Maurice Sendak or 'The uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see'

The Tate broadcast a moving tribute video to Maurice Sendak, the American illustrator, who died last may, aged 84. And who, without a doubt, was unique.

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It is a place into the forest. A place where magic happens. A place where mystery is. In his New-York upstate house, Maurice Sendak talks about Herman Melville and William Blake, about being an artist, and childhood.

Regarding his words on William Blake, the most interesting part is not the meaning of what he says. It's his unability to describe what William Blake Art work makes him feel. He ends up comparing it to a divine love. And there certainly is the mystical inspiration that led his hand to magic.

Endless poetry comes out of this 5 minutes portrait, as if Maurice Sendak had embodied Blake's words. Maurice Sendak turns our certitudes upside down with a mischievous look in the eye, and reveals that "strangeness" is the magic of Childhood.

Who else in the cultural industry, would have said no to a new episode of a successful book ? Maurice Sendak actually says he's not selling his art : he's living it. He's breathing it. And describes with an appropriate metaphor, the artistic process :  

“Artists have to take a dive. Either you hit your head on a rock and die or the blow to the head is so inspiring that you come back up and do the best work you ever did. But you have to take the dive. And you do not know what the result will be.”

This TateShots video was taped in december 11, a few months before M. Sendak left the ordinary world for the place where the wild things are. Let's wish him a nice stay.

>> Watch the video on The Space

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Amélie Blandeau - Week 4 - 246 words