But wait. How does one go about making the first selection from a virtually infinite source of historic figures and their cultural residue? Surely this is a doomed exercise, a blatant avowal of personal preference- a conspiracy at best!
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| From the cave paintings at Lascaux |
I can hear all those groans of resignation. Here is why: this is the earliest drawing known to mankind, approximated at 17,300 years old and discovered - get this - by four teenagers. The most important drawing in the history of the earth found out by a squad of pubescent twerps and their dog. And here we are slaving over theses in a cold white square room, and there you are reading about this. Existential...I told you this was the most fitting starting point!
Without Lascaux we do not have Picasso, Michelangelo, Pollack, maps, sketchbooks, advertising, and the entire history of art. The global tradition of drawing from observation has claimed the soul of many an artist; using the mark as a metaphor for a human being's place in the world has shaped the evolution of our species. The story of all art, if there is one, is the obsession with interpreting what we see. It is the repetitive exercise of memory, as seeing is a continuous act of memorizing. It all started on these caves.
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