Art and the Nature of Grief

Description

The text in "Art and the Nature of Grief" is taken from a passage by Michael Feingold, "Aids, Mourning and Action," "Harpers," June, 1990 (cited in Dore Ashton, "Joan Snyder," Boston: Neilsen Gallery, 1991):
"Figurative or not, art is first of all a series of models of behavior, imitations of life that reflect back onto it, giving us patterns to follow or reject, motives and meanings for action, consequences to hope for or avoid, stimuli for passion or inspiration. In its ambiguities it offers alternatives. Being a product of the imagination, it can't assuage our grief at the many real losses we've suffered. What it can do perhaps, is teach us the processes we are likely to endire: Not make us cry but make us see the how and why of crying. Not make us grieve but display the changing nature of grief."