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Reflections on the Starving Artist

Yes there are struggling artists, and yes, there unsuccessful talented artists (and vice versa)

However 'the starving artist' suffering for their art in their garret is essentially a romanticised notion which seems to manifest itself in two different ways.

The first is by autobiographical history whereby an inauspicious start in life is transformed into success. The artist looks back on a poor, unfortunate but colourful upbringing and reminisces about a personal struggle to achieve their goals, despite the negative elements of their early days. It also implies that a certain level of personal suffering, is beneficial, almost mandatory, for the creative soul. I don't believe there is any evidence that implies any correlation between suffering and creativity. There are certainly examples of artists dying in poverty, only to be discovered' posthumously, however that doesn't imply a causal link between starvation and inspiration!

The alternative way of romanticising the concept of deprivation is where it is something to which one could aspire. Aspire to deprivation? Surely not. There is aspiration but there is confusion which relates to a misconception: the aspirational element of deprivation is related to being able to discard conventional concepts of working and responsibility in daily life. Therefore the artist doesn't aspire to having no money, no food, no shelter' but rather to not having to go to work, or pay the rent' and therefore having time solely for their art. (Though I expect they would also aspire to be discovered' before the deprivation reaches a terminal point!)

A perfect example of this is found in The Moon and Sixpence (W. Somerset Maugham) a fiction but based on the life of Gauguin. The central character is a respectable married professional who turns his back on his life in order to paint. He exchanges a stable comfortable life, for poorer (but colourfully so) lifestyle. Interestingly, his first move is to Paris another element of romanticism I would suspect if you asked people which city they would associate with a starving artist' most would say Paris!

The irony of this is that history seems to demonstrate that the freedom to paint comes from patronage by the wealthy rather than by abject poverty.

Gaudi . The Guell family.
Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin etc . Charles Saatchi.
Da Vinci . The Duke of Milan.

I include the latter for another good reason in that though Da Vinci is considered a great artist,

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