Reward of Rivalry


June 24, 2025


There’s a certain myth that surrounds the painter’s life—a quiet studio, soft light falling across a palette, inspiration arriving like a whispered muse. But if you’ve ever truly pursued painting, you know that myth is only half the story. The other half? It’s sweat. Restlessness. Urgency. And, often, the subtle but potent push of rivalry.

Painters don’t always like to admit it, but we create some of our best work not just from passion, but from pressure. And nothing lights that fire quite like seeing another artist doing something extraordinary—something that makes you pause mid-brushstroke and think, I need to level up.

Healthy competition, especially in the visual arts, is a powerful force. It’s not about ego or jealousy—it’s about momentum. Rivalry gives us something to reach for, a standard just out of reach. It shakes us out of stagnation and demands we evolve.

Think about the greats: Picasso and Matisse pushed each other for decades. Caravaggio’s intensity was fueled, in part, by trying to outshine his contemporaries. Even in the quiet discipline of landscape or portraiture, there’s always been a current of one-upmanship—an unspoken contest of color, technique, and boldness.

The best rivals are those whose work already holds the space you want to inhabit. They’re winning the grants, showing in the galleries, catching the critics’ eyes. You watch their brushwork, their compositions, their risks—and somewhere deep inside, something clenches. Not in resentment, but in resolve.

Rivalry forces clarity. What kind of painter do you really want to be? What do you want your work to say—and to whom? When another artist is capturing attention with something raw, or subtle, or utterly new, you start asking better questions about your own practice. Your choices sharpen. Your intentions get louder.

And the rewards? They’re real. Your skill improves—because you push it further than you would have alone. Your pace quickens—because urgency replaces doubt. You begin exploring techniques, subjects, or materials you might have otherwise avoided. You take risks because someone else is taking them and making it look effortless. You chase something. And in that chase, you discover edges of your ability you hadn’t yet explored.

It doesn’t matter if your rival is someone in your community, someone on social media, or someone long gone whose work still hangs in your mind like a challenge. Rembrandt can still be a rival. So can Toyin Ojih Odutola. So can your favorite mutual on Instagram.

This kind of rivalry isn’t toxic—it’s transformative. It keeps your brush moving. It keeps your hunger alive. It turns the solitary act of painting into a dialogue with the world, one where you’re not just expressing, but competing. Not for validation, but for growth.

So seek them out. Study them. Let their brilliance annoy you just enough to make you braver. Let their accolades push you to put in longer hours, stretch larger canvases, take wilder chances. Let them remind you that you’re in this to grow, not coast.

The truth is, rivalry sharpens the edge of your ambition. And in that edge is the space where your best work waits.

Pick up the brush. The race is on.

The Christopher Mudgett archive collection is the only one in the world to present the artist’s up-to-date painted, sculpted, engraved and illustrated œuvre and a precise record—through sketches, studies, drafts, notebooks, photos, books, films and documents—of the creative process.
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