El problema de la inspiración en el pintor americano William Congdon

Abstract

Inspiration is a key issue in art, originality or novelty —so close related to authenticity or quality— depend on it. We study inspiration in William Congdon (1912-1998), New York School painter that, given the plenty of his writing, presents a particular interest in this area. In fact, most of the studies on William Congdon have focused on his gift. Treating it, we do not aim to judge the quality of his work, this must come from the work itself. We base our study on other writings that deal with the same topic, which help to define the different periods Congdon went through. These are: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, The Unknown Masterpiece by Balzac and Musical Poetics by Stravinsky. In the first two cases, the active search of inspiration ruins the artistic «doing» due to abandonment or sublimation of it. In the third case, the author himself goes deeply into his creation based on speculation and game, showing to the inspiration a passive attitude that allows the encounter.