Kurt Vonnegut wiki
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"Art: Great Beginnings", subtitled "In Praise of the Incomplete", is an essay first published in the May 1986 edition of Architectural Digest, featuring images of seemingly unfinished paintings in various stages of completion by figures such as Edouard Vuillard, Pelagio Palagi, Paul Wonner, Paul Cézanne, and Edwin Henry Landseer.[1] The piece was later reprinted in Fates Worse Than Death in 1991.

Summary[]

Salle Daru du Louvre (30612872064)

The Louvre

Vonnegut's sister Allie—who possessed artistic skill she had no interest in using—once claimed that she could ride through the Louvre Museum on roller-skates and still appreciate all the paintings, simply passing each saying "got it, got it". He later met many professional artists who agreed with her, saying they can "extract all the value from an unfamiliar painting in a single pow" or recognize that it's lacking. When Vonnegut's father took up painting after the Great Depression closed his architectural firm, his works would exhibit important details and truths in a few strokes until his wife would convince him that they were unfinished, always ultimately robbing them of their "pow". An excellent portrait of Vonnegut's uncle Alex entitled Secret Agent ended up looking like "a drunk and lustful Queen Victoria" after "every square inch of masonite had its share of paint".

Composition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan was famously interrupted by "the person on business from Porlock", and perhaps such a figure would have helped the elder Vonnegut's painting. Often when Vonnegut reads a novel or watches a play or film, he finds himself thinking the work has already said what it needs to well before it is over. When writing, he says that after about two-thirds of it is done, he feels that he's already "headed home". Hamlet could well end with the killing of Polonius, with nine scenes still to go. Vonnegut terms this the "Two-thirds of a Masterpiece is More Than Enough" rule, and having made this point, he's said everything he needs to in this article. However, he will, in his mother's words, "finish it" by citing the idea that three-act plays consist of question mark, exclamation point, and period, with most people not much interested in periods. The thirty lines of Kubla Khan are quite sufficient, and in all honesty, Vonnegut says had he been the visitor from Porlock, he would have interrupted Coleridge after the first two lines.[2]

  1. "Art: Great Beginnings", Architectural Digest, Vol. 43. Issue 5, pp. 170-175.
  2. "Art: Great Beginnings", Fates Worse Than Death, pp. 37-40.
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