Art in the Time of Corona

We are so quarantined. I hope you are hanging in there. When anxiety starts creeping in on me, I am trying to think about all the incredible art that is probably being created right now when artists can’t leave their homes. Silver lining! Or maybe red, or green, or purple!

For some artists this lockdown requires zero change in habit. Pordenone Montanari, for one. Montanari is an Italian painter, who has not left his home in Milan in eighteen years. He relies on his wife for food and art supplies. No word on whether she makes him break to tackle a giant honey-do list. (So far, this quarantine, my husband has hung pictures and light fixtures for me, fixed appliances, moved furniture, put our new doorbell up, and cleaned his half of the closet!) Think of all he could do if he were home eighteen more years!

Some think Montanari’s art has a strong Cezanne influence, but I think they’re more Picasso-ey than anything. What do you think?

Here's the Montanari....

...and here's the Picasso. Similar feel, right?

Being a recluse, seems to have had little impact on Montanari’s success. His art has been exhibited around the world, and art experts are saying things like, “he’s the cat’s pajamas!” Or the art expert equivalent of that anyway. Recluse though he may be, nobody can say Montanari isn’t productive. When a potential buyer came into his home (Montanari didn’t come up to talk to him, reportedly. His wife does the talking in their relationship.) he found every inch of the house covered in art. Canvases and cardboard stacked “meters” high, murals on every wall, sculptures out of wood and stone. Even the garden hedges were elaborately shaped.

No doubt about it, recluses sure can get stuff done. These days, whether we want to or not, we join the ranks of Emily Dickinson, J.D. Salinger, Edvard Munch, and Bobby Fischer. I can’t wait to see what awesome art is produced in the next several weeks!