Art is a Pillar: Odilon Redon

"Art is, for one who loves it, a pillar; you cannot deny the support you find there for spiritual maintenance. The reading of a beautiful book, of a single page of this book, the accent of a chord of supreme harmony, a known song heard suddenly, acts on us, seizes us, holds us unexpectedly in a pensive state.

"I thought in former days that art was useless: it might perhaps be necessary." Odilon Redon, To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, and Artists, p.97.

 Leisure and the Artist: Odilon Redon

"You must love naturally, lazily, for joy, for the joy we will receive one day like a grace.  This reveals the necessity of leisure.

"Leisure is not a privilege; it is not a favor; it is not a social injustice; it is the beneficial necessity by which the spirit is fashioned as well as taste and the discovery of oneself." Odilon Redon, To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, and Artists, p.88.

  When is a Painting Finished? - Balthus

"I know when it's finished.  That is, when it's accomplished.  When no further touch or trace of color will happen to correct a world that has finally been attained, a secret space finally percieved. So ends the plentiful prayer offered silently in the studio. So ends the silent contemplation. An idea of beauty has been reached." Bulthus, Vanished Splendors: A Memoir, p.7-8.

 Regret and the Perfect Work of Art: Odilon Redon

"The natural blossoming and growth of a work cannot come from dilettantism.  It would serve perfection marvelously if this were possible.  It can only happen in small pieces, an the author who could achieve the perfect work, would only produce one; he would have touched the absolute and would stop painting.

"It is precisely from regret left by the imperfect work that the next one can be born." Odilon Redon, To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, and Artists, p.77.

 To See: Odilon Redon

"To see is to spontaneously grasp the relationships between things." Odilon Redon, To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, & Artists, p.40

 Cezanne: On Art & Nature

"Art is a harmony which runs parallel with nature-- what is one to think of those imbeciles who say that the artist is always inferior to nature?"

To Joachim Gasquet, 26 September, 1897

 Artist or Dilettante: Odilon Redon

"What distinguishes the artist from the dilettante is only the pain that the artist alone experiences.  The dilettante looks to art only for pleasure...And the world and most of those whose hand we hold see the practice of an art as merely a matter of relaxation and of rest."  Odilon Redon, To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, & Artists, p.34-35

 What is an Artist?

"An artist is one who can fail and fail and still go on." Agnes Martin, Writings, p93. 

 Art Borrows Nothing from Philosophy: Odilon Redon

"Art borrows nothing from philosophy and has no other source than the soul in the midst of the world surrounding it.  Its essence is unknown, as is the essence of life; and its goal is art itself." 1909 - Odilon Redon, , p.93-94

See also Helquin Artifacts HERE. 

 The Tangible Immaterial Means of Expression: Rainer Maria Rilke

"Somehow I too must find a way of making things; not plastic, written things, but realities that arise from the craft itself.  Somehow I too must discover the smallest constituent element, the cell of my art, the tangible immaterial means of expressing everything..."

To Lou Andreas-Salome, August 10, 1903 (Epigraph from Letters on Cezanne)

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part IX

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar. 

 
Palisades Portfolio: Image #009, unsigned and undated. 

AD: How important is your photographic equipment?  I’ve never heard you say much about it.

CE: Do painters discuss their brushes? Do sculptors discuss their chisels? Do poet and writers discuss their word processors? There is something perverse about this. When I am asked about equipment, I think of Rilke in his ‘Letters on Cezanne.’ We who enter this terrifying vocation would do well to read this book at least three times…we would understand so much more: the balance between the reality of nature and the reality of the image, the inadequacy of mere representation, and, most importantly, the insight that to reach the essence of our art our lives must change.

(BC: They both stood up at this point.  CE going first, they walked out onto the porch.  After talking together for a few minutes, it was not long, CE walked off down the road.) 

This concludes the interview.

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part VIII

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar.

Palisades Portfolio: Image #008, unsigned and undated. 

AD: I see you’ve brought back a little something.

CE: Yes, this was my father’s notebook.  He kept it with him as long as I can remember.  It is thin, so he could not have added much to it over the years…and nothing is dated, so it is hard to say when he made the various entries. I think, during his last years, he just carried it around with him. Great books, great ideas, and great people, are soon forgotten.  I imagine he kept this little notebook to remind him of a few hard earned understandings.

