April 2nd, 2007
Be patient, dear reader. We’ll get to the music in a moment. First let’s talk about art. I’ve been reading about ????????? ????????????? (if you don’t read greek: Doménicos Theotokópoulos) or as may be more contextually familiar, El Greco. El Greco was an Italian painter that contributed heavily to the expressionist and cubist movements, but was so unique in style that he’s often times not even associated with a specific school. He was off the weirdness charts, and probably insane. His artwork is famous for containing “tortuously elongated figures and often phantasmagorical pigmentation” (wikipedia)
In 1570 the Church gave him a shout and asked if he would be available to come cover up the indecent bits in Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel. El Greco showed up, surveyed the work, and said he would be perfectly willing to cover up the piece and make right quick with disposing of the naughty bits — but he was going to repaint over the entire work because it was rubbish. The Church flipped their wigs and told him to go pound sand into a rat hole. Word spread about his theories on Michelangelo (hugely popular at the time) and he was forced to move to Spain.
Though he was still able to get considerable commisions and work from Spain, the style of his work was impossibly distanced from other art being made during that time period. Limbs and fingers took on odd and unnatural proportions. Heads became stretched or swollen. Torsos twisted. Hundreds of years later, art scholars realized that by looking at his paintings through a elliptical lens of the right power and distortion, his paintings would take on more photo-realistic proportions. His “genius” was merely a combination of considerable technical abilities, and severe astigmatism.
Now it’s 500 years later. Religion is a different game all together. Art has been reborn and reborn and reborn, but the complexity of human physiology is the same. One little misplaced dna pair, a bump on the head at this age, environmental contaminations at that age, or any number of a million possible scenarios can have a dramatic effect on both our physical and psychological states. We’re fragile creatures in a fragile universe.
That brings me to Daniel Johnston. You probably know him. You’ve probably seen the movie about him. If you know me, I’ve probably put his songs on mix cds that you’ve stolen out of my car cd player. I’ve probably played you a spiritualized bootleg or any number of cover songs that are Daniel Johnston tributes. The man is a tragic genius, with incredible songwriting abilities.
El Greco and Daniel Johnston are cut from the same cloth. They share a blatant obsession with religious imagery in their work. Their talents are hindered, hampered, and inseparably tied to their mental illness, inner struggles, and the fragility of biology. Most importantly to this blog, however, they are woefully honest and talented artists.
As Daniel Johnston sings in the song “Story of an Artist”, “Listen up and I’ll tell a story / About an artist growing old / Some would try for fame and glory / Others aren’t so bold.” I can’t help but hopelessly connect the work of El Greco with the work of Daniel Johnston. El Greco: “Portrait of an Old Man”, Daniel Johnston: “Story of an Artist” …. how perfect is that relationship?
Daniel Johnston – Story of an Artist
Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You in the End
