MAKING THE BEST USE OF "THE ONLY TIME WE'VE GOT"

Following up on last week's discussion of artists who are challenged to make the best use of our era in illustration:

Horrible New Yorker cover drawn on an iPad by famous artist David Hockney

French painter Paul Delaroche saw the handwriting on the wall back in 1839.  When he spotted his first photograph, he proclaimed, “From today, painting is dead!” Delaroche may have been a little premature, but he was right to be alarmed.  

In the following years, technology continued its inexorable incursions into art.  Photography improved and became more accessible, then morphed into moving images, then moving images with sound.  When photography went digital, it became possible for even the most untalented to manipulate images, simulate the act of drawing, and cut and paste moving images to create visual collages. In recent years generative AI has made that process interactive.

These technological changes put new creative freedom in the hands of the lumpenproletariat and introduced undeniable economy and efficiency into the production of images.  What are we to make of all this?  It does no good to avert our eyes.  These are the forces that pushed illustration out of most magazines and then pushed most magazines out of business.  Today they have breached the barricades of the most distinguished art museums.

 

For a while, we could take comfort from the fact that most digital art, even digital art by accomplished artists such as David Hockney (above) was so laughable that it didn't warrant serious consideration.  But today talented artists are creating first class images digitally, and first class images are always self-legitimizing.  If the image is excellent, I reject objections to its pedigree. 

Exhibit A for discussion is the work of the brilliant Nathan Fowkes.  Born and bred on traditional art media, he nurtured his talents honestly, spending years doing lovely, honest plein air paintings.  In recent years he has also become a virtuoso with digital media:

I think these paintings are admirable.  When I first saw them I couldn't distinguish them from traditional media, so it would be dishonest to think less of them just because they were produced digitally. 

Instead, I salute the open mind with which Fowkes embraced the new tools and the honesty with which he explores their potential.  I'm happy to say that both are hallmarks of Fowkes' work.