We must reflect on the text of Lee Ufan, “Robots and Painters’ from ed. Myers, Terry (2011) Painting: Documents of Contemporary Art. The course book asks us to think about the following questions: “what you feel painting is and what you feel it isn’t? the purpose of painting: what is painting for? Starting and finishing a work: where doesn’t an artwork begin and end? Knowing what you are doing: is it helpful to know what you are doing and is it possible to know what you have done?’

If I ask myself whether I would appreciate a painting made by a robot more than a painting created by a human, I would answer no. That is because a robot doesn’t possess a personality, even though the software would allow the robot to produce eye-pleasing images, which some of us can appreciate. ‘Personality factor – this is what clicks with me and I, believe, with most people. If we understand Art more than just making an eye-pleasing picture, we have to recognise a personality existing behind any artwork. So I agree with Lee Ufan ( ‘Robots and Painters’, p.65): ‘painters continue to paint, whether on canvas or some other material, realising that each moment is a precious part of life.’ It is already a well-established philosophical and professional view that Art, especially, Visual Art, is not just about ‘reproducing and ‘reproduction’ of the surrounding world. The invention of photography in the mid-XIX century already preceded today’s problem of Robots and Painters. Painters must self reflect again on who they are and what they are doing while painting. So do I, thinking about the following questions: “what do you feel the painting is and what you feel it isn’t? the purpose of painting: what is painting for? Starting and finishing a work: where doesn’t an artwork begin and end? Knowing what you are doing: is it helpful to know what you are doing, and is it possible to know what you have done?’
For me, painting is an act; it is an act of living, like speaking or seeing. The climax of living as human existence is creating. But creating starts from sensing and accumulation of products of our senses, and the very first step in creating is copying, reproducing, recapturing. Then I go and paint more, I think and develop. The development is my attempt to recapture the world, but a new element in my painting starts to grow, which no one can observe in the material world. And that is when my personality comes more distinctly. But If I were more talented, my attempts of copying would bring my character even earlier. What is painting for? It is for the satisfaction of my creative urge, which in its turn is the meaning of human’s existence. Yes, I am a transcendentalist, believing in the Divine spark in every human’s soul. The artwork begins when I feel Grace, a fine-tuned vibration, which comes upon me and starts living with me. The actual process of painting is not a beginning; it is a fruit. The artwork never ends. Every day it is different when I look at it. It is impossible to finish it, so the artwork is always unfinished, and it is impossible to know what I have done. The beauty of Art as an Act is in its infinity, as an infinity of soul’s existence. Art doesn’t give any definite answers. It is always beyond our worldly thinking. Art is a Trsncedental Experience, just one more way to connect with the Divine.

Bibliography: ‘Creative Accounting: Not knowing In Talking and Making’, Fortnum Rebecca, from ‘On Not Knowing: How Artists Think’, 2013, Fisher, Elizabeth & Fortnum, Rebecca, p.70-87, online on OCA student website, [accessed on October 6.10.21];

‘Robots and Painters’, Lee Ufan, from ed.Myers, Terry (20110 Painting:Documents of Contemporary Art, London: Whitechapel Gallery and the MIT Press, p.63-65., online on OCA student website, [accessed on 06.10.21];