HYMN FOR LIFE (The dialectics of pessimism and optimism)

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G. Nesterov "Hymn for Summer" cardboard, oil, 72x63, 2013

HYMN FOR LIFE
(The dialectics of pessimism and optimism)

I quote as an epigraph, without indicating of names, the words of well-known and respected by me an artist:
... "Knowing somehow of the world history of art, I can’t name for a single period, and certainly no one artist, who would build their creativity on the merry pictures. An artist can’t be such a buffoon- optimist. So I'm with the greatest contempt for what is happening today in the arts. "

Apparently, these words were expressed in self-defense and self-justification ... I believe that the history of art that artist knows well. But however it is felt that this knowledge is highly selective, biased and prejudiced ... If we imagine for a moment that the entire art world is built on feelings of depression, negative, doom and hopelessness... then a life stops. But it is not! Life goes on! Full of tension and interest ... How is this possible? Is not that because it is dialectical? The full of contrasts... Here are the dark and light… activity and rest ... ... life and death ... sorrow and joy!

Of course, the moods of frustration are also needed, as a sign of change in the direction of movement... changes in the character and style of life... These moods swings are rhythmically and with the necessity alternate, but their specific repeated never literally... And sorrow and joy each time are the other... If the artist is sensitive for vibrations his soul, we can see a radical change of his works style during his lifetime. If we recall the soaked by joy of life the Rembrandt’s "Self-Portrait with Saskia" and his "Return of the Prodigal Son" what is full of bitterness and frustration! Which is better and what is worse? Both are masterpieces of art!

Of course, the person who is depressed will be taken as "truth of life" only it that fits for his condition... and optimism, enthusiasm and joy as "a lie" and "false". The same can be said about the optimist... it would take as “nonsense" all that which wearing the pessimistic coloring...

Neither the “pessimism” nor "optimism" are not possible without each other... Times are changing... It is time for the actuality of optimism...

Let we will remember some wonderful works of world art classics:
Waltzes by Strauss; “delightful” music by Rossini. Hymn "For Joy" by Schiller; "The Happy Beggar" by Robert Burns. Let recall the shining of the music by Mozart; the frivolity and eroticism by Fragonard; "The Feasts of Love" by Watteau; the sensuality and physiological joy of being of "The Bacchanalia" by Rubens. "City of the Sun" by Campanella, created during the 27-year imprisonment. Let recall the beauty and acceptance of life in "The Marriage at Cana" by the Veronese. “Sistine Madonna" by Raphael, who descends from heaven to earth, is majestic and beautiful. Gentle and sensual "Sleeping Venus" by Giorgione, and the antithesis of "mortification" - "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli...

How can one live without joy, love and faith in the future?!

And if these feelings were the illegitimate children by the art of the 20th century which are allowed only as a sarcastic mockery by "kitsch", then in the coming 21st century, they may again become a subject of serious creativity...

Gregory Nesterov 11.12.2015

Art-diary “Which way the art should be going?” http://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=289151
"The challenges of the global world" (collection) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...0038913&type=1

“Happiness” http://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=289301