A work of art, whether a painting, a dance, a poem, or a jazz composition, can be admired in its own right. But how does the artist actually create his or her work? What is the source of an artist's inspiration? What is the force that impels the artist to set down a vision that becomes art?
In this groundbreaking book, poet and critic Edward Hirsch explores the concept of duende, that mysterious, highly potent power of creativity that results in a work of art. It has been said that Laurence Olivier had it, and so did Ernest Hemingway, but Maurice Evans and John O'Hara did not. Marlon Brando had it but squandered it. Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith had it, and so did Miles Davis.
From Federico García Lorca's wrestling with darkness as he discovered the fountain of words within himself to Martha Graham's creation of her most emotional dances, from the canvases of Robert Motherwell to William Blake's celestial visions, Hirsch taps into the artistic imagination and explains, in terms illuminating and emotional, how different artists respond to the power and demonic energy of creative impulse.
A masterful tour of the minds and thoughts
of writers, poets, painters, and musicians, including
Paul Klee
Federico García Lorca
Robert Johnson
Miles Davis
Billie Holiday
Louis Armstrong
T. S. Eliot
Ezra Pound
Wallace Stevens
Charles Baudelaire
Herman Melville
Nathaniel Hawthorne
William Blake
Rainer Maria Rilke
Arthur Rimbaud
Walter Benjamin
Mark Rothko
Robert Motherwell
Anthony Hecht
Benny Goodman
Ella Fitzgerald
William Meredith
Sylvia Plath
Jackson Pollock
At root, duende is that charm or ghost, that mysterious and potent power to attract and create. Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca declares ''Whatever has black sounds, has duende. These 'black sounds' are the mystery.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson affirms but contrasts, ''Draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a poweraby virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity.'' Delineating these ''black'' and ''white'' lights as alternately demon and angel of the artist's work, Edward Hirsch explores the part inspiration plays in producing great art. His subject trips the minds and works of poets, painters and musicians including Mark Rothko, Rilke, Blake, Milosz, Plath, Melville, Ella Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, Marina Tsvetaeva, Miles Davis and Paul Klee. Not all of these sought duende, and Hirsch accedes to ''an authentic American art that lives finely within its means and limits, and thereby contributes to our artistic health.'' Yet his thrust here is the artists ''who use their bodies to throw themselves into the present tense, who crave precipices,'' and one can't deny his delight in fleshing out the metaphors necessary for the exploration of such a treatise. His prose seems to at least tap into the current of these artists if not maintain its own substantive energy: ''Where is the angel? It is burning on rooftopsagathering its strength in railroad yards at sunset that are tinged with immaterial reds, ghostly bluesaAnd where is the duende? It is flinging itself into the vast night. Look for it hiding under your boot soles.'' Keep your pen and notebook handy. This book will make you want to jot down names and read more.
At root, duende is that charm or ghost, that mysterious and potent power to attract and create. Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca declares ''Whatever has black sounds, has duende. These 'black sounds' are the mystery.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson affirms but contrasts, ''Draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a poweraby virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity.'' Delineating these ''black'' and ''white'' lights as alternately demon and angel of the artist's work, Edward Hirsch explores the part inspiration plays in producing great art. His subject trips the minds and works of poets, painters and musicians including Mark Rothko, Rilke, Blake, Milosz, Plath, Melville, Ella Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, Marina Tsvetaeva, Miles Davis and Paul Klee. Not all of these sought duende, and Hirsch accedes to ''an authentic American art that lives finely within its means and limits, and thereby contributes to our artistic health.'' Yet his thrust here is the artists ''who use their bodies to throw themselves into the present tense, who crave precipices,'' and one can't deny his delight in fleshing out the metaphors necessary for the exploration of such a treatise. His prose seems to at least tap into the current of these artists if not maintain its own substantive energy: ''Where is the angel? It is burning on rooftopsagathering its strength in railroad yards at sunset that are tinged with immaterial reds, ghostly bluesaAnd where is the duende? It is flinging itself into the vast night. Look for it hiding under your boot soles.'' Keep your pen and notebook handy. This book will make you want to jot down names and read more.
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