Making of Eroica, next bit.

[caithion]

Woops, I've let this slide. Many apologies. The sudden surge of activity on schlosseberbach has reminded me. The next bit, rough translation, of the Making of Eroica.

Starting half-way through pg 25:

The Slightly Uncut Story of the Artist Chirico

This is a slight digression, but there was an article about an artist who created counterfeits of his own works  which were in a record book of fakes. Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico produced great works during the 1910s and  20s, pieces dealing with all kinds of reality. Images of "dolls" with egg-shaped faces and no eyes or nose, standing  in geometric architecture, which were deep and mysteriously full. It seems that Chirico, who also influenced the  surrealists of Paris, created counterfeits of the works of his youth and dated them back to older days due to lack  of inspiration and financial reasons in the 1950s.

According to another record book, Chirico tried to break with his past after the 1930s. He claimed that the fakes  were his own works, and because he hadn't admitted to creating them previously, from time to time it became a  judicial matter between possessors.

Pg 26

Making a conjecture from these articles, Chirico was completely denying his glory days and striving for a new style,  but he already had buyers for the pictures for which inspiration had withered, and so I'm lead to suppose that to  support himself he reached for reproductions from his golden age that he had intended to throw away.

I've never read Chirico's autobiography or any scholarly journals on the subject, so I'm sorry if I've really  misinterpreted it.

A former genius artist, making copies of works from his younger days, while it's presumptuous, the article left me  with a sad impression. Nietzschean philosophers, sounding out their ideas together, the artist Chirico, questing for  an unknown expression, unable to reach as far as the ideas of common man, embraces the pain and confusion in his  heart.

How tough, to be a fine artist.... Much better to be a comic artist. Even in the publishing world for close to ten  years now there's been a recession and the commission for a manuscript has been frozen, and the evil influence of  BookOff has led to a decrease in royalty earnings,just because you've finished a work doesn't mean your commission  goes down and even while they're complaining readers still buy the books. If you imitate your art from long ago, it  gets a big laugh.

But, by chance after releasing a big hit you should think "My inspiration isn't like this anymore" and gain  ambition, and rushing off in the wrong direction you produce a big mistake, and then you return to your former path,  there are situations like this even in the manga world.

Even if they have inspiration and ability to return to their former path, some people self-destruct and disappear.  Others are mislead by their popularity, and their conceit is ugly. I think constant harsh questioning and objective  self-assessment will find the merit within.

The Chirico story got rather long out of self-interest. We'll go back to my own art now.

Comments

[caithion.livejournal.com]

I wish I was fluent! Unfortunately, I'm just so-so. My strength is translating text Japanese->English, because I've been doing it for....7-8 years now, but it's practice more than skill level. Stick me in a conversation and I quickly devolve into: "Hi! Nice weather, huh? ....I'm from America!"