back

by fredley·4y ago·view on hn ↗
As I someone who has studied art a little, try it! Appreciation for work of this kind comes quickly when you try and emulate it.
3 comments
Of course trying to perfectly emulate another human at painting is going to be virtually impossible. You could try and emulate my 5-year-old's art, but I could then demonstrate with a team of forensic analysts that you've failed to exactly emulate some of the nuances that my 5-year-old displays in his art. Will you then appreciate the kind of work my 5-year-old produces when you realize how difficult it is to perfectly emulate him?
> trying to perfectly emulate another human at painting is going to be virtually impossible

No one is saying "draw a copy of something that already exists with near-pixel-perfect accuracy". When the parent comment said "emulate", they meant "create something of your own in a similar art style/genre".

I can bet you that if you try to "scribble a random mish mash of curves", it won't look and feel anywhere as great as that Picasso painting, and it will be extremely difficult to get anywhere even close to his level. And even if you show both yours and Picasso's paintings side-by-side to a person who has never seen a Picasso's painting before (and who doesn't even know who Picasso is), they will always pick the Picasso's painting as more artistically impressive.

It's not about copying or perfect emulation. It will – probably – be very difficult for you to paint something that looks like it was made by Picasso to yourself. There is no need to involve any experts in this, you can be the judge of your own painting.
art, like writing, is all about the ideas, not the literal, physical object (or lack thereof in some cases), and as such, that's either a fool's errand or an intentional deceit. while some (post-modern) art has woven the medium into the message, the medium takes a backseat to expression (of ideas) for art in general. to "emulate" the art of any so-called master, you'd need to have powerful ideas that are begging to be expressed, not masterful painting prowess (as an example). your challenge wouldn't bring about appreciation of art so much as an appreciation of the lack of technical skill, which is not art, but simply painting. many people are skillful painters, and yet are not artists, and vice versa.

this is also why art generally follows fashion rather than being truly avant-garde--artists need to pander to the wealthy/powerful (the church for many centuries, for example) to make a living, so trying to "emulate" popular art would first require a pandering/fashionable perspective, which is hard for an outsider to truly achieve without first becoming an (art) insider.

The fact that I know I can't emulate his early work informs me that I also couldn't emulate his later work, but it is hard to understand why.