Brain Food #470
The effort is enough
When is a work of art truly finished? Whether it is a song, a film, a book, or a painting, at every turn lies an infinite range of choices to be made.
The history of art is filled with unfinished works, all containing raw authenticity and an element of humanity. They are imperfect, making one wonder if the artist was searching for an ideal that was impossible to reach, or whether some personal event prevented the work from ever being completed.
In the sixteenth century, it even became fashionable to leave paintings incomplete, giving birth to the aesthetic term 'non-finito' to describe them. Perhaps it was just a smart excuse for laziness.
Hours and days of work may sometimes lead to nothing. Perfection may not always be reached, and the countless unfinished pieces that exist are there to remind us that, perhaps, sometimes the effort is enough.
Lucian Freud - Unfinished self portrait, 1956
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