Month: November 2009

“Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth.” – Orson Scott Card

A true artist utilizes lying to communicate truth. The debate on feeling “truth” when viewing a work of art is an argument on the means to achieving a goal. What is the goal of an artist? An artist must express an emotion, an idea, a thought, etc. using a medium of their preference. For example, imagine a war veteran giving an anecdote to an audience on the first time he was required use a firearm. His goal is to simulate and evoke the emotions he felt during that moment of his life. Yes, it is possible for the man to describe the past event as it actually happened and to tell “the truth.” But sometimes, this truth isn’t good enough. If he were to describe the event as it actually happened, he would fail to make the audience feel the same emotions that he once experienced. Therefore, he exaggerates many aspects of his story when talking to the audience. He might even make up a few aspects of the story altogether. He lies in order to effectively communicate his emotions to the audience; he “lies” to tell “the truth.”

Thus, what is truth? Is it the image of fading sunlight over a river seen in a painting? Or is it the raw emotion that the artist wanted to communicate to the viewer? Perhaps the artist saw a waterfall and felt that the emotions would be better translated to the viewer if he had painted a sunset instead. Indeed, the artist would be lying, but he would also be telling the truth. I believe that whenever I view a piece of art, indeed, I am seeing a lie. But when I view the artwork and am able to conjure the same emotion that the artist intended me to feel, I am feeling the truth.

When viewing a work of art, or listening to one, can we see the truth?  Can we feel it?

The truth is something that is different to each person. When two people tell the same story (and neither is making anything up), they both choose to include and exclude different details. While one may emphasize one instance in the story, the other may not see the importance in that instance and instead highlight another part. Both of these people are telling the “truth” and yet their truths are different. In art, the truth is up to interpretation. If the viewer manages to experience any bit of emotion put into the art, then the viewer has essentially seen the truth, or as much as it is possible to see.

Judging from this, the truth is, in fact, virtually nonexistent. Since the artist is not always going to be present to let the viewer know if the emotions felt are correct, there is no real way to tell if the truth has been seen. Thus, whatever each viewer feels is the truth to themselves and that is all that matters.

Art lies. Inspect this human, face contorting, robe rippling, hand rising. The human is stone, not flesh nor life nor gentle give that is the truth of man. Glance down this street, mark the sun creeping over the water between buildings on the left, about half as far as one can see. There is no street, only a lines of pigment and oil brushed on canvas. That house so far away remains four feet from where one stands to look, and that house so near does too. The far house in truth is larger than the near, yet perhaps an inch by two, while the other dominates a foot by half. Listen to the sorrow and the torment of this music. But the instruments and players are without distress. Follow the rise of this leader in his time two thousand fifty eight years before last Wednesday, and watch his fall by night. But this young man is no leader, this dilapidated stage no ancient kingdom, and this fall no longer than a day before another rise. Even when art has truth – a man did rule a kingdom, a soul once suffered loss, a street did stretch into the distance, a sun did rise, a face did cringe – it only lies the better. Mixed with its tricks of perspective and tone, these small truths  merely render the lie more convincing, like a half-truth told to calm an anxious parent. Even now I lie, when I say art, abstract idea it is, may lie or have or do.

Yet art is no half-truth to calm, it is a bold-faced lie to drudge up some part of the soul that hears or sees. It riles and worries and inspires. Great art lies to tell great truth. When a child lies to a mother, he hides something, but when an artist lies, she reveals something. A fraction of the rage, the peace, the pain, the loss humanity has faced in infinite ways, arranged in an elegant composite of one face or phrase, while directly untrue, divulges to the viewer something deeply true about himself.

1. When viewing a work of art, or listening to one, can we see

the truth?  Can we feel it?

Art may or may not represent truth. Even if it does represent ‘truth’, it represents the maker’s truth. For so many things in our lives, there is no one definitive truth. Math and science represent facts and truth; however,  some scientific theories might end up not being true at all, after it is disproved or replaced by another one.

Sometimes an artist’s ‘truth’ may resonate with us as we listen or look at it, then we might be able to feel it. Art can also distort or exaggerate the truth. Just like a caricature may be showing face characteristic the person has, but they are dramatized and even though the overall you will recognize the person in the caricature, he or she will not actually look like that. So whenever we look at any art, we also get the truth but through the eyes of the artist. Several artists may look at the same artist, but each one will also paint it a different way. They might each stress different features of colors of the sunset. Then there is also the interpretation of a work. So the “truth” intended in the art will get distorted several times in the process of creation and interpretation.

I do not believe that the use of mathematical symmetry and geometry in art limits beauty or truth. Symmetry and order make up the world, and can be seen in both the human body and in nature. Tessellations, the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden Ratio, and fractals are all mathematical, yet seen as beautiful aspects of nature. The symmetry is what makes many things aesthetically pleasing, and without it, things can appear chaotic, and often ugly. When these same symmetries and shapes that are present in nature are represented in art, they do not limit the piece’s beauty—they contribute to it. Truth lies in order, and I think by creating something that is mathematically correct, an artist is being more truthful to the way things actually are than if he just painted without any set guidelines. While beauty and truth can definitely be seen outside of the mathematical realm, numbers and symmetry can add to a piece’s veracity and appearance.

When we view, or listen to, a work of art, we make our own assumptions as to what it represents. The assumptions that we make are what we believe to be the truth, regardless of whether the producer of the work agrees. In fact, many times when we view, or listen to, a work of art, we believe it represents something that never even crossed the producer’s mind; the producer has his or her own view of the truth, while we have ours. However, this does not make our version of the truth incorrect. Although there are many facts that cannot be disputed, such as 2 + 2 = 4, there are also many facts that are not as concrete. This is particularly true in art, where each individual can believe the work of art means something and accept it as the truth. As a result, we can see the truth in a work of art because it is up to us to decide what the truth is. An extension of this idea is that we can feel the truth. Just as 2 + 2 = 4 does not raise any concern with anybody, because we know it is the truth, a person’s version of the truth does not raise any concern with him or her. If one truly believes his or her version of the truth, they will be able to feel it and not have any doubts as to its authenticity.

Art is one of the purest expressions of man. Art, ranging from music to painting, is, at its core, catharsis. Not everyone can simply articulate their perception of the world. Not everyone has a desire to. People embrace other forms of art because they are all individuals, and they choose to make art in the first place because they want to share experiences with fellow individuals. Ergo, art is one’s truth in the most distilled form of the concept.

When we experience art, whether we realize this or not, we are exploring the truths of another individual and his sensibilities. That is why art responds to people in so many capacities. It’s why art has survived so long. There is an innate quality to art so truly genuine that we cannot ignore its gravitational force. Whether we feel we understand the piece of art or not, we understand that someone has just revealed the truth about something.