by Glynn Young
I’d heard that, as you age, you often become more interested in art. What I didn’t expect was to discover how that growing interest in art would affect my fiction writing.
I wasn’t a stranger to art, but I can’t say it was a major preoccupation, either. I had two semesters of art history in college; I took two, because the same textbook was used for both, and it was more expensive than the tuition. I’m also not an artist.
I know when my connection of art to writing fiction started. It was some 50 years ago. We were young twenty-somethings living in Houston, and we saw two exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts. One was the works of Paul Cezanne, and it was stunning. But the one that captured me was “Master Paintings from the Hermitage and the State Russian Museum, Leningrad.” Houston was one of five cities hosting it.
The exhibition was packed – wall-to-wall people. I was dazzled. Each painting told a story. Moreover, I realized that I could make up a story about each painting. That understanding became a stored memory. It would return some 35years later when I wrote my first novel and later the sequels. Art played a role, sometimes a pivotal role, in those books, and especially the first one and the last one.
St. Louis has a surprisingly good art museum, the beneficiary of wealthy late 19th and 20th century families. It has a major collection of German Expressionists like Max Beckmann; even you want to see what the Nazis considered “decadent art,” those artists are it. It also has several works by more contemporary German artists, and a major exhibition of paintings by Anselm Kiefer ended in January.
The museum owns a few works by Kiefer, including a large painting entitled “Fuel Rods” and a sculpture called “Breaking of the Vessels.” It was the sculpture that intrigued me. It occupies its own space, and as soon as you see a photo, you know why. It includes hundreds of pieces and shards of glass, surrounding what looks like a bookshelf or a shelf storing manuscripts. The first time I saw it, I knew what it was about without even reading the paneled description on the wall. It’s Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” the pogrom in Nazi Germany in November of 1938 that unleashed the full fury of the government upon Jewish citizens.
Inspired by that sculpture, I wrote a short story.
I can’t go into an art museum and not write stories in my head. That recently concluded Anselm Kiefer exhibition has my head almost bursting with story ideas. But even the regular collection can provide inspiration. You can find inspiration in almost any period, from the ancient Greeks and Romans and pre-Columbians to the Dutch landscape artists and 19 th century Americans. I’ve had my eye on a Norman Rockwell painting for some time that could inspire either a short story or perhaps even a novel.
I’ve set scenes in art museums in front of paintings. I’ve invested stories based on paintings. The art museum is an incredible place for inspiration, or similar to wander, admire, and learn.
It’s true for any art museum, from major institutions like London’s National Gallery and Chicago’s Art Institute to small ones like the Norton Art Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana. Those paintings and sculptures offer stories to be told.
Glynn Young is a national award-winning speechwriter, communications practitioner, and novelist. He’s the author of five published novels, Dancing Priest, A Light Shining, Dancing King, Dancing Prophet; and Dancing Prince; the non-fiction book Poetry at Work; and the recently published historical novel Brookhaven. Visit Glynn on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, his blog, the Dancing Priest book page.