The_Statuette_Of_An_Athlete

The Statuette Of An Athlete What is art' And what is reality' Especially today, why should one draw or paint, carve or model, when an image can be captured with a camera' In a nineteenth-century painting, Interior with Portraits, by the American artist Thomas LeClear, two children stand painfully still while a photographer prepares to take their picture. The paintings and sculptures that fill the studio have been shoved aside to make way for a new kind of art-the photograph. As the photographer adjusts the lens of his camera, we see his baggy pants but not his head Is LeClear suggesting that the painter’s head (brain and eye) is being replaced by the lens (a kind of mechanical brain and eye) of the camera. Or even that the artist and the camera have become a single recording eye' Or is this painting a witty commentary on the nature or reality' Art history leads us to ask such questions. Marilyn Stokstad (16) As I was approaching the piece, opposing reactions surged through my mind. “This is it'” I noted. I may have even passed it the first time looking for a piece of integrity and beauty; perhaps, something resembling Kritios Boy. The shape of statuette, athlete, statue, piece, kouros, figure, color, body, been, size, bce, arms, stokstad, spear, part, male, legs, even, camera, archaic, young, unlike, statues, spread, smile, shape, same, missing, metallic, kritios, however, fertility, eye, emphasis, cast