Why Developing Peripheral Vision is Key To Creativity

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Peripheral vision is your ability to see objects and movement outside the direct line of sight, typically on the edges of your field of vision. Developing strong peripheral vision in art and business is essential for staying agile, innovative, and competitive. Sometimes all the treasures are on the margins of where everyone is focusing and going there physically or metaphorically is where the best opportunities lie.

Marie Laurencin was probably the most celebrated and prolific female painter of the avant-garde in Paris, with the apex of her career happening between the 1920s and 1940s. An out-of-wedlock daughter of a politician and an independent woman who raised Laurencin on her own Laurencin was the antithesis of the society darling, born without much access or connections handed to her.

But that all changed when pursuing her formal art education at the Académie Humber in 1907, where she met Georges Braque who invited her to meet his BFF, Pablo Picasso. Because she had learned how to paint with oil, Picasso liked her and insisted on being a matchmaker. He set Laurencin up with the poet, artist, critic and overall one of the most connected men in Paris, Guillaume Apollinaire, who fell for her and opened countless doors for her.

Nobody has to stay doing the same thing forever. One of the common reasons why people feel stuck is because they don’t allow themselves the space to change. Or to try something new even if they fail. Being able to look at the periphery is so important when you are feeling the itch to do something new. Maybe you have always lived on the periphery but are afraid to show your point of view.

The cubists welcomed Laurencin in their circle, the only woman, and she started painting in that style and showing with them in salons. A relationship with Apollinaire ensued and Gertrude Stein became one of her first collectors.

But by 1913, two pivotal shifts had happened. Laurencin had broken up with Apollinaire and her style began mutating into a soft, ethereal style. She painted mostly beautiful women who stood in radical contrast to the angular, vibrant, masculine work of artists like Picasso. She just didn’t care to fit into a movement and was peripherally creating her own thing.

For seven years after that, Laurencin was out of the art circles in Paris. She married a German painter and left France to escape the brutality of WWI. This time away helped her refine her singular approach to painting and find her true style, even though it meant she wouldn’t be playing with the big boys anymore.

Sometimes we don’t even have a say in whether or not change catches up with us, but we do have the upper hand in how we bring about our new way of doing things. It’s better to feel ownership about our businesses or careers than to let others dictate what we should be doing.

Every era in history has had its own challenges. We have been through massive turmoil, but we are hardly the only ones. The year 1919 in Europe was bleak: plagues and pandemics spread and the war that had lasted three years had just come to an end, leaving cities destroyed, families torn apart and national identities shattered.

But these low moments in history are usually catalysts for those who can see beyond the chaos. I am a fervent believer that each one of us is in exactly the times we are meant to be. We have the seed within us to do great things no matter the era we live in.

Laurencin returned to Paris on her own in 1921, sans husband, and this is when she started basking in the glory of great success. Certainly not afraid of societal conventions, the Roaring 20s provided an opportunity for her to reveal her own sexual preferences, and to have multiple romances with men and women.

As soon as she was back in France, she wasted no time and went to parties and events, connecting with old and new people. She sold her work on her own. But she was ready for the next step and reached out to Paul Rosenberg, an art dealer who appreciated how different from Cubists or Fauvists Laurencin’s work was. Rosenberg saw the opportunity to work in the post-war era with an openly queer artist who celebrated women in fairy-like settings. It was risky but oh-so-enticing.

Rosenberg’s bet on Laurencin paid off, and by 1925, the artist had made so much money that she had bought her own chateau. In the 1930s, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, France's highest national decoration; and in 1939 alone, Laurencin was the subject of 11 solo exhibitions.

Moral of the story is that circumstances, albeit horrid, can’t stop determined humans who have something good to offer to the world.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sure. But I bet you can tell when a haute couture dress is beautifully made. Or a piece of ceramic has been masterfully crafted. In this decade I’ve seen a whole lot of ugly things, ranging from certain urban fashion renditions to extremely unnatural body enhancements to faces covered in tattoos. I know there’s a market for that. I’m cool with them and I can live and let live, but I can’t call those things beautiful. In a world that values the grotesque, weird and scandalous, I have actually come to believe that now beautiful things exist only on the periphery.

However, beauty in business and in art still plays a significant role, often extending beyond aesthetics to encompass various aspects of the business environment, customer experience, design and brand perception. No matter what, beauty still draws people in.

Because Laurencin had spent so much time with Apollinaire and with other poets, she started translating poetry into her painting. Her harmonious combinations of pinks, greens, grays and blues with her women portrayed alone, in couples or in groups, provided moments of beauty in a challenging time that had seen death and devastation in the years prior.

During WWII, she kept making money out of commissions and by the end of her life in 1956, Marie Laurencin had produced about 2000 paintings, and more than 300 prints, book illustrations, theatre scenery, and costumes.

Almost seven decades after her death, Laurencin is back in the saddle; two weeks ago I was elated when I saw Nahmad Contemporary’s solo presentation of Laurencin’s paintings at Independent Art Fair - all of them sold. Next month the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia will open “Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris,” the first museum survey in the U.S. dedicated to the artist in more than 30 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if I start seeing a lot of movement at auction with her work soon.

Just as our peripheral vision allows us to glimpse the unexpected on the edges of our sight, embracing our unique circumstances enables us to see the opportunities and challenges that lie beyond the confines of our immediate focus. It is through this broader perspective that we gain the agility and insight needed to navigate the ever-shifting currents of our world, leading us toward growth - and if we are as lucky as Laurencin - gold.

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