"For the Rest of Us" - The Artist's Dilemma

When the great jazz pianist Chick Corea died suddenly from a rare form of cancer last year (2021), he left a message:

"It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It's not only that the world needs more artists, it's also a lot of fun.”

Encouragement, if ever it were needed, for people to pursue their artistic sides and express themselves, and “not for yourself… for the rest of us”. Corea was well aware that being artistic isn’t selfish, but a service to other people and to the community.

You might be forgiven for missing this deep understanding of the purpose of the Arts in general, not just music. In the world of celebrity wannabes and Whoever’s Got Talent, it is easy to miss the virtue of creativity and artistic expression. It is continually diluted by endless iterations of commercial entertainment, TikToks and YouTube videos.

Still, the deep and ancient human need for expression through physical mediums to externalise the things that bubble up from the spirit and can’t easily be put into words remains.

But even the greatest of art can appear superfluous considered alongside the ills of the world. The artist painting, the pianist practising, the dancer pirouetting in the studio as the world quite literally burns outside the door and calamity and catastrophe mount seems inane and frivolous. There comes a nagging feeling, at this pivotal time in human history, that perhaps there is more important work to be done. The accusation of self-indulgence as the mortars explode weighs heavy.

This is The Artist’s Dilemma. How do you justify pouring yourself into creative expression when the world is coming apart at the seams?

“Guernica” is the most famous work of the celebrated twentieth-century artist Pablo Picasso. The huge oil painting that now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid is solemnly affecting and a powerful example of an anti-war painting. Of anti-war art. Picasso used his brush to protest the Nazi bombing in Spain, bring the atrocities to the attention of the wider world, and support the anti-war movement. It resonates not just in that moment but through time, serving as both a reminder and warning.

The Arts can be used to highlight and raise awareness of pressing issues. The Arts can also reach people in a way that argued discourse often can’t by appealing to our emotional and spiritual side rather than our purely intellectual one. This subversive ability of art to challenge power indirectly and with nuance is what makes the arts dangerous to authoritarian regimes in particular.

Even without any overt political or social message, the arts act as a mirror, a connection across boundaries, and a conversation through time. We may not all connect to the same kinds of art in the same kinds of ways, but most of us at some point in our lives will be touched by a picture, a melody, a line of poetry or prose, a movement.

The Arts help us transcend ourselves, understand ourselves, and show us the best of what we can be. This is the point that Chick Corea was making, I think. In times of turmoil, political or environmental, this ability to reach across borders as well as call humanity to its highest potential is a potent reason for believing the Arts are necessary.

Further to that, the Arts are a way we understand ourselves and our experiences. The Arts can help us to imagine alternatives, see new ways of being and create new cultures and communities. It is through the Arts we can understand who we are and what we are becoming, for better or for worse. And it is through the Arts that we can create new stories about how humans should interact with the world, with nature, and with each other.

The paradox of the creator is that while we create from our ideas, our experiences, our ideals, the creation is, after all, for other people. The creator doesn’t exist apart from the world making art to satisfy themselves - music that no one else hears, words that no one else reads, or paintings that no one else sees - the creation is in service to the people who, in part, co-create the work through experiencing it.

Neither is it an either/or dichotomy. We don’t have to choose between being artists and working to improve, even regenerate, our communities and our planets. We can and should do both. We can do it through art, but we can do it through other ways too, by being involved in the things that matter to us. The violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi taught music to girls who had been abandoned or orphaned in Venice so that they could have a chance at earning a living. He also managed to be one of the great Baroque composers.

The writer Gustave Flaubert thought that politics was for liars and imbeciles - he was probably right. Instead, he suggested that people with any intelligence and conviction should become artists. Flaubert did just that and was able to tear into 19th Century French society to highlight its contradictions and idiocies in his writing. The world is a very different place now, but Flaubert’s ideal points to a truth about the role and responsibility of the artist.

In the end, the Artist’s Dilemma may be a false one. Artists of all colours are not separate from the world, they act in service of it observing from a distance, seeing behind the curtain, holding up the mirror, and witnessing the contradictions. This brings with it a responsibility that is not often recognised. It is a responsibility of leadership. Because artists are admired, respected, and listened to they have the power to affect change, and a duty to work towards making the world a better place than it was. Recognising this responsibility moves the artist from self-indulgence and self-satisfaction to service.

Artists must partake of the world, know what is going on and let it inform their art. The Arts are not just for the artist they are “for the rest of us”. That was what Chick was calling us to do. If only more artists would live up to that ideal.

Photo by Alicia Zinn: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-with-red-nails-painting-green-stripe-on-canvas-159983/