International studio (59.1916)

Art and the Man

ART AND THE MAN: BLAKELOCK
/\ BY RAYMOND WYER
Recently there has been an hysteri-
ca] outburst over Ralph Blakelock.
Qualities which his art does not possess have been
discoursed upon, and many qualities which are
to be found in his work have been forgotten.
Now that apparently everything has been done
that can be to atone for the scandalous neglect
of the artist and his family for all these years, it
will not be out of the way to consider just where
Blakelock stands in contemporary art.
Broadly speaking, art echoes the spirit of con-
temporary conditions of thought and life com-
bined with the influence of human experience of
other ages as it is reflected in the arts which have
survived. It is also affected by the temperament
of the artist, which is part of, and in many ways
the product of, these conditions. There is, how-
ever, in every one something which is solely his
own, something which is not the result of acci-
dent of birth, or contact with the world; some-
thing which in a large or small degree isolates.
This separating factor is more or less balanced
by those characteristics developed by environ-
ment. When these traits are equally developed
with the natural tendencies we have what is
called a normal man.
With many, however, the result of this con-
tact dominates to such an extent that there is
little purity or power of individuality left to
assert itself; and others again have been affected
by contemporary conditions hardly at all. When
this latter is the case and the personality is orig-
inal and insistent, we may have an unpractical
genius. Such a man is Blakelock.
Now to some of his characteristics. Blake-
lock’s sensory nerves are strongly susceptible to
the influence of music. Again, he possesses a
power of creativeness which gives life and shapes
to these emotional impressions of his mind.
Just a little difference in his temperament might
have made him a musician. Lastly he has had
little academic training.
In reviewing the art of Blakelock we must not
look upon it as striking a radical or modern note.
It is true that there is a.spirit of modernity in
the brevity and simpl city of his language. Yet.
figuratively speaking, the language is not written
with a pen but with a quill. I refer to his scrap-
ing the pigment, varnishing and then repainting

—a technical means belonging to the sixteenth
century but used by many individual artists in
subsequent times of whom one or two only, by
virtue of much originality, have been able to
emerge superior to this method. Monticelli is a
notable instance. In this respect, therefore,
Blakelock has little historical or contemporary
significance. The character of his technique may
be due to the fact that he had little technical
training. Yet it is quite possible that even if he
had, Blakelock’s restless spirit would not have
permitted him to conform to the restraining and
often stifling influences of the academy. It is an
interesting speculation although unanswerable—
as futile as trying to decide what effect it would
have had on Robert Burns had he been sent to
Oxford. We can only be sure that it would have
made him different.
Why is it that so many fail and Blakelock so
conspicuously succeeds in the use of this formula?
It is because they only obtain what might be
called the mechanical result of the method. It
is not difficult nor is great genius essential to
obtain a degree of harmony and richness of colour
by these means, yet there may be little distinction
in the result, the distinction depending always
upon the artist and not his method.
Blakelock was by nature a dreamer with a de-
sire to record his dream. To call him a landscape
painter is incorrect. No artist has used the land-
scape as a means to an end more than he. The
landscape merely provided forms with which he
expressed his moods, inspirations, and eccentrici-
ties. All these are brought together in an imagi-
native synthesis of rich colour and harmonies.
But, had he sought for the splendour of colour he
would still have been a remarkable artist through
the lyrical and imaginative character of his work
which so unconsciously manifests itself.
His art sings in its loveliness, not a too-gay
superficial loveliness but the loveliness of a
poetical and somewhat moody soul. Yet, in
spite of the exuberance, the capriciousness, the
phantasies, the trees that seem to dance and
sing, there is mystery and dignity. Blakelock’s
courage, his convictions, imbue the creations of
his strange imagination with dignity. In many
ways and in many of his works Blakelock has
emerge'1 superior to his technical limitations by
the suffusion of his original and emotional tem-
perament, his intense imagination, and his un-
swerving convictions.

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