Art, “A New Creation”
Rome, 1961 A reflection on art and the artist. The purpose of art is somewhat obscure, almost mysterious, perhaps simply unknown. Certainly it does engage reason alone.Yet art, in a manner equal to science, has always produced more or less beautiful expressions of itself, because the imagination, its mother and origin, is a marvellous human talent and gift like memory, affectivity and reason, and it too has flowered in works: in “works of art,” even spontaneously. The true artist is a great person. Everyone says it even though few are art critics, but everyone admires and is fascinated by “beauty.”The artist in a certain way is like the Creator.True artists possess their skill almost unconsciously and use colours, musical notes, stone as we use our legs to walk. Their point of concentration is in the soul, where they contemplate an impression, an idea that they wish to express outside themselves.Hence, within the infinite limits of their human littleness before God, and thus within the infinite difference between the two “created” things