Everything You Know is an Anomaly
Why is our society a historical exception.
When I was a student, I adored lectures on art history. I was passionately studying everyone, from Imhotep to Rembrandt and Rothko. One of the books that brought them to life was Gombrich’s The Story of Art, which describes their life and work so vividly that I almost felt like being right there, in their studios. These were my heroes, and after spending so much time with them and their works at museums, I thought I knew art history pretty well.
So imagine my bewilderment when a couple of years later I stumbled upon another book: Ways of Seeing by John Berger. In this book, Berger asks a simple question: What about the others?
What about those painters who are not in books like Gombrich’s, all those thousands upon thousands of anonymous painters who produced so many nameless paintings that are, up till today, being sold on flea markets? Aren’t they part of history? And if so, where do they fit? What are their paintings telling us about Art, society, and its people?
In short, Berger focused on the negative space between the giants usually described in history books. By doing that, one quickly realizes that people like Rembrandt or Rothko are, in fact, not part of the general flow; they are exceptions. These are sporadic peaks, which is why…