You will see right away why I brought it into our discussion. Here, toward the back, listen to this, it’s very brief….Here is what he wrote: “Track every image back to its root - no, back to its root hairs.”  Just like that: a bull’s eye. If we could do that, we could appreciate works of art, photographs in this context, in their simple aboriginal enchantment, we could be lifted above memory’s deafening traffic.

AD: This certainly speaks to your own work.  I see why you brought it in.

CE: Though, it is not crucial to understand or articulate such things…notes such as this may be a boon to those who are ready. Agnes Martin understood this: In one of her poems, she says: ‘The sentimental furniture threatens the peace.” Photography is crammed with sentimental furniture.

(BC: CE set the little notebook on the table beside his chair, looked at it for a while, turned toward AD, and sighed - a deep sigh. He smiled at both of us and then put his finger on the notebook again and tapped on it three times as if say: this is on the mark.)

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.'

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part VI

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar. 

Palisades Portfolio: Image #006, unsigned and undated. 

AD: I’ve been thinking about a remark you once made that photography is like a chef’s knife.

CE: Or a cloud formation…or beef jerky…or a prison of love. It depends on your mission, which island you want to retire to, and whose hand you want to hold. Things often come in different orders. Sometimes its fever, sleep, sanity, and death.

AD: You have brought me to think of poetry and how it relates to other forms of artistic expression…photography, painting…others as well.

CE: The relation between poetry and the other arts is at its best when it is promiscuous, illegitimate…and without remembrance of the night before. Each must cause the other enormous disquietude. Their signatures must be, in the end, illegible.

(BC: The communication between the two seemed now to be at a particularly high level. The ambiance was like a cool breeze on a Tuscan hillside.)

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.'

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part V

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar. 

Palisades Portfolio: Image #005, unsigned and undated. 

AD: Your career has not exactly been a lesson in how to draw a straight line.

CE: Let us say you suddenly realize a car is coming directly at you…right in your lane. What would you do?

AD: I would swerve as quickly as I could.

CE: I think it was Dostoyevsky who said that man is a mystery and if you spend your entire life puzzling it out, you cannot say you have wasted your time. The important thing is to eschew every conventional criterion. The only path I know is the path of indirection…other paths may look straight, but such lines are often drawn with borrowed pencils--gallery pencils, art-scene pencils, commercial pencils.

A line is straight if it is internally right. It is right to swerve for an oncoming car...a kind of personal space-time straight curve. A straight line can only mean staying with what time and energy dictate…for you only, for this moment only. No criteria at all. No face in the mirror…or shop window. 

So, if I seem to wander, I may be. But just as easily, I may not.

(BC: There was an extended pause here…again, very comfortable.  CE stood up and stretched. I don’t know why, but it felt a little like what death row must feel like…if there were interviews on death row.)

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.'

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part IV

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar.

 
Palisades Portfolio: Image #004, unsigned and undated.

AD: Speaking of fables, I wonder if you would tell us what really happened on the Palmerin Bridge?

CE: (Laughing) Well, that was some time ago...and there are now, as you know, at least a hundred versions of what happened. I probably should try to put it in a better light, but...what can I say: sometimes we are drawn into the most absurd situations. I will be brief....

It is strange, but whenever this episode is brought to mind, I continue to be reminded of both the Owl Creek Bridge and a certain judge-penitent...but I am not sure there is any meaningful connection. It might simply be that these are other bridges that have made an impression on me.

On the other hand...do any of us really understand such connective tissue?

As I drove across the bridge, I saw an old couch setting near the rail, right about at the mid-point, the highest point of the span. Given my obsession, I pulled over as soon as I got to the other side, grabbed my camera, jumped out, locked my car, and started back up the bridge. I had to get a good look at the couch; it was so strange to see a couch setting at the very midpoint of the bridge. As I walked, I tried to reconstruct my initial image, asking myself if there might have been a person sitting on it...but I could not see it clearly in my mind.

Parenthetically, I remember Robert Motherwell saying something to the effect that, yes, anyone could paint one of his ‘Open Series' paintings, but how many people would stake their lives on it? I ask you if anyone would stake their life on an old couch.

