Art of the fantastic or visionary art. Generally at best a tenuous relationship with the world we know and must depend upon associations of the most personal and inward kind. Our response to visions and dreams hinges on these connection, fragmented and splintered they may be, that come from somewhere deep within ourselves, and to which we are often at a loss to articulate or even comprehend their mystery and dynamics. …
As a picture “of” something Daumier’s The Print Collector shows us an ordinary man pursuing a hobby. Though it is paris, he may be looking at pictures anywhere. If we ponder the issue, it comes back to why pictures, mechanically produced images, interest this individual? By extension, why dowe collect them, analyze them, paint them, build museums to protect them?
In Daumier’s La Soupe, there are human creatures swallowing food with animal intensity that explores the borders between the four elements of minerals, vegetation, animals and humans pushed to the boundaries of disharmony. Print Collector speaks of another life, not that of the human animal but as one who probes, wonders and pushes a different boundary at a higher elevation. That is, the quest for finding a reason for his presence in this world, to discover his particular mission whether large or small and what it means within the necessity to find meaning in one’s existence.
The curious and unceasing activity of an artist combined with an unwavering fascination their images hold for many, suggest that a painting is an attempt to answer a question and ultimately find the answer to big why?
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…Benjamin cites some lines from Fuchs’ notes on Daumier:
“Every age has very specific techniques of reproduction corresponding to it. These represent the prevailing standard of technological development and are… the result of a specific need of that age. For this reason, it is not surprising that any historical upheaval which brings to power… classes other than those currently ruling… regularly goes hand in hand with changes in techniques of pictorial reproduction.” Read More:http://blogs.city.ac.uk/epriego/2013/01/24/scraps-needs-of-an-age/