Rendering 3: 'Love Potions: Art and the Heart'

The article ‘Love Potions: Art and the Heart’ was published by Barbara Pollack in ARTnews on February 13, 2013. It discusses and carries a lot of comments on the role of love in the art. 

   Speaking of this issue, it’s necessary to note that from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles to Taylor Swift—just turn on the radio and you can hear anthem upon anthem to love. And it’s an open secret that if you wander into a contemporary art museum, and such evidence of passion is, more often, nowhere in sight. However, there’s every reason to believe that romantic love has been a subject of art throughout time—François Boucher in the Enlightenment, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin in the 19th century, and Roy Lichtenstein in the 20th—but nowadays most artists are far too cool and ironic or otherwise engaged to wear their hearts on their sleeves. 

   Analyzing the overall reluctance, it’s interesting to emphasize that there are more than a few contemporary artists who tell great love stories, even some who confess to a broken heart. It’s hard to believe, but French artist Sophie Calle’s 2007 tour de force, Take Care of Yourself, now on view at the Pulitzer’s presentation of “The Progress of Love.” Calle’s initial inspiration came from an e-mail sent to her by a boyfriend intent on breaking up with her. It ended with the words, “I would have liked things to have turned out differently. Take care of yourself.” In order to do just that, Calle sent the letter to 107 women from different professions and backgrounds, asking them to interpret the text. The reactions were framed and, in several cases, played on monitors, positioned beside the contributors’ portraits and filling an entire gallery. The article draws the readers’ attention to another painter, who delves into her personal life to explore the themes of heartbreak, loss, and survival - Tracey Emin, who had a 2011 retrospective, titled “Love Is What You Want,” at London’s Hayward Gallery. 

   Giving appraisal of the problem, it’s necessary to point out that certainly these works are a far cry from Picasso’s tender portrait The Lovers (1923), depicting in soft pastel tones a couple gently holding each other. Contemporary depictions of love are actually closer to René Magritte’s Lovers (1928), showing a man and a woman kissing, their heads shrouded in cloths. 

   There’s also mention about Helen Molesworth, chief curator at ICA Boston, who organized “This Will Have Been,” a shift took place in the 1980s, which changed the notions of love and desire for a new generation of artists. 

   The article concludes by saying that another aspect of contemporary life that plays into the idea of love and the way it is enacted in everyday life is globalization. Many of the artists in “The Progress of Love”—an exhibition that takes its name from the famous 18th-century series by Fragonard that decorated the chateau of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV—question the very notion that love is universal, or that it is expressed the same way throughout the world. 

   As for me, I think that artists are people who love only one “woman" - art. They completely devote themselves to it, and even if painter falls in love, then it’s just an illusion, as it’s his inspiration, his muse. I hope somebody will agree with me, that sometimes (it’s better to say always) people just don't understand the message of the painting, what the artist wanted to convey to us, so we cannot correctly interpret it.