All artists are liars.......

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'All artists are liars--who help us recognize the truth," quote is supposedly from Picasso.....any comments?

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Bridget Dengel of Broadway.com wrote: "Jamy Ian Swiss is the only man in the Fringe who can read minds and has an intermission. Dressed elegantly in a black suit, this quintessential showman amazes us with his sleight of hand. Pulling people from the audience, he doesn't just have them pick a card, he has them think of one and he guessed three out of four right. How does he do it? He swears it's deception because he says, 'If it were real I would be leading a congregation.' That's what makes him an 'honest liar.' Between the tricks, which he lets the audience watch very closely, he jokes around and tells warm tales of his father who supported his interest in magic. Whenever Jamy would get frustrated when he was practicing a trick, his father would say, 'Remember how wonderful it felt when you first saw that trick?' Lucky for everyone, Jamy has become a world expert on magic that truly entertains and boggles the mind as he practices 'expert sensory deception.' But he aptly quotes Picasso who says, 'All artists are liars--who help us recognize the truth.'"

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Good one Husker, I read this quote a while ago in connection with
poets. I think the origin of the quote may stretch back to Plato.

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Hmm...this is an interesting statement, and can be read on many levels. I am a chef, my work is praised, it is an art. However....there are days I feel like I am on auto-pilot, not giving my best, but the clients still love it to death....I feel I'm duping them, taking their money for what I consider a sub-standard product. I think most artists feel this way. As for the helping people recognize the truth thing, that is something I focus on....my biz is competitive, and to survive, it is about building relationships, being honest, not greedy. However, at the end of the day, I still need a cheque in my hand. Does that make me an artistic liar, or just 'the expert' at the moment? Smile

Psst....this should be moved to Philosophy and Debate, it's a great question.

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I believe the best art does "lie" to lead the viewer into perceiving something they've never considered as truth.

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What is truth anyway?

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"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"
-Magritte

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hmmm.....let me know where your restaurant
is Cav....... Perhaps you may wish to hang some of
my lies on the wall? I have been out in this gorgeous crisp fall day in Hollywood north painting moon flowers before the temperature plunges and frost takes them away....Lots of lying since the composition bears little resemblance to
how the flowers grow in reality......

I liked your response about mood and lies.....

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art
Was Picasso merely stating that all artists are illusionists? I doubt that since his work became so non-representational. Artists, even when they try to tell us, at one level, something about the world that is not true at least at another level acknowledge to us that they are illusionists (i.e., making things up). This is why we never feel betrayed by the showbiz magician.

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Maybe our illusions hit some truth within the viewer. It's a gorgeous Saturday, no teaching, and I'm going to my studio to lie for the whole day.

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I am interested in the many different aspects
of "lying".....For instance, the time factor.....We present a landscape or portrait as though it marks a particular instance in time. In reality the "instant" may have taken months to achieve.

A Canadian artist, Christina Pflug,
painted the scene as she saw it from her home through the doorway. The painting took her a year
to complete. The reflections she painted in the glass were of a different season to that
seen out of the doorway.....An instance of
"not lying' that looked strange and disquieting......

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art
Kayla, I don't believe you...the whole day? What an illusionist you are! :wink:
Shepaints, interesting point about "the time factor": we require time to paint a "static" event, scene, or thing. Yet all events, scenes and things are processes in time. It's just that the time we spent painting them does not represent their temporal process. It represents fictional "being" rather than their actual "becoming." Rolling Eyes

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JL....I have especially noticed the time factor when painting from a model.....The model initially holds his or head high, and ones drawing
or painting reflects this. After half an hour or so, gravity sets in, and the model's effort to maintain the pose is relinquished.....All the initial lines one has drawn have to be re-thought, or one has to wait till the model has a break and resumes the initial pose......

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art
Shepaints, and while taking a good photo might freeze time, it loses everything else of the moment. Rolling Eyes

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All artists are liars.......

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