Marlon Brando once named the only “artist” of his generation
Some Hollywood actors come and go, but others stay in the public consciousness for generations as artists of their craft. Such stars as Robert De Niro, Tilda Swinton, Meryl Streep, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, and Marlon Brando were masters of their crafts and became known for their iconic performances that changed filmmaking and the art of acting on the whole.
Brando, thanks to his insane method acting ways, may be the most influential actor of the bunch, encouraging others in the industry to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the psychology of their respective characters. A two-time Oscar winner who claimed Academy Awards for performances in 1954’s On the Waterfront and the 1972 Francis Ford Coppola classic The Godfather, Brando became one of Hollywood’s most dominant voices.
But, whilst Brando is the favourite actor of so many Hollywood icons, the Godfather star has a rather peculiar opinion on his industry peers, considering none of them to be artists and considering movies to be far from “art”.
“I don’t think any movie is a work of art. I simply do not,” Brando said in an interview with Playboy before stating that musicians and singers couldn’t be artists either.
Speaking about the relationship between musicians and artists, he stated: “Shakespeare’s a lyricist, he wrote many songs. Yeah, I suppose any creative writing. But you get so far down on the scale. You’re not going to call The Rolling Stones artists. I heard somebody compare them—or The Beatles—to Bach. It was claimed they had created something as memorable and as important as Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. I hate rock ‘n’ roll. It’s ugly. I liked it when the blacks had it in 1927.”
When pushed further on this subject, specifically in reference to Bob Dylan, Brando responded: “There are people who aspire to being artists, but I don’t think they’re worthy of the calling. I don’t know of any movie actors or any actors…There are no people…We can call them artists, give them the generic term if they’re comfortable with that, but in terms of great art–magnificent art, art that changes history, art that’s overwhelming–where are they? Where are the great artists today?”
Having a specific problem with the use of the word “artist”, Brando is passionate about defending the stature of some of history’s greatest-ever innovators. “When you look at Rembrandt or Baudelaire or listen to the Discourses of Epictetus, you know the quality of men is not the same,” he added. “There are no giants today…It’s disgusting that people talk about art, and they haven’t got the right to use the word. It doesn’t belong on anybody’s tongue in this century. There are no artists. We are businessmen. We’re merchants. There is no art. Picasso was the last one I would call an artist.”
An endless experimenter, the Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso created some of the greatest pieces of art in the 20th century, including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Guernica and La Vie. Also a movie lover, Picasso once named the Norman McLaren movie Neighbours as his favourite film of all time.
Take a look at the short film Neighbours below, a movie that fizzes with the same creative electricity as the art of Picasso.
