The Formation of Artistic
Personalities
To my father on his 70th birthday
A lecture by Nadja Labuda on 28 June 2008 in the Institute of the History
of Medicine and Science, University of Lübeck, Germany
Personal words
When I think of my childhood and youth, this time was always associated
with music – the countless classical concerts I attended with my parents,
the voice of Ella Fitzgerald I danced to with my mother. Chopin, Brahms
and finally Johann Sebastian Bach, performed so movingly by Yuko
Labuda at the piano. I was also impressed by the many exceptionally
talented musicians I had the opportunity to become acquainted with at
home, some of whom we shall also hear this evening. I was always
surrounded by music. However, there were also sounds that like the
songs of the spheres hovered over this music, and these were my father’s
melodies. Besides Bach on the flute and jazz on the flugelhorn, my father
always had a melody deep inside him which only belonged to him and
which was the basis for innumerable variations of the same theme,
whether on the guitar at the dining table, on the piano after a long
evening with books and conversations or in the morning after breakfast
on a battery of myriad drums. Always when my father tried out a new
instrument in the myriad collection he could call his own, or on a long or
short car trip when he sang or hummed to himself; it is always this parti-
cular melody of his which resounds – and which in the course of decades
has become my own as well. The melody expresses so many of the
characteristics he has and always has had for me: serenity and creativity,
love of life and humour, empathy and nobleness of heart. I can only
describe the melody with these words; if I had to sing it or even write it
down, I would be completely helpless. But when I hear it, it is as if I had
been enticed with a flute to my most inner being, in order to rest there
light-heartedly.
While thinking about how to formulate this lecture, my father suddenly
went through my head and I knew then exactly what I would like to speak
about: the specific formative pattern of artists; that for an artist who
works creatively with different media it really doesn’t matter which
medium he chooses to eternalise his art. There will always be a medium
which makes his artistic voice most clearly heard, but it will always be
audible whether it is with granite, iron or paper that he brings what is
resonating inside him to the surface.
Four artists with multifaceted work
I am subsequently going to show excerpts of the artistic work of four
selected artists in which there is clear correspondence between the
different parts of their works:
1. the photographer and draftsman Henri Cartier Bresson,
2. the sculptor and draftsman Eduardo Chillida,
3. the painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly and
4. the draftsman and photographerWin Labuda, my father
1 - Nadja andWin Labuda, 2006
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