Page 6 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume III

The art critic, the art collector and me
One day in the month of May, I found myself
in an art gallery on the Seine street in Paris,
looking at the paintings hanging on the walls.
Just at that moment I saw one of the best-
known Parisian art critics enter the gallery.
This man writes in several Parisian newspapers
and also collaborates in the most prestigious
contemporary art magazines. He was
accompanied by a fat man with a large belly,
dressed in bluish black.
After having observed him for a few seconds,
I thought he might be a great collector of
contemporary art.
After a while and having listen to the art critic,
I asked myself why he was explaining the great
qualities of all those paintings. After a few
minutes, I finally plucked up the courage and
asked him to allow me to listen to him, such was
the knowledge he showed in his speech.
In front of each painting he talked about the
composition, the colors and the artistic values
that I, personally, did not know. One of the
aspects that determine the greatness of this
artist, he said, regardless of other conceptual
and technical values, is based on the absolute
dominion of the laws of the golden ratio, that is
to say, the Golden Section based on the number
Phi. The collector, knowing nothing about this
golden number, asked him to explain. This,
dear sir, is a composition based on the rule of
the divine proportion of mystical order. This
aesthetic is found in the works of the greatest
painters and sculptors of all time, from Phidias
and Michelangelo to the great contemporary
creators, architects, painters and sculptors. The
collector and myself admired, astonished, the
great capacity and knowledge demonstrated by
that art critic.
We followed the art critic, who, full of pride,
continued to speak. The brightness and depth
of color with which this painter works brings
him closer to the great colorists of all time. See
how in this contrast he makes an absolute use
of complementary colors, and even how he uses
black to emphasize the intensity of the other
colors.
You know, there have been great colorists
throughout the history of art who have reached
the highest levels in the use of colors. Well, this
painter not only brings them closer, but he is,
like them, at the highest level of the domain of
pictorial chromaticism.
While listening to that gentleman, I began to
think that to achieve his level of knowledge
I would have to read and study thoroughly
in order to acquire his artistic culture and,
although I like art very much, I thought that
I was unable to compete with that art critic.
On the other hand, I asked me why this art
critic wanted to put this artist on such a high
level? Surely, he wants the collector to buy
one or more paintings. Maybe he has a good
commission from the gallery.
Art, he continued, is the expression of the
deepest feelings of the creators. Come on, look
at this painting. There was a small sizes panel
on which, some abstract shapes stood out from
the bottom on a reddish-brown stain. See, he
continued, how the painter has composed these
forms on a neutral background that emphasizes
the intensity of color. I looked astonished and
tried to follow and understand everything he
said, because I wanted to learn a lot from that
art critic.