September 2009
When opinions about art are expressed, there is often a misuse of the word "talent". However, this term, with all the caution one must have when handling and defining words with abstract content, cannot be specifically and solely related to artistic quality, as it refers to a set of skills and abilities concerning every human activity. After all, even a non-talented person may possibly achieve the same desirable result as a talented one, but with greater difficulty, quality, or frequency.
If we try to find another word to replace, or complement, talent, we might, with the aforementioned caution, bring up "genius". A word that usually intimidates us because it expresses, apart from a superlative degree, also a charismatic and almost external given dimension. However, defining the quality of a work of art through the concept of "charisma" should not be considered illogical. More specifically, it should highlight the difference (which is most important) between a good work, possibly the product of toil, perseverance, knowledge, and diligence (which is neither minor nor negligible), and a distinct and special creation. The word "genius" precisely embodies the concept of uniqueness, the sense of singularity, the touch of Divine Grace, as would have been said in much older times, or of a fairy wand, as would be said at much younger ages.
If someone argues that accepting such a term implies a dimension of natural or divine selection, akin to a form of elitism, they should consider that - among other things - art is necessary for humans and society because it maintains the concept of human uniqueness beyond knowledge and abilities. Because it restores the belief that the world consists of millions of smaller worlds representing each individual person and which are revealed when the ability provided by talent is combined with the vision stemming from genius.
A phrase by the French poet Jules Renard is characteristic of the relationship between the two words in question: "Genius is to talent what instinct is to logic." Something that focuses on the innate nature of the uniqueness of the gifts that accompany each person.
It is interesting to note that one of the dominant elements of artistic creation is that it is perhaps the only human activity that requires the simultaneous functioning of all virtues and qualities. The emotional, the intellectual, the physical, but also talent, genius, diligence, perseverance, ambition. It might be the only activity that reflects the "in the image and likeness" creation, the audacity of a potential creator. Hence, it is worth mentioning a characteristic phrase of another French poet, Paul Valéry: "Talent without genius is insignificant, genius without talent is nothing."
Perhaps what can relieve art from the burden of seeking and invoking all these formidable terms is the instinctive acceptance of the fact that talent and genius are privileges of human nature, not just a few individuals. In short, it's not about the concept of "the chosen" or the Divine Gift, but that all people are recipients of it, and everyone is a potential "chosen." The realization of their uniqueness and privileges, and the need to utilize their "gifts," is what unleashes their distinctiveness. Therefore, one can argue that the crux of the matter is not the existence of talent or genius but the need and desire of each person to discover them. Something that, in the final analysis, is also the great expression of their freedom.
Plato Rivellis