EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Naming Names

Names limit. We need them as shorthand, to avoid explaining everything from scratch. But they deceive, confuse and blind. I'm talking about names in everday life and how, once used, they pigeon-hole the person, the object, the idea or whatever is being named. André is a cook but to call him “the cook” limits him. He’s also a father, a farmer and good at billiards too. Call him “the billiards player” though and he’s no longer seen as the cook. It's helpful then to be aware of what name you're using and why.

What’s true of life is true of art too. Separate art into a successive list of styles as art historians have done ( Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Mannerism...18th-century art, Impressionism etc.) and you limit what the viewer can see. Impressionism, for example, has a certain accepted set of characteristics and that's it. These styles and periods make viewers think historically too, a big mistake. Besides, call a painting a landscape and the portrait remains hidden. Title one The Last Judgment and viewers fail to see it as The Resurrection. Caption a drawing Portrait of King Carlos IV and no-one recognizes Goya. Here at EPPH we often discover that one thing is really another and that the name, whatever it is, is inappropriate, limited and deceptive. So think about names in art. They are not just misleading; they can stop you thinking too.