All art must be easy?

May 3, 2016 1:18 PM

I remember reading a philosopher say something to the effect of "all art should appear easy" or "all art should be easy to make." Anyone have any ideas who this might have been? I think maybe it's somewhere in Nietzsche or Schlegel.
posted by matkline to Religion & Philosophy (6 answers total)

There's the Piet Hein Grook:

There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.
posted by smugly rowan at 2:02 PM on May 3, 2016

This might be related to the concept of sprezzatura.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 3:25 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Not your answer but perhaps somewhat apropos, here is John Cage telling an anecdote about fellow composer Morton Feldman

There are people who say, "If music's that easy to write, I could do it." Of course they could, but
they don't. I find Feldman's own statement more affirmative. We were driving back from some
place in New England where a concert had been given. He is a large man and falls asleep easily.
Out of a sound sleep, he awoke to say, "Now that things are so simple, there's so much to do."
And then he went back to sleep.

posted by bfootdav at 3:50 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

No citation, but I remember seeing a poet responding to a question about the difficulty of writing poetry with, "If it's not easy, it's impossible."
posted by Bruce H. at 5:08 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm wondering if the actual sentiment here was closer to Alexander Pope's line, "True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance/ As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance".
posted by yarntheory at 5:34 PM on May 3, 2016

In his poem Adam's Curse William Butler Yeats has this to say about art being hard to make but -- when successful -- looking easy:

We sat together at one summer’s end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, ‘A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.’
posted by bertran at 2:44 AM on May 4, 2016