To be an artist ..do you have to suffer?

Question

whatever your art is there no way you can avoid suffering and still get good results.?

all the greats seem to have had some kind of sufference going on.

Answer 1

Thats because genius usually comes with some kind of mental health problem, bi-polar a lot of the time, when they have fantastic bursts of creative genuis, followed by black depression, you dont have to suffer for your art however, you can still be good and sane!

Answer 2

I think so.

To be a true artist, you have to have you own vision and your own idea of what art ideally should be. It might be nice, different, neat, etc... but the cold hard truth is that it doesn't always meet up to the standards of everyone else (other artists included).

I think that true art is from the soul. No matter how ugly anyone else might view it, art is subjective.

The problem with many artists is that their creation is like their " babies". They feel like someone stabbed them if they dare to make a constructive suggestion.

My advice is that if you intend to make a profession of art, then by all means, listen to suggestion. Try to calculate what people want from art. Try to anticipate peoples needs when performing for them.

If you want to do this as a hobby, by all means, suit yourself. You can be as weird, unconventional, and insane as you want. Many of the greats were much the same (Beethoven, Warhol, Monet, Mozart, Schumann... etc).

Just don't expect to get any respect until after you are dead.  

    ;-)

Answer 3

The same reason why some paintings worth millions while others worth little...

I have done some research and study on art and being an artist/painter myself (my paintings are not for sale), perhaps my findings can give you some insight. See below:

The definition of painter

Painter paints with skill accumulated from years of practice and patience. A painter is usually a person skilful with their tools and, can create great work of art, most artists admire these masters of creators.

The few painters can create and capture an event in their work, usually worth millions.

For example, a painter paints a tiger, so skilfully that each of the many millions of the hair on the tiger's back, can be seen in the right degree of colour and light, facing the wind direction, and even the whiskers over the tiger's facial hair can be seen.

Such a painting takes months of patience, skill and hard work, and will fetch for 1'000s on the market.

The reason that such a piece of work fetch 1,000s and not millions, a message is missing in the work.

The definition of artist

Artists captures the historical event and express it in a painting. Everybody can draw to a degree but few can capture an event. Artists are like historians who wrote the story of the event impartially, words that we can relate to the logic and behaviour of then civilization.

Creative artists captures the event, be it abstractly or vividly.

For example, a simple painting, describing four grown ups line in a line, and only wearing pants, laughing and teasing at four other grown ups, using their figures acting as executors executing them.

Such a painting takes days to complete, but would fetch millions on the market. As it's a piece of art, capturing a historical event of the time.

The artist who painted that painting not necessary a master craftsman, but was able to paint the title of his painting in our head. Yes, you guessed it right.

It's called the 'Mock Execution' by a young Chinese artist, who was recording a historical event of the time then in China. This artist is a time impartial historian. Painters who depicts and recreate the artist's work worth little.

Now the 1st painting was sold for £6,000 only in 2007, and the 2nd painting was sold for £3m in 2007, perhaps you might have seen it on TV news about this painting and on the web. Both artist/painter are still alive and don't want to be known.

I have painted some few paintings myself and I have put them on my site @ http://www.freeuknetwork.co.uk/Definitio...

and I hope people will not find it too political, thus I have to do some research and hope people will read what I say first before pointing fingers their at me - I'm trying to be impartially.

Regards

Bill

Answer 4

It's a myth.  You don't have to suffer to be an artist.

So many artists have suffered because all of us suffer at some point or another, and those are the times that mold our character.

But many artists have had relatively comfortable, smooth lives.  The composer Mendelsohn was born into money, such that he was able to hire an orchestra to play his compositions so he could be certain what it sounded like before premiering it for the public.  William Shakespeare, tho' we know less about him than we'd like, seems to have established himself as a playwright, enjoyed a stable and productive working relationship with his company, benefited from patronage of the Queen, and made a bundle of money prior to the big catastrophe in his life, the death of his son Hamnet.  For every rock musician who dies young, there's another one who had a relatively normal life with a monogamous marriage, normal kids, and a degree of comfort (ref: Justin Hayward, Martin Barre, Curt Smith, Jerry Goodman, Skunk Baxter, and others).

Yes, no life is free of tragedy--all of our important relationships end either in anger or sorrow.  But the universality of the experience is what proves that suffering does not lead to great art: if it did, we'd all be great artists.

Answer 5

All the greats did NOT have "some kind of sufference going on"

Georgia O'Keeffe didnt suffer ... she says that her artwork was not tied to her emotions in any way. she just painted what she wanted. She felt art was a beautiful way to fill up an empty space.

It does seem that all artists were depressed, like Van Gough, he was insane and I personally don't care for his work. I respect it, but it's not my cup of tea. I don't think Michelangelo was depressed or anything, but I could be wrong. Or Escher. I think the artists that seem to have gone through sufferage made artwork that sticks out of the crowd because its so crazy.

Answer 6

i suppose some artist go through tough times, but i guess that their emotions is whhat makes a work of art.

Answer 7

your mistaking suffering for having mental health issues

Answer 8

I think that most artists like to think of themselves as tortured souls.