claim

active

claim:gauguin-himself-was-slightly-ashamed-of-the-cow-picture-just-as-students-are-sometimes-ashamed-of-their-greatest-works-because-they-are-too-naive-too-direct

Gauguin himself was slightly ashamed of the cow picture, just as students are sometimes ashamed of their greatest works because they are too naive, too direct.

Speculative claim that Gauguin felt the same vulnerability about Vache Accroupie that Alexander's students felt about their best work.

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Claims (1)

claim

Students often hide their most remarkable work because it is too vulnerable, too close to the bone.
extends
From Alexander's teaching experience: the work students are most reluctant to show is often the best, because it is too personal and artless.

Artifacts (1)

artifact

Vache Accroupie by Paul Gauguin (1900)
supports
Painting of a crouching cow, black and white with golden green around its head; described by Christie's as a 'minor Gauguin' but held by Alexander to be more innocent and greater than Gauguin's knowing works.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The cow is a greater work than Parahi te Marae because it penetrates deeper and is more that ultimate thing which Gauguin did to please himself.claim0.742
Aesthetic judgment reversing the standard valuation of Gauguin's works based on the criterion of true self-pleasing.
Alexander repeatedly observed that students kept back their most remarkable work during critiques because it felt too vulnerable, insignificant, or embarrassing.finding0.733
Empirical pattern from Alexander's teaching career: the best student work was consistently the work they were most reluctant to show.
The artist should not express his feelings into the work; instead the work should generate feeling in the observer.claim0.720
The great life in works by Matisse and van Gogh is somewhat misleading because the same feeling of life can occur in a dirty hut or slum.claim0.717
Warns against equating life only with high art; ordinariness can have equal life.
The works of Nolde, Matisse, Bonnard, van Gogh and a few modern buildings touch a modern wellspring that is almost the same as the mystical wellspring that inspired historical works, yet in a non‑religious form.claim0.710
The observation that non‑religious modern works can still achieve a comparable spiritual quality, showing the rootstock is not confined to traditional religion.
In the 20th century there has been something almost like a taboo against seeing the I, or true beauty, or God.claim0.706
Historical diagnosis: modern architects and designers systematically avoided true beauty because it struck a nerve they could not tolerate.
The images created by famous architects (Le Corbusier, Mies, etc.) formed an accepted style that embodied defects of the production system and became targets for younger architects.claim0.706
Image propagation in architectural culture.
Berkeley architecture students did not genuinely like their own buildings in the ordinary sense that one likes a hamburger or a rose.claim0.704
Alexander's diagnosis at the architecture jury; he led students to admit that they had never been taught to like what they make.