I acted foolishly: let the record be clear. As I approached the couch I realized it was occupied by two men who were clearly waiting for someone else. I smiled and asked if they were waiting for Godot. Although, at the time, this seemed clever enough, it was not the best introduction. Perhaps I said this as a way to make light of a situation that was quickly beginning to look extremely dangerous: there were two of them and the roiling river below...and I was not in their plans.

The one trying to take off his boot looked at me and shouted, "Help me!" This gave me a jolt...I admit. It was too uncanny. How could these two apparently random actions and comments come together as they did. I did not see that he was taking off his boot, he could not have expected me to ask if they were waiting for Godot, and I would never predict that he would say: "Help me!" Of course, a couch is not a tree...but this whole scene was dreadfully strange. Indeed, this was a no-man's land, and the couch was a perfect objective correlative.

I suddenly began to feel that I was in a Peter Brooks version of Godot, at night, in the middle of a bridge...an old couch our main prop. I do not know to this day why they did not simply throw me into the river rather than the trunk of their old car. The rest was in the papers...

"Shall we go?"

AD: OK, yes, "...let's move on."

(BC: At this point, AD and CE sat quietly for a few moments. They both drank a little water. Then, quite abruptly, CE raised his hand and touched his left ear as if he was trying to determine if the entire ear was still there.)

CE: One thing I would like to add: what I described to you may not be precisely what happened in the way it happened. As I have dreamed about it a number of times since it occurred, I may be confusing my dreams with what actually happened. I just want to be clear about that. The next...well, I said I would be brief...and only discuss the part that relates to the question of art. I think we agreed to that. Shall we go?

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.'

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part III

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar.

Palisades Portfolio: Image #003, unsigned and undated.

AD: Do you have a definition for art?

CE: I can think of no better reply than to repeat Neruda's question: "Is there anything in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain?" Before this question I am silent.  After this question, I am also silent.

AD: In a recent interview, Daniel Buren said, "You have to work both inside and outside the system."  Do you agree with this?

CE: The only liberated art is art that ceases to care about this question.  But many of us, despite what we may say, do not care about liberation. Remember the fable of the deer without a heart?

(BC: At this point in the interview, there was a brief pause...very comfortable...not an awkward pause. AD flipped through his notes for a few moments as if he had decided to skip some of his prepared questions. I cannot say for sure, but I think AD was not sure how to follow up...whether to explore the fable or to soldier on.)

AD: I do not remember the fable. I don't recall it from my childhood reading...it must have gotten by me.

CE: Well, let's pass it by for now...except to say that in some versions the deer is an ass.

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.'

 The Second Palisades Interview, Part II

Note: To see a list of all interview segments (in reverse order), see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar. 

 
Palisades Portfolio: Image #002, unisigned and undated.

AD: It is a commonplace to say that art must speak to the times...reflect the times, engage the questions inherent in the contemporary milieu. Yet, I heard you once say (I think it was at Hamet's), that the times must become relevant to the art that is created. What exactly did you mean by this?

CE: You have a son, am I right?

AD: Yes.

CE: And your son has already reached his majority, am I right?

AD: Yes, again.

CE: Tell me: are the questions he now asks himself, the same questions he has always asked?

AD: Some are and some are not. ‘When I was a child...etc.'

CE: Of course, that is true...and for all of us it is true. But do not mistake any of his questions for ‘the perennial questions that art addresses.' Every person's question is a new and unique question. No person ever asks a perennial question...just as neither Heraclitus nor any of us can ever step into the same river twice...once, I prefer to think.

Let me put it more strongly: there are no ‘times,' and there is no milieu.

What did I just hear? There, outside the window. A small bird. You see? What time is it now? It is not the same time on the other side of that field...that road, or office building.

(BC: I noticed at this point that CE studied AD's face very closely. I also detected some discomfort in AD...perhaps he was not satisfied with CE's response...it was difficult to read.)

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.' 

 The Second Palisades Interview: Part I

Editor's Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview on a weekly basis, more often if weather permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.' To see a list of all interview segments in order, see 'Palisades Interview' in the category list on the side bar.

  
Palisades Portfolio: Image #001, unsigned and undated 

AD: In our first interview, you spoke about art as if it were something sacred, or nearly sacred. Do you still feel this way?

