I tried to explain to someone why Van Gogh’s sunflowers are not just a pretty picture, not even rendered as well as any of Norman Rockwell’s drawings.

​I’ve noticed lately that Illustrators are in style these days. Paintings that look like illustrations are being shown. Norman Rockwell who in my day was described as a commercial artist has become an idol for painters. When I went to art school we were taught that fine art and commercial are two separate entities and the twain shan’t meet. In fact we were warned that if we wanted to remain fine artists we should avoid doing commercial art and work at something else if we needed money. While the line between commercial and fine art can be blurred, the primary reasons to avoid it are to prevent the compromise of artistic integrity and to avoid being pigeonholed by market demands. art to remain “fine artists” is rooted in preserving the independence, personal vision, and prestige often associated with gallery-oriented art.
Art has lost its interest in fine art, labelled it elitists and moved on to art that sells and makes money, like the rest of everything in our Extreme Capitalism society. Personal visions are banal in a society enamoured with AI and the Information Age. Machines rule peoples lives and no one is interested in what mystics or enlightened artists might discover. We think we know everything there is to know or if not, we can find out by powering up our laptops. Information has replaced inspiration and AI replaced God. Abstract art that allowed everyone including dogs and elephants to paint killed what was left of fine art.
Now we are trying to return to it by gushing over master paintings and copying them but really it is still all about gushing over technique and not the message. I tried to explain to someone why Van Gogh’s sunflowers are not just a pretty picture, not even rendered as well as any of Norman Rockwell’s drawings. But to no avail, as the criteria people are using to judge art is all based on digital renditions because galleries that exhibited the live paintings are slowly dying and disappearing. Or galleries are trying to stay relevant by showing mostly digital art. Performance has made a comeback because digital art leaves you emotions cold and something needed to be stirred energetically during exhibitions.
When I saw the real paintings of Van Gogh at AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), it took my breath away and my heart pound and shivers run down my spine...that is what fine art offers and you don’t give a hoot if it is drawn precisely or not. I felt like I was seeing the Universe. And recently Scientists are saying that Van Gogh actually painted fractals.
Illustration is pretty well rendered and may stir some remembrance in the viewer but NOT the bodily explosion of a genius fine artist’s artwork. We are losing something precious and trying to recover it in our times seems impossible. WE are so preoccupied with our minds and being zombies in front of machines we no longer recognize what being alive means.