Now We Get It

If you missed it, this picture was the front page of today’s NYT.

Tricky, tricky NYT put this later in the paper.

Uh huh. We’re picking up what you’re putting down. What is diplomacy if not a fine art?

“For a long time, it seems, being a great artist — a ‘skilled manual worker,’ as Samuel Johnson put it — was enough…Then came the Romantic movement, and with it, artists turned from pleasing the world to indulging themselves: they rebelled against conventions, proclaimed their uniqueness, disdained the bourgeoisie as philistine, savored their own melancholy and formed cliques. “

“Now, a century later, while individual artists still have to struggle, the artist’s status is secure. Yet, to this day, there remains the expectation that the artist…will be obsessive, moody, insecure, nonconformist. And if he (and, now, also she) behaves badly, forgiveness is assured.”

When Anguish Among Artists Became Both Respected and Expected [NYT]