Elegantly expressed and supported, Arnie, and spot-on. Read e.e. cummings "since feeling is first" for a beautiful perspective from the writer about intention. I have spent the past few years undoing what my education taught me and I am becoming a more honest (and I believe better) writer for it.
You’ve touched on many points with which I’m in complete agreement:) There’s an evening at least of cognac and conversation required to do it all justice, but until that time, I’ll boil it down to a few observations.
We communicate practical information with words. Therefore, people instinctively resist the use of words to express abstract thoughts and ideas. An abstract painter encounters the same dilemma as Gertrude Stein must have done when she uses abstraction rather than representation. “ What’s that?” is the common question asked of an abstract artist , because the viewer expects that an apple should “look like “ an apple 🍎 , and if it doesn’t, well , that upsets the Cartesian apple cart:)
In my AP Spanish class I sometimes resorted to an unorthodox way of helping my students accept poetic language as a legitimate form of expression. I would point to a chair and ask “ What is this?” And they would answer “A chair “. Then, I would turn the chair 🪑 on its side and ask again “What is this?” Most would say “A chair “, like before; but one or two students would hint that it wasn’t really a chair anymore because now you can’t sit on it…That’s when a fertile discussion would develop about form and function, and eventually a parallel would be established between the chair on its side and the poetic word “ on its side””. It proved to be an effective way of getting the less flexible students to think outside the proverbial box.
Can't wait for that cognac! Have you read any of Robert Motherwell's writing on abstraction in art? So good, and it looks like a new volume of his writing was recently published. "Once one can get over one’s inherited primitive feeling that what a picture is, is a picture of something in nature, and think instead that a picture is a deliberate choice of a certain degree of abstraction ...then one begins to view painting in an entirely different way. . ."R.Motherwell. Stein worked so closely with abstract painters, Miro especially, she couldn't help but try doing what they were doing with words.
I read some of Motherwell’s writings on painting a long time ago. I remember thinking that he was beautifully clear in his writing and thinking. The quote you shared is terrific. And yes, the overlapping of ideas between writers and musicians and painters in the early to mid 20th century was intoxicating and produced the most exciting melange ever:)
i really enjoyed this. wonderful stuff.
Elegantly expressed and supported, Arnie, and spot-on. Read e.e. cummings "since feeling is first" for a beautiful perspective from the writer about intention. I have spent the past few years undoing what my education taught me and I am becoming a more honest (and I believe better) writer for it.
You’ve touched on many points with which I’m in complete agreement:) There’s an evening at least of cognac and conversation required to do it all justice, but until that time, I’ll boil it down to a few observations.
We communicate practical information with words. Therefore, people instinctively resist the use of words to express abstract thoughts and ideas. An abstract painter encounters the same dilemma as Gertrude Stein must have done when she uses abstraction rather than representation. “ What’s that?” is the common question asked of an abstract artist , because the viewer expects that an apple should “look like “ an apple 🍎 , and if it doesn’t, well , that upsets the Cartesian apple cart:)
In my AP Spanish class I sometimes resorted to an unorthodox way of helping my students accept poetic language as a legitimate form of expression. I would point to a chair and ask “ What is this?” And they would answer “A chair “. Then, I would turn the chair 🪑 on its side and ask again “What is this?” Most would say “A chair “, like before; but one or two students would hint that it wasn’t really a chair anymore because now you can’t sit on it…That’s when a fertile discussion would develop about form and function, and eventually a parallel would be established between the chair on its side and the poetic word “ on its side””. It proved to be an effective way of getting the less flexible students to think outside the proverbial box.
Any questions 😆?
Can't wait for that cognac! Have you read any of Robert Motherwell's writing on abstraction in art? So good, and it looks like a new volume of his writing was recently published. "Once one can get over one’s inherited primitive feeling that what a picture is, is a picture of something in nature, and think instead that a picture is a deliberate choice of a certain degree of abstraction ...then one begins to view painting in an entirely different way. . ."R.Motherwell. Stein worked so closely with abstract painters, Miro especially, she couldn't help but try doing what they were doing with words.
I read some of Motherwell’s writings on painting a long time ago. I remember thinking that he was beautifully clear in his writing and thinking. The quote you shared is terrific. And yes, the overlapping of ideas between writers and musicians and painters in the early to mid 20th century was intoxicating and produced the most exciting melange ever:)
The cognac is VSOP and it’s waiting for ya…
Did you like my chair 🪑 presentation? 😎