation that you've even edited!)

You are correct and following along with cav and myself that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The premise of including an "imperfection" is like "Where's Waldo?"

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tagged, I think the best any artist in any field can do is to end the day with a firm conviction of "I done good." The pursuit of perfection will drive you mad. Joel Robuchon is a big influence on me as a chef, but his relentless pursuit of perfection not only tortured his staff, but forced him to retire early from stress. Bernard L'Ouiseau spent a lifetime striving for 3 Michelin stars. When he lost one last year, he shot himself. Do good work, do fine work, do the best you can, and leave the entire idea of perfection out of it.

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BTW, I don't look for flaws in Stueben anymore -- by that Baccarat! Laughing

(It's no longer made in one factory anymore but in sub-contracted glass blowing factories in other parts of the world.)

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With a painting, an artist could end up "over painting" and end up with an inferior image to the one they originally intended. I think the perceived imperfection was somewhere in the gray cells of the artist who made that statement. Picasso is suspect but I could imagine many artists who have opening their mouths uttering such an absurdity.

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Tomkitten - Quilts are also made with at least one self-imposed imperfection. It may seem self-gratifying but the thrust was originally strict humility and reverence.

For some kinds of art I think this is more reasonable than others. I'd be annoyed with a dancer, for example, who might decide to trip during a performance, or a musician who sang one note off-key. The visions of modern artists are also hard to share, so who is to say if there was a built-in mistake?

At some level there would always be a flaw... microscopically speaking. It would be interesting to know who this artist was and then check his/her work. Very Happy

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oh cav i dont search for perfection cos i know i'm perfect! not but seriously i'm not intrested in such a bizzare notion.

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I've seen some quilts that are amass with imperfections. Laughing

I think we've strayed off from considering this as a discussion of fine art and not the work of artisans.

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Lightwizard wrote:

I've seen some quilts that are amass with imperfections.

I think we've strayed off from considering this as a discussion of fine art and not the work of artisans.

And I've seen plenty of bad oil paintings and sculpture, too. Who limited this to fine art? Asherman mentioned the work of silversmiths.

You said in your first post that the statement is meaningless, but of course, it isn't meaningless to the artist who says it, only to someone viewing the work or hearing the statement. It is no wonder so few artists want to talk about their work.

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Tomkitten was referring to painting but I'll leave it up to him if he considers the work of artisans would be relevant. Your second paragraph eludes me.

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Lightwizard wrote:

An imperfection in a Picasso would be rather difficult to find! I would say it would matter in a painting by Ingres or one of the Dutch masters. I believe they did strive for a kind of perfection but with painting it would be an opinion on whether they reached it or not. There are too many things to consider other than technique -- color, composition, perspective, etc. God, if one wants to relent that it exists, has left all sorts of imperfections even if one doesn't scrutinize nature closely. So a statement of that sort is subjective and ultimately meaningless.

I didn't mean to be obscure, LW. I'm reading this thread from the beginning. The above was your first post... and the last statement was the one I referred to; you said "... a statement of that sort is subjective and ultimately meaningless."

"Meaningless," I said, "perhaps, but not to the person, the artist, who first said it."

An artist friend on finishing up for the day, has more than once said to me, "Better is the enemy of Good." I take that to mean he sees some small imperfections but appreciates his work enough not to change it.

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Here's an interesting link about imperfection in art:

Archaic Greek Art, Standford University, Fall 2000

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Perfection
Well, I'd no idea there would be some many responses so quickly! I'll have to print them out and think about them a bit.

BTW, I said "painting" because I think it was a painter who made the statement, but it certainly would apply to any creative work - art or artisanry/craft.

I have a different interpretation of the statement "Better is the enemy of Good". I think it means that the artist shouldn't be pleased because something is better than it was, but should strive to make it Best.

Naturally, we all know nothing can ever really be Best, but coming as close as possible is the point.

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Perfection

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