There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into sun.†– Pablo Picasso. This statement by the 20th century Spanish genius, the man that remains one of or probably the most quoted of all the departed grand masters is as mind-provoking as it is ingenious. Picasso attempted to draw the dividing line between the mediocre and the sublime by using a simple analogy of treatment of the sun in a painting. Accordingly, the mélange of art and intelligence, as posited by Picasso, will distinguish a real sun from a yellow spot, as portrayed by a painter. But given the discrepancies in skill and intelligence of different artists, art, like finger prints, is so individualistic. Moreover, whereas one artist’s aim may be to transform a yellow spot into a real sun with photographic precision, another painter may want to do the reverse. This is where Picasso’s ostensibly witty statement could come under scrutiny. But be it skill or intelligence, the one thing that every artist must muster is creativity.
The on-going art exhibition by students and lecturers of the Nagendda International School of Art and Design at the Makerere art gallery is testament to the power of variation in creativity among artists. The works on display range from the customary oil paintings, painting wrought on wood rejects to uncanny sculptures displayed on 2-D formats. The conspicuous highlight of the show, however, is a fascinating collection of ‘insect’ sculptures that are made out of found materials. The artist ingeniously used discarded mineral water bottles to form the insect bodies, wires insulated with plastic straws for limbs, a lit florescent bulb inside the abdomen and a semblance of a head done in some unrecognizable material. There are six such insects artistically hanging on a vertically hanged canvas. In terms of Uganda’s modern art movement, this kind of rendering is not only unprecedented but simply ahead of its time. It completely stands out of the crowd as a revolutionary invention. One can imagine what the spectacle is when placed in a night setting with only the light emanating from the ‘insects’ abdomens!
The other works that as well portray remarkable skill are the wood paintings. The artist chose to work on jagged-edged, rough textured timber cut-offs to paint mostly female nudes. This seemingly carefree approach imbues a certain complexity underneath the art works. It takes utmost audacity for an artist to put his “reputation†on the line by going out of his way to use such “crude†pieces of wood as a medium. And yet for patrons looking out for something different from the conventional may view this piece of work with great enthrallment. Unfortunately most of the works are not signed – a rather careless oversight on the side of the artists. But be that as it may, it is against such a background that we can argue that imagination, also known as creativity, is probably the biggest distinction between an artist and, for instance, an accountant, doctor, lawyer, or economist. Artists have a monumental challenge to compliment the visible through creation of the new. Albert Einstein said that imagination is better than knowledge. Because of the saturation that art has become today, it appears that only those artists that will act past the obvious and look ahead of their time will capture the imagination of the public.  Â
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