Leonardo

I’m currently reading Walter Issacson’s biography of Leonardo. What is clear to me is that to categorize Leonardo as an artist is really to diminish his creative genius and to pass over the major discoveries in nature, science, engineering and city planning that he made. His was a restless and probing mind and eye that was relentless in taking on the world.

Also in calling him “artist” we drag in the contemporary stereotypical notions of the artist, which often tend to portray the artist as quirky, on the edge, and whose works are generally irrelevant or unintelligible to most.

But I think that if we see contemporary artists through a Leonardo lens, we would see them as intelligent eyes, as driven and curious about the world around them, as problem solvers, as social scientists, as environmentalists and more. We would listen to them as well as just look for the objects they produce. We would see more of them on panels, at conferences and on talk shows.

Artists think of themselves in this expanded way. Society just has to get aboard.