CE: Let me say immediately that you have most certainly misunderstood what I said. Others have accused me of the same thing....Art, in practice, is nothing special...it is nothing at all, really. To think that it is somehow special, or privileged, is a mistaken view. Let me put it in a different frame: to speak about art is no different than speaking about...well....art is like a doorknob...that is about all I can say today. And I ask you: are doorknobs sacred, or nearly so? You might say, well, no, and then pause, and re-think, and say, well, perhaps, depending upon which doors they open.

AD: Then, do you think that some art is sacred, depending upon which doors it opens?

CE: No, definitely not. I'm afraid I did not say it clearly. Yesterday, I saw someone hang some works of art he had created. He chose to hang a yellow monochromatic landscape on a blue wall....he then went out for coffee. Which was the sacred part?

(BC: I noticed a lingering and pensive look as CE seemed suspended for a moment following his response to this question. It was only a moment but it seemed to reveal what I can only characterize (any other description eludes me) as the tragic dimension of life. This moment was quickly broken by a smile that seemed to be expressed only in his eyes. I should add that even a video interview may have missed this.)

To be continued...

Note: Artrift will publish a portion of The Second Palisades Interview as time permits. The number of segments will correspond to the number of works in the 'Palisades Portfolio.' 

 Artistic Discouragement: Manet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, et al

Discouragement is a loss of courage, hope, and ambition because of obstacles, frustrations.

Cezanne, Self portrait, c. 1875 

Zola on Cezanne: “Cezanne has frequent fits of discouragement…” 

Manet Timeline: 1865 - Manet, discouraged and angry destroys several of his works.

Van Gogh Letter: January 4, 1880 - "For the moment I am overcome with discouragement." 

RV Comment: For the artist, perseverance in the work in the midst of an acute sense of discouragement is heightened by the fact that such discouragement, and the perseverance it takes to go on, are lodged in the very center of his or her being.

To persevere in such moments of panic and despair: Post an image of Cezanne in the studio and when that acute moment arises, and it will arise with force, study his image and simply be aware of the feeling.  Nobody can tell you what to do next.  There are no 12 steps.  Just be there with it.  Do not even analyze it...but do know that it is not as solid as it now seems. It does not cover the whole of space. You are not alone in this experience. As well, do not romanticize it. You are not the suffering artist: you are despair and nothing more...or less.  Stay with it and be kind to yourself.

 Etienne-Jules Marey - Studies of air movements

Wikipedia: Étienne-Jules Marey (March 5, 1830 - May 21, 1904) was a French scientist and chronophotographer, born in Beaune, France. His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of labor photography. He is widely considered to be a pioneer of photography and an influential pioneer of the history of cinema.

Spooky Action at a Distance: HERE, HERE...and below.

RV Comment: Connect the dots.

See more images HERE...The Art of Memory: a most interesting blog.

 A Nation of Artists: Ancient Yoruba

One of the longest but most fascinating and unconventional pages on the web...but well worth the time.

NOTE: I do not select Artrift material at random. In most instances, I am processing something in the entry that relates to my art and life: 

"Using the example of the things Christians do and believe to bring love into their lives to save their souls through the father-son Gods of their Religion, Jesus Christ and Jehovah; the following is some of the things the Ancient Yoruba did and believed, in order to bring Creativity into their lives to become a nation of Artists through the worship of the father-son Gods of their religion, Olodumare and Obatala...."  HERE

Ife Head, Nigeria, 12th - 14th century. More Yoruba images HERE.

Regarding SoulVewWorld: "The purpose of SoulViewWorld LLC/publishing is to promote and distribute a trilogy of books about the game black people play; book one, the Game's Soul; book two, the Game's Mind; and book three, the Game's Heart. We are now presenting book one, the Game's Soul. Book two, the Game's Mind is a rewriting work in progress as we speak and will come out in the Fall. And Book three, the Game's heart rewriting will follow, and be released January 2009. 

"The Game’s claim to fame is that it frees up Black people’s mind to be creative, which means you automatically bring creativity to what ever Game you are playing as an individual as well as Black people as a group; creativity is Black people salvation. For example of mind freeing and creativity, this is what happened in the 1920s, once Marcus Gravey demanded that “Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will;” this freed my father’s generation’s mind to create the “New Negro.” And when Malcolm X made the statement, in the1960s, “By any means necessary,” my generation’s creativity exploded on the scene and things changed in a big way." HERE

 The Greatest Obstacle to the Creation & Enjoyment of Art

E. H. Gombrich: ""There is no greater obstacle to the enjoyment of great works of art than our unwillingness to discard habits and prejudices."  (The Story of Art, Phaidon Pocket Edition, p.26)

 Quilt by Missouri Pettway, 1902-1981.

