Archie Rand - Part 3 Lives of Artists

Jackson Pollock was always an outsider. He’d adore Navajo sand painting, Mexican murals, Orozco, drawing mental patients… he refused to follow anybody. You know what it take a guy to draw in pink!?

Artists usually lead interesting lives outside their work. The diary of Pormento reads like this. I got home, ate bread, slept, woke up. Got home, ate, had diarrhea the next day. Nothing about his work is in his diaries. He had diarrhea every six months or so.

Michelangelo’s famous drawing of the Libyan  Sybil has muscles in her back which don’t even exist, her back is invested with features. 

Appolinaire said of Picasso “with horrible precision, Picasso would assassinate himself every 5 years”.

There seems to be a correlation between the disdain of scientists and artists. Both brilliant scientists and artists are portrayed as mad like van Gogh and Einstein. Continually in history, both artists and scientists have been persecuted. The final product usually means nothing. To some it seems as if it were an act of generosity.

Einstein didn’t have something to say. 3000 people showed up at the Waldorf to hear him speak. He had to cancel the speech cause he didn’t come up with something to say. He sent out 3000 invitations when he was ready. 

Artists never feel good enough. It’s not that people don’t care about them, it’s that they never feel it’s enough, they’re on the outside. Artists like Rembrandt and Matisse tried to get back to society through their art. Their work is filled with humanity.

John Coltrane played with the best musicians. The innovative jazz pianist, the best jazz drummer… but they left him cause he kept getting 20 year olds to join the band. When the veteran asked him why he was getting untalented inexperienced people to play with him, he said because they’re excited about playing.