Celebrated artist lectures on 'seriousness of pursuit,' importance of the 'artist-prophet'

Visiting UNO Presidential Professor Enrique Martinez Celaya took a cross-country trip from Long Island, N.Y., to California, planning to stop at only one place along the way: the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb.Martinez Celaya planned on making the trip 23 years ago, before the creation of his publishing company, Whale and Star. This was also before his work became a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection and exhibitions in Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Martinez Celaya came to see French painter William Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Return of Spring." The famous piece depicts a Venus figure standing outside surrounded by several cherubs.

Martinez Celaya took a picture of the painting then-not knowing that photography is not permitted inside the galleries- and, 23 years later, showed it to his audience at his lecture "The Prophet" on Friday.

The lecture, which included a question and answer forum, is one of his responsibilities as presidential professor. Martinez Celaya, going into his third year as presidential professor, comes to UNO every semester for one week to give a lecture and to talk with students about his experiences as a world-renowned artist.

He also hosts interns every summer at his studio, allowing them to gain the experience of working with an artist and witnessing the inner workings of the art industry.

"Although art has nothing to add to the great beauty of sunsets or breezes over wheat fields, it can suggest the order in which the vast scale fits," Martinez Celaya said while presenting his photo of the painting to the audience on a projector screen.

Natural origins and the order of things are two of many subjects on the long list of Martinez Celaya's areas of expertise. He attended Cornell University and pursued a doctorate in applied physics - an area that is usually void of artists.

But Martinez Celaya doesn't think a diploma from a university is all it takes to make an artist an artist. According to him, the defining moments of a young artist's experience are focused on the student's "seriousness of pursuit."

"No matter what you want to pursue, you need to be a serious student," Martinez Celaya said. "A student in the bigger name, not in a university sense. A student in whatever field you're interested in."

Martinez Celaya engages in his own seriousness of pursuit and continues to look to the greats - Tolstoy, Nietzsche and Kierkgaard - for inspiration.

Martinez Celaya said the role of the artist-prophet, like the great artists of the past, is to break through social norms and challenge the narcissistic thinking of our times.

However, some artists can become too comfortable with when making this break through. In a previous lecture, he said "expertise is the death of art" and the insecurity needed to create meaningful art is at risk of becoming lost with expertise.

"The moment you start to think of yourself as an expert in anything, not just in art, to begin to think of yourself as an authority, some of the freshness and the insecurity and all the lack of certainty that is required to make something interesting, particularly in art, disappears because. now you're certain," Martinez Celaya said. "Now you consider yourself somebody that knows things."

Perhaps that is why Martinez Celaya chose to be prolific in a variety of media. In addition to painting, he is also a photographer, poet, sculptor and writer. His publishing company, Whale and Star, recently published a book of writings from his blog titled "A Bad Time for Poetry," as well as translations the works of French symbolist poet Charles Baudelaire.

The press is also putting forth another book of translated poetry by 20th century Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. The book is expected to be ready for purchase in December.

Martinez Celaya is working with the University of Nebraska Press to publish his collective writings. He also is building a new 19,000 square foot studio in Miami, where he lives.

All of this and a position at the University of Nebraska allow him to share his ideas and thoughts on art, aesthetics, philosophy and literature keep Martinez Celaya quite occupied. However, he still has time to make the call to other artists to step up and challenge themselves to uphold their own standard of greatness.

"There is not a better time than now to respond to the call," Celaya said. "We need prophets.