Image Description: Blocks and strips work-clothes quilt, 1942, cotton, corduroy, cotton sacking material, 90 x 69 inches. Missouri's daughter Arlonzia describes the quilt: "It was when Daddy died. I was about seventeen, eighteen. He stayed sick about eight months and passed on. Mama say, 'I going to take his work clothes, shape them into a quilt to remember him, and cover up under it for love.' She take his old pants legs and shirttails, take all the clothes he had, just enough to make that quilt, ahd I helped her tore them up. Bottom of the pants is narrow, top is wide, and she had me to cutting the top part out and to shape them up in even strips." More Gee's Bend Quilts HERE.

RV Comment: I wonder if this one great obstacle applies only to 'great works of art'? Might it not apply with even greater force to lesser works.  For if we are told such and such is a great work of art, we are already softened to it, predisposed by the mere fact of its greatness.  With lesser works, a similar dynamic comes into play: This is the work of your next door neighbor so how good could it really be...I know him, he is a loser.

In another field, I read recently of a study that showed that women who played online chess and knew their opponent was male lost more often than if they did not know the gender of their opponent.

In the title of this entry, I have included the 'creation' as well as the 'enjoyment' of works of art.  If Gombrich is right about enjoyment, this same obstacle probably plays out a hundred fold for the artist as he or she is in the process of creating the work of art.

Among habits and prejudices I would include all theory and predispositions of the mind.

 Artrift Selected for 100 Best Scholarly Art Blogs List

I am happy to report that Artrift has been selected as one the 100 Best Scholarly Art Blogs on Online University Reviews.

Though the author of the list says says Artrift dates back to 1998, it does not.  I used that date as a place to hold a few things...check it out HERE.  The blog was created in 2003, as it says at the top of the right-side gutter.

 Jonathan Harvey: I Am Multiple

It is not difficult for me to relate to Jonathan Harvey: I, too, am multiple.  He says he has no problem with this; I cannot say the same. Perhaps because in the visual arts there is such a focus on signature style.  To me it is 'signature strait-jacket.'

 Jonathan Harvey

I am very taken by his music. I recommend Cello Concerto; Three Sketches; etc.  Frances Marie Uitti (cello); The "Arturo Toscanini" Orchestra/Jose Ramon Encinar - Etcetera KTC 1148

Here is a bit on Jonathan Harvey from Composition Today:

"I like to unify" says Jonathan Harvey; "not into an easy unity, but a unity which is rich and complex. I'd like music to speak of, to herald and to prophesy a better world, less entangled with personal egoistic emotions." Perhaps it's not surprising to find that Harvey welcomes many of the advances of post-war modernism, a movement intended to replace what was considered the moribund and compromised values of nineteenth century-style tonality and its celebration of the ego. Yet, as enthusiasts of British choral music will realise, Harvey has also written several fine and definitely tonal pieces: there's the anguished and beautiful I love the Lord (1976), or Come Holy Ghost (1984), with its magical harmonies and its ecstatic climax using an aleatoric flurry of overlapping vocal phrases.

"How does writing these evocative, even expressive tonal pieces square in the output of one of Britain's leading modernists? "I think I write these different levels of music because I like them all," he says reflectively; "because I am them all, and I'm not even in the simplest church piece doing anything I don't like. And I never worry about trying to be myself, because I believe I am multiple. As long as I like it, it's up to other people to say whether it sounds like me or not - it doesn't bother me at all. It may well be of course that, just as I have a certain shape of nose and certain temperament and emotional disposition, my music has a certain personality from the outside."

"An individual or a sense of individuality may not be a fixed, static thing; but it surely exists nonetheless as a passing event - in the pattern that it makes. "Yes. It exists in many ways. But it's not inherent. When you're expressing yourself, when you're an artist, you're aware that you have many voices - I suppose in some artists more than others, but I'm certainly aware that I consist of hundreds of different voices. Which is the real Jonathan? I've no idea."  MORE >>