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www.blacksheepmuseum.org
"Not being allowed to improvise is like not being able to pray" - Kieth Jarrett.
The Black Sheep Museum started life online on 22 December, 2000, intent
on providing a contemporary
and alternative virtual museum
and gallery for the relatively few artists who have the vision and strength of conviction
to abandon the flock and
go it alone. Vincent Van Gogh - who Picasso described as the archetypal autodidact,
by which he meant the individual dedicated to
himself and the father of the cult of the personality - would be
here were he alive. However, we do not subscribe to Picasso's hedonistic view of Vincent.
In letter 531 Vincent wrote:
"In life ... I can manage very nicely without the Lord above, but I myself, as a
suffering human being, cannot get by without something greater than myself, something
that is my life - the power to create." The power to create was solace to Vincent Van Gogh's
faith;
the spirit is evident in his choice of subject matter and the empathy he projected. He did not worship
his images but judged them
as a painter and autodidact (self-taught) should, according to the picture in mind and the measure
of the masters. In fact idol worship only comes into play
when the painter is dead and the works he holds not then holds value.
Here idolatory lies in the value of the "graven image",
the golden calf. But images that speak of empathy, compassion, love and tragedy are not graven;
nor do such images alone and without the perception of
value call for
idol worship. The alternative scenario is "the Michaelangeo of our time"
with the historical hype. There lies Picasso's cult of the personality; an idolatrous
speculation that ends badly when the personality dies on or off stage, taking his genius with him
and the worshippers money to boot! Pi casso is an exceptional (and archetypal?) name; the break is deliberate.
This non-profit site is dedicated to the Vincents before time ends.
Why Black Sheep? "You read black where I read white"
William Blake addressing mainstream orthodoxy.
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