Bill Arnold : Confab
When Robert Henri championed the right of "Ash Can" painters to have their work exhibited, he was representing a group of like-minded artists. When Langston Hughes made his "literary manifesto", he was stating the intention of a group of artists to express their individual like- minded selves. If we call for a confab of artists, it won't be for everyone. Membership will be restricted to those artists who make us laugh or cry. Anyone whose work is so refined that it intimidates or so lifeless that it numbs, can't join.
If a call goes out for isolated ecstatics, who would come? How far would anyone travel to see a confusing picture of a real person? Or what about a landscape where mirth and foreboding sit next to each other? This is the Age of Simplicity. In the past, before we got so much information, things were complicated. But now with all the new data, we see that things are just terrible. So we withdraw into very busy lives.
Still I'm in favor of putting out the call for like-minded artists who play favorites. I imagine them to be low flying, high maintenance individuals with lots of friends from the past and a few in the present.
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