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Mary,
Thanks for your thoughtful post. You are guilty of being part of something and learning/gaining from actual experience. It's to my great dismay that so many artists wish to ascribe and describe the success of others as owing only to some unwholesome agenda.
You also reminded me of an experience that I had many years ago and have been guilty of retelling many times over the years to fellow artists and students alike. In the early 60's I visited the Carnegie International Show in Pittsburgh with a group of gifted artists skilled in "traditional" and "modern" art. (I still continue these high risk behaviors)
The show strongly favored the "modern" art movements of the time and in the previous week Time magazine had displayed several paintings from the show. Among those was a square painting that for the most part was a mass of cobalt blue paint that stopped just short of the edges of the canvas. A broad cadmium yellow line ran through the lower third of the painting. Looking at the magazine did not prepare me for the viewing experience since the painting was very much larger than I had expected and had a strong impact that commanded your attention. (It could have been an abstract banana on a blue table)
Nearby was a painting much smaller in size by Andrew Wyeth. It may have been "Brown Swiss" or another of the paintings of the Kuerner house that featured the house on the hill and its reflection in the pond below. As powerful as the first painting was, the Wyeth held its own and more. Anything else would have been blown away.
The overall impact and ability to command your attention was inspiring. As an abstract composition it was second to none and has had a lasting effect on my ability to appreciate and encourage the overwhelming need for students to develop paintings which demand your attention through concept and design. It's my reminder to strive for the same
It would be worth many fruitless trips to other galleries to have an experience like this one.
Not to jinx myself, but I don't know where all these "snobs" are found. Do they hang out with the "dumbed down"?
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