Artist’s Voice: NEVER LOOK AWAY
This Blog Post is dedicated to my sister, a painter, on her 24th Birthday
There have been numerous movies which have tried successfully to capture the life of an artist (artists in all domains – music, painting, writing, photography, comics and more) in totality. Yet upon my first viewing of 2018’s German masterpiece Never Look Away, I found something that this movie does so well and most movies miss or perhaps do not pay much attention to. I’ve always been enthusiastic about watching movies which show artist at work. Barton Fink was one of my first movies I watched about an artist trying to work and after that I just kept watching more and more movies about artists, I watched numerous documentaries too. But there has been almost an unflinching obsession to capture an artist’s life on film. Yet all those movies missed the most important thing. The Artist’s Voice.
For every aspiring artist this perhaps is too common a phrase – “You need to find your Voice!” Every artist too reminds himself, every waking moment, “I need to find my Voice!” The journey an Artist undertakes to find the personal Voice is as crucial as the art itself.
Never Look Away tells the story of an aspiring artist Kurt who grew up in Nazi era and seeks to start his career as an artist post WW2. He’s good at what he learns in the Art School in socialist East Germany but he still seeks what is it that separates himself from other painters. Düsseldorf is the Mecca of the New-Art or so, our protagonist is told and off he goes lying his way into the Düsseldorf Art Academy which enables him the freedom of expression and respite from the socialist East Germany. (The depiction of politics and its impact on the Artist in this film deserves another essay, so I will not dabble into that in this essay). Once, at the Düsseldorf Art Academy he begins to seek his voice.
A beautiful montage with Max Ritcher’s background score makes us dive deep into the psychology and process of Kurt. Gerhard Richter’s portrayal of Kurt represents a sense of vulnerability that heightens the stake for finding that original voice. He tries his hand in everything he sees that students within the Düsseldorf Art Academy are trying. He is left unsatisfied because the ideas are his but the expressions are all derivative of his fellow students.
When the student is ready, the master shall appear. Enters Prof. Antonius van Verten, who is famous within the Art circles for never removing his hat. The Prof’s character is as captivating as Kurt’s. He understands the potential of Kurt but calls him out on his derivative experimentation. In one of the rarest moments in cinema, we have a mentor-esque character who leads by example. Even the Prof played by JK Simmons in Whiplash doesn’t lead by example. Here Prof. van Verten does that. He is one of those artist who has been successful in finding his voice. How he did it? He tells Kurt about it. (I’m not going to tell you that story, you should watch that movie. It’s a story that not only is chilling but riveting and inspiring too.) This story sets Kurt on a path.
Some might argue that it is perhaps by mere happenstance that Kurt finds his voice. I am of the other opinion. To me it is not mere happenstance. It is rather the alignment of an artist’s obsessive quest with his observation of nature and what’s going around him. No matter how much we all try, we are the victims of the time that we live in. The only difference between an artist and a common man is that the artist can articulate and express his feelings in a way that may stand the test of time. Thousands of working artists have come and gone, many will follow too. Thus, what is it that makes you different that the rest. It is not fame, and certainly not the posterity induced remembrance. What separates you from the rest is your voice. A voice that is distinct to you and only you. It can be replicated by other but never re-created by anyone else than you. It is, therefore, our foremost duty as an artist to work towards finding our voice. You find your voice, and everything in the world that you seek will be yours. But are you willing to put in the work and labor to find your voice? Kurt does in Never Look Away.
