Difference Maker: Oh Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was a visionary with an open mind and impeccable taste for modern art. The fact that he was as modern as any artist could ever be, he was also supportive of all that is modern. He had the vision and the skill to combine both and blend them together.

That made him what Hollywood would call Drew Barrymore a triple treat. I love the fact that a man with his ability fought for what he believes photography should be and how serious as his quest to find new art. He also fought to bring recognition to the European artists and shine that light onto American Artists. You've got to understand that Art is a matter of taste, not about that this or that artist is better.

My taste is different than your taste and so on. My taste is I don't prepare in front of the mirror pampering myself. I let my hair take it's own course of action if indeed it feel to transform it self into a sculpture, but it's still unique. It’s all interpreted by the individual, like music. So does this mean that Basquiat is the last dread-locked, black Haitian-American artist that made a household famous name with dreads? People are too quick to make the comparisons. I understand how they fall into categorizing, but it’s far from the truth of any artist...

Basquiat made the "king crown" famous, and the reason I believe he made it famous is simply because he used it more than other artists, knowingly. The other artists that used this same symbol did not look at it like Basquiat did. He had a different reason altogether with using it. To make it his trade mark. I discovered that he was not the first to use it when I went to the MoMa, viewing all the masters.

The first person who emails me back with the name of the "artists" (along with the title of the piece) , who have used the crown shape that Basquiat made a trademark, I will provide them with complimentary paintings, and other cool art from my own body of work.


Back to Stieglitz. This man was on a mission, bringing awareness to modern talent and being a promoter of it. He was a creator in finding talent and a creator in promoting those talents.

Marcel Duchamp was not taken seriously. You know the story about the head of the MET saying he would never be important to American Art or art in general. He nearly almost died before seeing his own notoriety. With Vincent Van Gogh, it was a different story. He never knew of his artistic importance (from a public point of view) and died a frustrated man. I feel for artists such as this man. I hope today that people are more aware of modern art and young artists like myself who appreciate the recognition, its rewarding. When Matisse was shown in the U.S by Stieglitz, his whole show could have been bought for 2 grand but all went back to Paris unsold.

I have a little secret for you, talent is innate, you've either got it or you don't. Don't buy into to the whole inspired by this and that. The most inspired thing about modern painters is not what they saw on a screen and the entire BS that's written to make one sound or feel sophisticated because that's all a stretch. Braque and Picasso did not call it cubism.

So what really inspired Picasso and Matisse and many other great artists is simply not knowing what to do once you prep the surface of your medium and knowing that you don't know how it’s going to make you satisfied. That is what makes us. Dealing with no actual plan or outcome, but the plan to produce an outcome that merely pleases.

That's what I enjoy the most about my work; I enjoy the "not knowing". I enjoy finding beauty and what looks good, just like the rest of my past and current modernist, I love it all.

I sign off with saying, Art is just Art, taste is a gift that pleases and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.........

Written by:
Lesny JN Felix
Edited by:
Linda George