Art as Form: Is Art a Calling?
Pt. 1 of my “Art as” Series
“The object of art is to give life shape.”— Jean Anouilh, French playwright
Is art a calling? If so, who calls the artist? And what is it that the artist is being called to do? German Realist painter Adolph Menzel, who outpaced the French impressionists by 30 years, was said to have had a “compulsion to make the world as real to him, and to make himself as real to the world.” Compulsion refers to the state of being made to act, either by an oppressive force, or by an irresistible drive. For the artist, it’s usually both. It is a subjective compulsion (to make the world as real to him), and also an objective one (to make himself as real to the world).
I suggested previously that there must be some relationship between what lifts our spirits and the material world before us. Why do certain artistic arrangements just work? Why do they affect us in significant ways? This perplexes us, but none are so perplexed as the artist. The artist doesn’t understand why he must figure out what looks good, or what sounds pretty, or what feels right; all he knows is that he must. And all we know is that when he gets it right, it’s amazing. Once we experience that lift, we look for more.
The artist’s calling is to elevate life through artistic form. I will examine this in three stages: as the innate sense for making pleasing shapes (what we call talent); as the cultivation of abilities through discipline (what we call skill); and as the transformation of culture through performance (what we call excellence). We will look at this through the creation account in Genesis in hopes of identifying, for the calling, a caller, and a commission. The artist’s work must be supported (especially now, when you can write for the Bear and still be unable to afford clothes for the Emmys), for it’s through great art that we encounter the Beauty we don’t understand but are constantly seeking.
A Sense for Shape
In the story of creation in Genesis, we see that God has an eye for composition. God didn’t just create the world, He shaped it. He created light, then separated it from darkness. He created water, then separated it from dry ground. Then He filled these spaces with diverse creatures, from the crocodile to the cuttlefish. It was a process of taking material, reproducing it, arranging it, adding texture, color, etc. Only after that does it say, “And God saw that it was good.” It’s as if at various moments up to that point God muttered to Himself, “Hmm…not yet.”
We can easily view this for ourselves. The natural world isn’t “bland, dull, insipid, incoherent, and chaotic,”Allen Carlson remarks. Rather, Carlson, an environmental philosopher (and Rate My Professor star), notes that it is “graceful, delicate, intense, unified, and orderly.” The world has a shape to it that we can’t help but appreciate. We too see that it is good.
The Bible tells us God created humans in the imago dei—in His likeness, given affinities and abilities similar to His. We appreciate pleasing shapes so much we like to make them. We mimic His good sense for shape when we put an outfit together, when we doodle a cat face, or when we hum a melody. We call this creativity, and most of us have it; but some of us have it in greater measure. We call this extra helping talent. Why does talent exist?
An Eye for Potential
Although God finished His work of creation, creation wasn’t yet finished. After He creates the world in seven days (by the way, days can mean ages, if you’re willing to think outside the White Western box), the author mentions the “land of Havilah, where there is gold” in the ground. I don’t think you have to be an artist to know that isn’t the best place for it. God delegates the continuation of the world’s formation to humans. “Be fruitful, and multiply,” we hear, “and replenish the earth, and form it.” To fulfill this charge, humans are given this eye for seeing potential in the world.
One day, a smith would find that gold in the soil, purify it from its dross, and then forge it into a pleasing shape, forming the first gold bracelet. One day, a florist would harmonize different flowers together into a pleasing shape, arranging the first bouquet. One day, a humorist would batch three lines into a pleasing shape, landing the first punchline. These creations, as they are created and recreated, become regular forms. They are well-chosen arrangements that work. They are reliable shapes that add beauty. These forms are passed onto the next generation as disciplines, techniques, styles, and traditions.
For this task, the artist herself must also be cultivated. Discipline exists to temper and shape the artist to create more fluidly. When we witness a great performance or work of art, we exclaim, “Wow, so talented!” But in actuality it’s much more than talent. It’s skill. Say that a child one day is discovered to have been given the gift of grace in her movement. She has a talent for ballet. But she is not a ballet dancer yet. She must be put into class. She doesn’t walk into that class and simply move to her impulses, however impressive her impulses may be. Those impulses must be shaped. She must learn her positions, her turns, and her leaps. She must condition her body with intense rigor. She must join a company and learn to perform. She will get frustrated. She will feel overwhelmed (and if she has a good teacher, she will not be made to feel unnecessarily so). She will wonder at times what it’s all for.
But, if she sticks with it, one day, she will triumph. She will lose her first nature, and will take on a second nature. And yet this second nature will feel like first nature. She will move in ways that previously she hadn’t been able to, but had always wanted to, and perhaps had always felt she should. The moves will no longer command her, she will command the moves. Her dance will be deft, precise, and expressive. When she raises her leg, it will be her courage that is raised. When she leaps in the air, it will be her joy that bounds across the stage. When she reaches outward en pointe, it will be her longing that extends to the audience. Just like the gold bracelet, her talent will no longer be buried in the soil. It will be unearthed, removed of its dross, and liberated to shine in all its brilliance.
A Hand in Hope
And yet, the purpose of her mastery is even greater still. A skilled performance is one that is clear, but a great performance is one that disappears. This is excellence. We see the performer with total clarity, and yet strangely we lose the performer altogether. Her splendor of light draws our sight to something else. She becomes a conduit, a gateway into something more, something beyond, some unknown that perhaps sees us as well. Her emotions liberate our own emotions, emotions which we have long repressed for lack of understanding. Our spirit receives an answer to a question it had not even the intelligence to ask. It feels novel at the moment, but if you were to think about it, you’d suspect that it wasn’t new at all. It has happened to you many times. C.S. Lewis puts it best:
“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words…Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life…All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it — tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest…Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is the thing I was made for".
Lewis is telling us that the true power of great art is to awaken the soul. Like nature, when art is well composed, it inspires us. It’s been said that we need Beauty in our lives because the opposite of Beauty isn’t ugliness, it’s pain. Artists are called to give life shape in order to give it hope. Patrons must do everything they can to further this pursuit (yes, even with money!), because the reward is for us all. We all witness the divine. We all come into contact with what we’ve been seeking. Send artists to go before you and make the way. Artists, commit yourselves to learn everything you can, and don’t settle for wealth and fame. There is far more at stake.