The excerpt from Pierre-Auguste Renoir inspired me to write this text.
Renoir is probably one of history’s most-loved painter, mainly because works possess much warmth, tenderness, and good cheer. Renoir’s quotation evoked a feeling in my head that I should argue with him. Below is the quote of the famous French painter:
For me, a picture must always be something lovable, pleasurable, and pretty, yes, something pretty. There are enough unpleasant things in the world; we do not have to produce anymore.
I think that times have changed since the XIX century. Times have changed, not in terms that those unpleasant things disappeared. There are still many of them, and I would say that there are even more of them. To mention two world wars that occurred in the XX century. I believe that times have changed in terms of producing adorable and good-looking pictures. Today we have Instagram. Hundreds of thousands of beautiful photos people add to this platform daily. When I hear the word “Instagram,” I see colorful, adorable pictures. Who knows, maybe Pierre-Auguste Renoir would use Instagram in the same way as many people already did.
Perhaps if he realized how many lovely photos are already there and that you can spend whole days just scrolling and watching these pretty pictures, he would change his mind regarding creating beautiful images.
Of course, I do not know that. I am only daydreaming and seeing in my imagination me chatting with Renoir. Is that mean that I do not like his cheerful, colorful pictures? Of course not. I also like sometimes to watch pleasant paintings. For me, Renoir’s works of art are the XIX century equivalent to many Instagram pictures. The fact is also that I want to be anti-Instagram in terms of creating my works of art. I do not care how many likes I will receive for my photos. Speaking shortly: filling Instagram with positive images, I leave to other people.
