I am wondering what it is about solitude
and seclusion that appeals to artists as a vehicle to foster creative activity.
Or should I frame my question differently? What is it about artists that they
seek solitude and seclusion as a vehicle to foster creative activity?
The frequently quoted line from Henry David
Thoreau’s Walden comes to mind: “I
went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” Is it possible that
in the city, deep into the forests of brick, concrete, glass, metal, we have
become so wrapped up in culture, in the motions, the movement that we fail to
really live on purpose? Perhaps there is some truth to this, that in the midst
of all the commotion, the hustle bustle, the shared emotion, we forget how to
really be an agential participant in the own making of our lives? There is more
to this though. It is not merely a matter of fashioning ourselves, but it is
also how we produce creatively and how we add to culture. It seems a bit
counter-intuitive that key moments of creation and contributions to culture are
facilitated by a removal from it, but not only that, a removal from other
people. Why have artists gotten the reputation for being loners?
I am not exactly talking about the way in
which Van Gogh is often viewed as a crazed and eccentric kook who spent too
much time alone that he cut off his ear. But at the same time, I guess I am not
not talking about Van Gogh.
Perhaps more to the point, upon the death
of her dear friend and fellow artist Ad Reinhardt in the late 1960s, American
abstract painter Agnes Martin, in search of complete solitude, left New York
for New Mexico, what would become her remote sanctuary. It was only after six
years of not making art that she emerged back into the scene, writing for her
1973 retrospective exhibition, claiming that “the extended periods of solitude
that the making of her work required and the renunciation of materialist
rewards that she viewed as a prerequisite for an ‘untroubled mind’ were central
features of this paradigm”[1].
Is this about matter then, about capital? About seeing nature as matter rather
than becoming lost in attachments to products as matter? And Martin is not the
only artist attracted by desert(ed) land. I am not only thinking of Jackson
Pollock and Georgia O’Keefe here but also of Donald Judd’s Marfa.
This is all
probably most relevant now with the emergence of artist residency programs
globally. I first began to really probe this issue during my short internship
with the arts organization on Fogo Island in Newfoundland, Canada. Fogo Island
Arts is just one of many residency programs that offer artists an opportunity
to live in a remote area, typically surrounded by nature, and to spend some
weeks or a few months creating art in this alternative space.
What is it then
about not only removing yourself from what you know but also entering a space
of quiet and solitude that leads to creative thinking and artistic production?
Is it just a matter of gaining perspective on it all? I think yes, but its more
than that, otherwise Martin wouldn’t have needed six years of it without
producing anything. Is this kind of solitude sustainable? Or does it need to be
considered exclusively a second home, a retreat from something else more
central, something more social? Have I gotten this all wrong and is living on
Fogo Island in fact somehow infinitely more social than living in New York or
London? Maybe its all just an artist thing.
[1] Cooke, Lynne. “…in the classic tradition…” in Lynne Cooke, Karen Kelly and
Barbara Schroder (Eds) Agnes Martin (DIA and Yale University Press 2011), 16.
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