The Groove 151 - How to Balance Nuance
HOW TO BALANCE NUANCE
I bet some of you remember those times when things were praised for their attention to detail, subtleties and hidden messages and not the flashiness, ostentatiousness, and brazenness that occupies our lives today. From our screens to our visual surroundings, almost everything is blatantly tacky.
Maybe the revolutionary thing to do is to lean into nuances and learn how to balance them. And when I say nuance, I don’t mean bland and boring, but that intentional fine detail and overtone that comes from doing things with acute observation of what’s around us. Where we care about the intimacy and impact of our work at a much more personal level than the greater shock and scandal of what mainstream media and social media value.
Edouard Vuillard had the (much needed today) skill to balance the infinite nuances of paint with those of human existence. Born in Cusieux, France in 1861, he later relocated to Paris and by 1889 had joined a group of painters influenced by Paul Gauguin, who called themselves Les Nabis (the Hebrew word for "the prophets"). They believed that a work of art was not a depiction of nature, but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist. Although in 1900 the artists went their separate ways, Vuillard was always faithful to this principle and had a prolific career with the financial success to match.
Think About Intimate Moments
Vuillard with photographer Louis-Alfred Natanson on the background at le Relais à Villeneuve-sur-Yonne in the early 1900s.
Over Vuillard's long career, he produced nearly 3,000 artworks: paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, decorative screens, ceramic plates, programs and sets for the theater. His favorite subject and the one that he became known for was of people inside personal, lush, patterned, tasteful interiors. He worked all the elements into his paintings as equal components of an ornamental whole. "I don't paint portraits," he said. "I paint people in their homes."
His emphasis on capturing intimate, everyday moments translates Vuillard’s work into lessons about mindfulness and cherishing the present. His ability to find beauty in mundane scenes encourages us to appreciate the simple pleasures of life and be more attuned to our surroundings.
Vuillard’s ability to capture the intimate and everyday resonates with a customer-centric mindset. Consider incorporating intimacy into your creative practice. Whether it's through personal narratives or small, relatable moments, infusing a sense of the personal can make your work more relatable and emotionally resonant.
Businesses that successfully reflect both creativity and intimacy often prioritize authenticity, emotional connection, attention to detail and personalized experiences of their customers. From small galleries to boutique hotels, that feeling of intimacy continues to be as alluring now as it was 100 years ago.
Aim for Harmony
Edouard Vuillard, La femme au fauteuil (Misia et Thadée Natanson), 1896, oil on paper laid down on canvas.
Vuillard’s unique style and innovative techniques have left a lasting impact. His masterful orchestration of color, pattern, and composition - that ability he had of weaving disparate elements into a tapestry of visual cohesion that mirrors the complexities of life itself - has been one of his greatest contributions.
If you remember the interiors of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, or a pattern-on-pattern Gucci marketing campaign, it’s impossible not to see the parallels with Vuillard’s paintings. They could’ve ended up as visual cacophonies; instead, they are harmonious examples of more-is-more without being vulgar or outrageous.
An idea to borrow from Vuillard when trying to find harmony in disparate elements is to identify common themes among them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business or a work of art, there are always commonalities that can be tied together and organized in a way that is concordant.
Evolve Naturally
Edouard Vuillard, Interior, 1904, oil on cardboard.
While Cubism became the big thing at the turn of the 20th century, Vuillard was very adamant that his passion and work were interiors and the people who inhabited them. (Sometimes he ventured to paint parks and outdoors scenes, but those weren’t his main preoccupation.)
As art movements and trends evolved, Vuillard adapted his style to remain relevant while staying true to his core principles. His willingness to adjust without compromising his artistic identity contributed to his longevity as an artist.
He continued to paint numerous domestic interiors and gardens, but in a more naturalistic, colorful style than he had used as a Nabi. He did not want to return to the past, but wanted to move into the future with a vision that was more decorative and familiar than that of the modernists.
Edouard Vuillard, Yvonne Printemps au fauteuil, distemper on canvas, 1919-1921.
A couple of days ago I was on Instagram’s recommendation page and caught a glimpse of someone I thought familiar but couldn’t figure out from where. When I clicked on the image it took me to the page of a woman I had met a few years ago and ran into several times in New York. I was shocked by two things: once an attractive person, her face had gone through more plastic surgeries than she needed in her mid-40s. I have nothing against cosmetic enhancements and I’m game myself -with nuance- but the images of this woman were atrocious. I also remembered that in the past she had a fun, quirky fashion sense and all I saw in her recent pictures was that she went full-on racy, not sexy. She had basically lost two of her most interesting assets: her face and her style. I understood right away that she hadn’t evolved naturally but that she had become a victim of the algorithm.
Businesses and artists can also suffer from forced evolutions and wanting to be on trend when they forget their core principles and who they are (case in point, the defunct Twitter, now X). Change is fine, but trying to be who you aren’t can have abominable consequences.
Embracing the delicate interplay of nuances in business, art and life allows us to weave a tapestry of harmonious connections and patterns that enrich our experiences, elevate our creations, and illuminate the beauty of balance itself much in the same way as Vuillard did. This isn’t hard but requires gradation, subtlety, and finesse. Sometimes that means going against the grain of what’s desirable today.
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