The Anxiety of Fitting In as an Artist
In Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence (1973), the writer discusses the historical pull of precedents for poets and other artists.
In Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence (1973), the writer discusses the historical pull of precedents for poets and other artists. It is often by looking at what came before us that we learn to create, but it also creates an anxiety about being derivative. That tension is at the core of the creative process.
A clip from a 14-minute video by Brooklyn-based artist Lars Kremer, “Anatomy Lessons” (1994) hits on that topic with a poignant simplicity. The artist tries to fit his body into the outlines of 16 Old Master drawings with a jittery energy that points to the absurdity of the task while demonstrating that the visual “truth” of the anatomical sketch is often elusive.
Kremer’s video also brings a very contemporary anxiety of performing as an artist and subject simultaneously in a culture that expects the artist to be an outsider genius who speaks with a universal language that transcends culture and place.
