ABSTRACT
Art and ego have always been collaborators. Which does not mean that where there is ego there is always art—far from it. But, as Alan Jay Lemer once said, “Modesty is for those who deserve it.” It has never overwhelmed a skeptical world, and without ego a work of art would never see the light of day. Happily, in great art the ego rarely shows; the artist’s character, frequently; the ego, hardly ever. It may be that great art obscures the most flagrant of egos, or it may be that a real artist is never truly satisfied with his work. It isn’t so much, “I should have done better”; it’s, “What I really had in mind seemed more profound,” or more beautiful, or funnier, or more frightening—whatever. Somehow, great dreams are always diminished in the realization, if only for the dreamer.
