Imperfections
“The point of art is that it has imperfections. That’s what makes it real.”
So remarked Irish author John Banville in an article in The New York Times Book Review by Nicholas Casey, on January 5, 2025. Banville is one of several authors who’ve been invited by Spain’s Prado Museum to live nearby for several weeks and immerse themselves in the museum’s art collection, with the hope that the experience will be reflected in the authors’ writing.
Banville was given a special pre-opening tour of the exhibit on “Rubens’ Workshop.” The exhibit’s curator invited Banville to view two portraits of Queen Anne of Austria, one of which was the original by Rubens and the other copied by his workshop. The difference? One of the portraits had brushstrokes that “looked much rougher and more unfinished than those on the other,” according to the article.
Which was the true Rubens, Banville was asked, and he correctly chose the painting with the rougher brushwork. How did he know, he was asked later by the museum’s director. As the author recounts, “There was something brilliant about [the scrappier brushwork, Banville] said. ‘The point of art is that it has imperfections. That’s what makes it real.’”
As AI intrudes further into our lives and offers to take the burden of composing memos or creating images of our hands, let’s resolve to continue making our own stuff, knowing that what makes it art is not that it’s perfect, but that it’s NOT perfect. That’s what makes it real.
If you don’t know Banville’s work, you might enjoy his crime series featuring the Dublin pathologist cum detective Quirke in atmospherically rendered 1950’s Ireland, most wri]en under the pen name Benjamin Black. My favorite book by Banville is The Sea, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005.
Ruebens, Anne of Austria
From The New York Times:
The Prado, Renowned for Its Art, Tries a New Role: Muse to Authors
Spain’s most storied museum has been inviting writers, including Nobel laureates, to live nearby and take inspiration from its paintings.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/books/booksupdate/the-prado-writing-residence.html?smid=em-share
