Kierkegaard on the false and the real artist
The difference depends on where one finds one's subjects
Søren Kierkegaard is hard to summarize. Thus the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy begins his entry by describing him as “an astonishingly prolific writer whose work — almost all of which was written in the 1840s — is difficult to categorize, spanning philosophy, theology, religious and devotional writing, literary criticism, psychology and social critique,” and saying that his way of thinking “opposes system-building and owes more in its approach to the ancients, particularly his hero Socrates, though his work also draws strongly and creatively on the Bible and other Christian sources.” This is taken from the chapter “Our Duty to Love the Men We See” in the first volume of Works of Love, published in 1847.
Suppose there were two artists, and the one said, “I have traveled much and seen much in the world, but I have sought in vain to find a man worth painting. I have found no face with such perfection of beauty that I could make up in my mind to paint it. In every face I have seen one or another little fault. Therefore I seek in vain.” Would this indicate that this artist was a great artist?
On the other hand, the second one said, “Well, I do not pretend to be a real artist: neither have I traveled in foreign lands. But remaining in the little circle of men who are closest to me, I have not found a face so insignificant or so full of faults that I still could not discern in it a more beautiful side and discover something glorious. Therefore I am happy in the art I practice. It satisfies me without my making any claim to being an artist.”
Would this not indicate that precisely this one was the artist, one who by bringing a certain something with him found then and there what the much traveled artist did not find anywhere in the world, perhaps because he did not bring a certain something with him!
Consequently the second of the two was the artist.
Previous: Caryll Houselander on loving the spirit of the age.
Kierkegaard’s illustration of false vs. real artist is ridiculous. What artist goes looking for only the “perfect” person to paint? Talk about a false alternative!