Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Concerning the Spiritual in Art ...

“Painting is an art, and art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul . . . . If art refrains from doing this work, a chasm remains unbridged, for no other power can take the place of art in this activity. . . . It is very important for the artist to gauge his position aright, to realize that he has a duty to his art and to himself, that he is not king of the castle but rather a servant of a nobler purpose. He must search deeply into his own soul, develop and tend it, so that his art has something to clothe, and does not remain a glove without a hand.

The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning.”


(Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art)

A Soulless Art ...

“At such a time art ministers to lower needs, and is used for material ends. She seeks her substance in hard realities because she knows of nothing nobler. Objects, the reproduction of which is considered her sole aim, remain monotonously the same. The question "what?" disappears from art; only the question "how?" remains. By what method are these material objects to be reproduced? The word becomes a creed. Art has lost her soul. In the search for method the artist goes still further. Art becomes so specialized as to be comprehensible only to artists, and they complain bitterly of public indifference to their work. For since the artist in such times has no need to say much, but only to be notorious for some small originality and consequently lauded by a small group of patrons and connoisseurs (which incidentally is also a very profitable business for him), there arise a crowd of gifted and skilful painters, so easy does the conquest of art appear. In each artistic circle are thousands of such artists, of whom the majority seek only for some new technical manner, and who produce millions of works of art without enthusiasm, with cold hearts and souls asleep.

Competition arises. The wild battle for success becomes more and more material. Small groups who have fought their way to the top of the chaotic world of art and picture-making entrench themselves in the territory they have won. The public, left far behind, looks on bewildered, loses interest and turns away.”


(Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art)

Monday, October 29, 2007

mover ...

Copyright © 2007 Marco Alexandre de Oliveira

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

LOOK ...

Copyright © 2007 Marco Alexandre de Oliveira

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Problem of Form

“Thus, one realizes that the Absolute is not to be found in form (materialism).

Form is always transient, i.e., relative, since it is nothing more than the necessary medium through which today's revelation can be heard.

The Sound is therefore the soul of form. Coming from within, it alone activates form.

The form is the outer expression of inner content.”



(Wassily Kandinsky, “The Problem of Form.”)

Monday, October 22, 2007

On True Artists ...

“I value only those artists who really are artists, that is, who consciously or unconsciously, in an entirely original form, embody the expression of their inner life; who work only for this end and cannot work otherwise.”

Wassily Kandinsky



The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths”

Bruce Nauman


Saturday, October 20, 2007

Ineluctable Modalities ...

“Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them, sure. Go easy…

…You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the nacheinander. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible. Open your eyes…

…Open your eyes now. I will. One moment. Has all vanished since? If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane. Basta! I will see if I can see.

See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end…

The cords of all link back, strandentwining cable of all flesh. That is why mystic monks. Will you be as gods? Gaze in your omphalos. Hello! Kinch here. Put me on to Edenville. Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one.”



(James Joyce, Ulysses)

A Portrait of the Artist as an Older Man ...

“He came forward a pace and stood by the table. His underjaw fell sideways open uncertainly. Is this old wisdom? He waits to hear from me.

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

From the playfield the boys raised a shout. A whirring whistle: goal. What if that nightmare gave you a back kick?

– The ways of the Creator are not our ways, Mr Deasy said. All history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God.

Stephen jerked his thumb towards the window, saying:

– That is God.

Hooray! Ay! Whrrwhee!

– What? Mr Deasy asked.

– A shout in the street, Stephen answered, shrugging his shoulders.”


. . .


“– I foresee, Mr Deasy said, that you will not remain here very long at this work. You were not born to be a teacher, I think. Perhaps I am wrong.

– A learner rather, Stephen said.

And here what will you learn more?

Mr Deasy shook his head.

–Who knows? he said. To learn one must be humble. But life is the great teacher.”


(James Joyce, Ulysses)

The Form of Forms ...

“… and in my mind’s darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness. The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms. Tranquility sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.”

(James Joyce, Ulysses)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Purpose of Art ...

“When art and the praxis of life are one, when the praxis is aesthetic and the art is practical, art’s purpose can no longer be discovered, because the existence of two distinct spheres (art and the praxis of life) that is constitutive of the concept of purpose or intended use has come to an end.”

(Peter Bürger, Theory of the Avant-Garde. Trans. Michael Shaw)

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Rooms of Mirrors and the Mind . . .

“I just want to know about, the rooms behind your minds,
Do I see a vacuum there, or am I going blind?
Or is it just remains from vibrations and echoes long ago,
Things like 'Love the World' and 'Let your fancy flow'...”

(Jimi Hendrix, “Up from the Skies”)


“I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Well I take my spirt and I smash my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see”

(Jimi Hendrix, “Room Full of Mirrors”)