Thread: What is Duende?
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Unread 04-26-2005, 09:26 AM
Tom Jardine Tom Jardine is offline
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Location: San Antonio
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I don't think it means anything but singing from the heart. (writing or painting)

Go to artists first, to begin examples:
Rembrant? No.
Matisse? No.
Van Gogh? Yes. Look at Starry Night and see how he goes straight from what he sees to the heart, and no intellectual bs inbetween.

Picasso? Yes.Picasso said it took him a lifetime to learn to draw like a child. Without pretense, intellect getting in the way.

Andrew Wyeth? Yes, sort of.

There are few other artists this century I can think of who have duende without their art going into conceptualism or 'stylized' pretentiousness.

Singers? Billy Holiday? Yes!
Frank Sinatra? On occasion--usually he sang with the band.
Barbara Striesand? No! She yells.
Snead Oconnor? Yes.
Elvis? Yes.
Madonna? No. She just has energy.

After awhile, patterns begin to show, and one can do this with actors and opera singers.

Poets? Far too many are

Old nibbler scribblers stab their blotter
and cannot let an honest image be
a fluffy feather on glassy water.

When free of ego and pretensions I think anyone can read a poet quickly and decide if there is duende there. Take two or three anthologies or a series of collections and read them fast and see what stops you. (You can always go back and read further, slower, but just look for the patterns of pretension.) See who is able to avoid the thump-thump run-ups to the rhymes or who speaks to hear themselves talk or who tries to make a 'point.'


TJ



[This message has been edited by Tom Jardine (edited April 26, 2005).]
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