-Neo Classical Art-
This week in class, we observed closely the movement of Neo-Classical Art. In this movement, many artist with passionate views on life in both the private and public realms expressed their vision on canvas, as close to perfection as possible. This search for perfection, came greatly out of the doctrine of Winckelmann. He believed that a "diciplined lifestyle, meant a diciplined mind.." and as such, they had to go back to the classical finesse that came with Greek classical art. Artist of the time, all searched for perfection, they all wanted to be as close as possible to the ideal.
This obsession with the "ideal" comes from Neoplatanism. The idea that everything is a copy of the "ideal" and that because it is a copy it is inferior, BUT it is as close as one can get to the "ideal" hence, one should try to be the ideal copy of perfection!
One of the Neo-Classical Artist of the time that caught my attention was David. In his pieces "perfection" was clear in my eyes. All his work, was breathtakingly beautiful. It followed all the poussinist rules of line and contour. Yet one piece of his truly moved me, and that was "Death of Marat" (1793)It was this piece,(below)
that made David seem like a real person for me. Not obssesed with perfection, rather with the human contidion of a friend he cared for. For me, this piece alone transformed David, from a robotic perfectionist in to a human being with a soul.
Soul. This word is one dear to my vocabulary, and to the essence of my personality and identity. Everything I do, I do it with soul. Every poem I write, has in each line a little bit of the soul of wich I write. Every poem I write is to make the reader feel like the "Death of Marat" Painting made me feel of David. YSoul. It takes "Soul" to make something come to life. Wether it be a poem, a neo-classical painting or a song.
The purpouse of this blog is to connect the Art I learn about in class to my everyday life, and when I it came down to ask my self "how Neo-Classical art could be a reflection of my everyday life" I could not think of a connection. But in the background played a song on the radio by one of my favorite artist--Erykah Badu. She sang a song called "Ye-Yo" in that sweet voice of hers and suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head!
Erykah Badu (image below)is what is now called a "NEO-SOUL" artist.
What does that mean? Well, like neo-classical painters, she is part of a music genre that aims to go back to the "classics" as well. Classic Soul Music. The fact that the genre alone is called "Neo-Soul" makes me think of the attempt made my neo-classical painters like David, they attempted to reach perfection by immitating the "ideal." Except that in the case of Neo-Soul music, it is not expected, or encouraged that one copies the "ideals" of the past, instead neo-soul, encourages thinking outside the box and welcomes the reflection of present day by accepting new sounds, new styles, and lyrical flow into the historical classic genre that is Soul music. Neo-Soul is different than Neo-Classical art in that sence,and to be honest-- I'm Glad it is!
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