PERCEPTION
al-...@rogers.com
and a Return to Thinking
I am producing an eBook to create an understanding and purpose for
investing in Antiques and the Decorative Arts, for over 50 years I have
been visiting museums, auctions, galleries, flea markets, antique
shops, stalls in Europe, Italy and Canada, taking pictures, collecting
programs with prices and noting prices wherever possible, recording
many thousands of items of all types and values, building an enormous
collection of information on Decorative Arts, Antiques and Antiquities
of all descriptions.
Thinking and feeling, in 1945 a young Italian Girl of Rome, Italy,
decided that I was to be taught about Rome history, antiquities, art
and all things connected. At the time I was badly traumatized after
seven year of war and 3 wounds and I was grateful to any person that
spoke to me and listened avidly to all that was said, I became
interested in the subject and absorbed it, then one day this young lady
took me into the Roman Forum, the picture is just Roman Ruins by Gian
Pannini, 1692-1765, my lady talked and talked about the historic sites
as we walked amongst them, her most memorable words I remember to this
day in 2006, they were: "just do not listen to me, listen to them put
your hand out, feel them". Your spirit will take you back in time, it
did and I have never forgotten it, I suppose I could claim it changed
me and changed my life.
She then said to me don't just feel, think, but try to think
differently from the way you have always thought and by thinking
differently you will have a life of some importance. This I did, we
were married in Rome at the Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte, on the
18th July, 1946. Thereby began a wonderful life that ended in 1979 when
she died, she was a designer and taught me many things about Art and
pictures, her family was very influential and arranged for me to attend
the Italian Polygrafic for a month while they reproduced
lithographically in the old way a series of work by Old Masters and
receive some instruction about these pictures, this was in 1964, I was
delighted and bought several hundred of these reproductions of which I
still have.
You could say that in a way Perception, Thinking and Feeling changed my
life in many ways, my interest in Perception was aroused enough to make
me research this subject., Artists use of Perception this very forceful
means of thinking within their own work, Morandi, Giorgio, painted the
work he called "The Village," an Experiment in Perception which I
first watched, in 1964, as it was being produced by Collotype in the
Italian Polygrafic, in Rome, Italy.
Now there is another picture very different and as such has attracted
me very strongly, when I first looked upon this picture it left me
strangely moved and puzzled, I had to have a copy and as such it has
hung on my living room wall since 1964, wherever I lived in England,
Italy and now in Canada, What is it? - Why is it? How is it?. It took
a few years for me to understand it wasn't until I was living in
Italy in a small villa my wife and I had bought close to Cerveteri and
the Etruscan tombs that a realizing came to me about early 1970"s
noting the complete lack of pictures on the walls, their stories being
told architecturally upon the walls and in its sculptures, why
shouldn't it be different from Tarquinea where there are pictures
upon the walls of the Etruscan tombs, and I thought of my Morandi and
said to myself why not and started immediately to begin a research on
perception, this brought to light many new thoughts to me which I will
describe as I write articles in the future. The Trevi Fountain, just to
change the copy a little, was from where it all began, I used to sit on
the stone wall surrounding the fountain waiting for the lady to fetch
me and take me off to where she wanted on the day, I spent hours on
that wall watching the kids throw their cards with a magnet attached to
collect the pennies left by the Romans, there were no tourists then.
First however there is Morandi, his picture is very different and shows
a need of his to paint out of the box as I would call it, a result of
lateral thinking and promotion, from here however for some reason he
stopped and his painting, in my view, became mundane his paintings of
glasses bottles to me were uninspiring even though they can be found in
the Murandi Museo. He should have carried on painting his out of the
box pictures and quite possibly would have developed a new style, which
I do not think will happen now, his cry for help went unanswered, but
it still hangs upon my living room wall and greets me every morning
"What today Alex ?".
This love of art to which Perception led me caused me to buy about two
hundred Collotype reproductions of the Old Masters produced by the
Italian Polygrafic while I was there studying in 1964, another picture
by Sernesi, Raffaello, his picture, named "Sunshine on the Roofs"
is another that I have, it is extremely forceful in the way he has used
light and color to produce a somewhat startling picture that does not
conform to the norm, as I look at it my mind leads off in another
direction quite unexpectedly and thinks differently. The size of the
picture is 4.75 ins. x 7.5 ins.
Sernesi's use of the effects of light on a landscape, a talent that
had a particular appeal to certain artists, many examples of this
approach are to be found in his work. He had developed new ideas in
spite of his early death at the age of 28 on the construction of
pictures using these contrasts of light.
He also has another picture "The Cupolino delle Cascine" a place I
know well and have seen many times, please note his life was very short
just as Giorgione of the "Tempest" was short lived, another picture
full of interest.
Here is a painting by Giorgio Morandi, completely different from his
usual, it is hanging in the Galleria Nazionale d'Art Moderna, Rome,
actual size is 18.25" x 22.25". This picture is exceptional, I
have written an article together with an article on Giorgione and his
picture "The Tempest" in my Blogg, articles purely on each one
showing the orthodox approach to Giorgione but I was hoping for some
comments to come forward as to the relationship of the two pictures.
Giorgione's if you look at it differently leaves you with many
questions of why this why that, in fact as you move from the foreground
to the long distance and use your perception, a basic similarity comes
to light, this picture also provokes a persons perceptive ability and
cries out for answers.
Perception reared up and roared at me, so let me develop my thinking a
little further, as I always have thought differently to the norm, I am
a great believer in going astray into a line of thinking which, I have
found out since, is lateral thinking, attempts are being made to teach
this, it is a very much more productive and satisfying method to use,
going astray in this manner, try it out sometime. I found out by
reading a book of my wife's first published in 1990's "I Am
Right, You Are Wrong", I suddenly realized that a method taught to me
in the 1945 onwards, something that helped to cure a serious
traumatisation that I suffered after the last three wounds from the war
of seven years of continuous fighting, was finally being brought to
light by a person and his books, who had enough influence in the world
today to authoratively promote this method.
Perception in this picture by "Morandi", let me get back to it and
say I still have not fully reached a conclusion, it hangs in my living
room and every morning it seems to say to me "What Now,Alex" go now
and have another look at "The Tempest' a beautiful picture with
many unanswered questions, compare us and what do you see? I saw first
a man Giorgione whose life was cut short by disease and second Morandi
who from what reason I know not, stopped painting what could have been
beautiful interesting pictures to move into still life painting,
adequate and competent and most likely profitable, but outside of my
needs. Study this picture and try to understand it, in a way it is very
satisfying, above left the picture without a frame.
For my catalog of Antiques Click On:---
http://howland.ws/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_25
All the Best Alex