A short while ago the question was raised of what is the difference between a selfportrait by Dürer (in fact exactly this one) and art devised by Gerhard Richter. My view was and is that in contrast to Richter Dürer actually meant whatever he produced. If I behold one of Dürer's works this is it, content and form are in union, whereas in Richter's case my general response is that though the design is masterful, he does not understand a single iota of what he is doing or what he could be doing once he had the tiniest grasp of what he is messing with (I would not mind so much if this attitude would only taint his own works, but in reversal it also taints the works of those artist who took/take the content more seriously). This goes btw also for other forms of art, like e g performing or acting. When some time ago I dared to call actors professional liars, this overt damnation was meant to be rather provocative, but in most cases only too true. The more grateful I am though to come across more and more people of this profession who actually take their task to create (and understand) very seriously...
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