Posterity

Future generations; or all of a person's decendants. What motivates an artist (or a collector or an educator) and to work really hard and well at it is most likely to be: pleasing oneself and the contemporaries about whom one most cares. Right alongside this in importance: leaving behind a legacy for posterity.(pr. pə-STA-rə-tee)Quote: "if you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests." Kuan Chung (-645 BCE), Chinese writer. Kuan-tzu (Book of Master Kuan), ?Kuan tzu chi p'ing, edited by Ling Juheng, 1970, volume 1, p. 12. Title romanized. "No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it." George Washington Carver (1864? to 1943), American scientist and educator. "Morality, generally speaking, doesn't have much to do with the art market. Posterity does." Michael Kimmelman (contemporary), American art ciritic, writing about Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), a French art dealer who became wealthy in the process of making avant-garde painters famous. "Merchant of Modernism," New York Times, September 15, 2006, p. B30. See avant-garde and modernism. " 'Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?' " Robert Mankoff (contemporary), American cartoonist. Caption for his drawing of a man in a suit talking to another at a cocktail party. The New Yorker, July 30, 2007. Also see change, civilization, commemorate, death, desco da parto, documentation, donation, enthusiasm, heritage, installation, love, masterpiece, memorial, memory, posthumous, quality, quality of life, success, time, and vanitas.