Less is less

Is art some sort of disease? If that is so, then there’s no cure for it except death.

No death is in vain, whether it belongs to someone evil—thank God—or someone average, or, in the best of cases, good. Every death leaves some kind of lesson, something that should make us better “human beings”. But guess what: reality seems to prove that, after all, it often was in vain.

Die Schwestern Karoline und Pauline Fey, Richard Gerstl, 1905

I bothered to search the origin of the common phrase “less is more”. It seems to be attributed to the English poet Robert Browning. But in my infamous experience, less is actually less. If you don’t believe it, talk to my bank account, or to the “huge success” of the Austrian painter Richard Gerstl, who committed suicide at the age of 25. Gerstl was another undervalued artist who, many years after his death, was finally recognized and celebrated—until today.

Believe me: when your artistic vision and work are not seen, that’s when you truly understand that less is less.

Less is less