Post by estiel on Apr 3, 2010 5:52:31 GMT -5
If you subscribe to Image's e-letter, you've seen this.
Controversies over God’s creative process have frequently overshadowed a proper critical recognition of his work. To be sure, God is often lauded as "wondrous" and "awesome"--acclaimed for combining unfathomable mystery with everyday accessibility--but God’s genre-bending creations deserve nuanced analysis quite apart from scuffling over how long it took him to make them all. Take, for example, Mandarin Duck, created during his Winged Fowl period: the work displays sweeping contours and a daring use of primary color that evoke comparisons to the sculpture of Alexander Calder. Red-Eyed Tree Frog, on the other hand, clearly comes from God’s brief foray into Dada. Another notable work, The Universe (date indeterminate), is often cited as a highly influential piece. While the creation of The Universe signaled a turning point in God’s craft, the searing luminescence of its execution and the expansiveness of its vision went critically unnoticed until Galileo looked at it through a telescope. Since then, as Carl Sagan put it, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"--enabling us to attribute even this beloved American tradition to the influence of God’s early masterwork. Some of God’s later work has been met with less-than-favorable reviews, such as Seymour P. Lyman of Teaneck, New Jersey (1954), described by viewers as "mousy," and "prone to rambling on about his stamp collection." Despite such harsh critical reception, God’s fondness for each one of his works in the human genre has been well-publicized. In his semiautobiographical New York Times all-time bestseller, God describes these creations as "precious in my eyes." William Shakespeare, to whom God has often been compared, concurs with the artist’s judgment in a rave review: "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable!" Michelangelo, a longtime rival of God’s for top honors in the "sublime" category, has been accused--particularly with the David--of too direct a reference to God’s original concept, to the point of shameless derivation. God has been the recipient of many awards, including the Templeton Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Life’s Spiritual Dimension, and several Grammys for songs co-written with U2’s Bono.
Controversies over God’s creative process have frequently overshadowed a proper critical recognition of his work. To be sure, God is often lauded as "wondrous" and "awesome"--acclaimed for combining unfathomable mystery with everyday accessibility--but God’s genre-bending creations deserve nuanced analysis quite apart from scuffling over how long it took him to make them all. Take, for example, Mandarin Duck, created during his Winged Fowl period: the work displays sweeping contours and a daring use of primary color that evoke comparisons to the sculpture of Alexander Calder. Red-Eyed Tree Frog, on the other hand, clearly comes from God’s brief foray into Dada. Another notable work, The Universe (date indeterminate), is often cited as a highly influential piece. While the creation of The Universe signaled a turning point in God’s craft, the searing luminescence of its execution and the expansiveness of its vision went critically unnoticed until Galileo looked at it through a telescope. Since then, as Carl Sagan put it, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"--enabling us to attribute even this beloved American tradition to the influence of God’s early masterwork. Some of God’s later work has been met with less-than-favorable reviews, such as Seymour P. Lyman of Teaneck, New Jersey (1954), described by viewers as "mousy," and "prone to rambling on about his stamp collection." Despite such harsh critical reception, God’s fondness for each one of his works in the human genre has been well-publicized. In his semiautobiographical New York Times all-time bestseller, God describes these creations as "precious in my eyes." William Shakespeare, to whom God has often been compared, concurs with the artist’s judgment in a rave review: "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable!" Michelangelo, a longtime rival of God’s for top honors in the "sublime" category, has been accused--particularly with the David--of too direct a reference to God’s original concept, to the point of shameless derivation. God has been the recipient of many awards, including the Templeton Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Life’s Spiritual Dimension, and several Grammys for songs co-written with U2’s Bono.
