THE STRUGGLE OF JACOB the-struggle-of-jacob | Page 15

THE PERSONAL LANGUAGE OF THE ARTIST
There are artists, either amateur or professional, either
overlooked or successful, beginner or experienced, naïve or
expert, living or dead (this last category is hardly negligible from
the point of view of those living, but the dead have no need of
support...).
All of them share an elevated sensibility and a kind of creative
urgency, almost physiologically, so vigorous that it can
eventually detach them from the most reasonable economic,
social, ethical, emotional, and psychological prudence. The
uncontrollable drive to explore and to represent the new
horizons of human consciousness often takes them on troubled
existential journeys, both internal and external, sometimes
leading to extreme consequences.
The analogy with the Struggle of Jacob is entirely apt.
The journey of an artist, short or long as it may be, is defined by
its production, in some cases copious, in others scant, but
always in some way penetrating with regard to the constant
process of innovation in personal life, relationships or shared
experience.
Finally, the artwork transcends the limited biographical period of
the author and continues to surprise, stimulate and guide future
generations autonomously, for centuries or even millennia
to come.
The productive trajectory of an artist, however, always starts
with an apprenticeship. Whatever the circumstances - whether
scholastic, by direct contact with a master, in a family tradition
or independent - the nature of this apprenticeship is fundamen-
tally a form of self-learning, be