Essentially, perspective is a form of abstraction. It simplifies the relationship between eye, brain and object. It is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees. It makes a God of the spectator, who becomes the person on whom the whole world converges, the Unmoved Onlooker.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how perspective shapes our understanding of reality by creating an abstract relationship between the observer and what is observed.
Robert Hughes emphasizes the concept of perspective as a mental abstraction that transforms the dynamic interactions between the observer, their perception, and the object being viewed into a simplified and detached viewpoint. He suggests that this idealized perspective elevates the observer to a God-like status, allowing them to perceive the world in a way that is removed from the emotional and physical complexities of direct engagement, ultimately altering how reality is understood.
In practice
In a lecture on art theory, when discussing how artists create perspectives in their work.
It is hard to think of any work of art of which one can say 'this saved the life of one Jew, one Vietnamese, one Cambodian'. Specific books, perhaps; but as far as one can tell, no paintings or sculptures. The difference between us and the artists of the 1920's is that they they thought such a work of art could be made. Perhaps it was a certain naivete that made them think so. But it is certainly our loss that we cannot.
Landscape is to American painting what sex and psychoanalysis are to the American novel.
Popular in our time, unpopular in his. So runs the stereotype of rejected genius.
What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds?
What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the most disinterested and noble way, could find the necessary metaphors by which a radically changing culture could be explained to its inhabitants.
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
If you are wiling to do something that might not work, you are closer to being an artist.
What happens in a fantasy can be more involving than what happens in life, and thank goodness for that.
Humanity looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny.
Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.
People think that digital language is a fixed language, but it's not: it's very fluid. It's like I'm doing a painting where the paint refuses to dry.
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
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