Tolstoy's Aesthetics.
Iian Neill
> describe the way you pick your nose to the way Rembrant rendered flesh tones.
>
Indeed, that is the case. At least in my experience. There are some people who
will seriously claim that to be true.
> As a painter I prefer not to be called an artist. In fact I know of few
> craftsmen today who would happily use the term to describe themselves. It
> devalues their skill.
>
It is a crime in itself that talented men like yourself are forced to adopt a
different term when "artist" should have sufficed. In the 1800s, and in the
early years of this century, you could have called yourself an "artist" with no
stigma whatsoever. Now ... it is different.
> They think its use is generally confined to those who
> are intent on disguising their lack of formal training or their failure to
> learn or grasp the disciplines of drawing, painting etc.
>
Hear, hear!
> The term 'a deconstructive artist' is an oxymoron. I do not however
> underestimate the value of experimentation in painting(not art). Experiments
> in color, design, form and texture are the basis of most of the 'art'
> movements in the last 150 years.
>
Agreed.
> Whether they be abstract expressionism,
> impressionism, surrealism or post-modernism they are all attempts at
> dissembling and re-assembling, of moving into chaos to discover some new
> meaning.
>
Is there meaning in chaos? Or only chaos? Isn't meaning a form of order?
> We should all similarly experiment especially when we find order
> stifling creativity. But in Tolstoy's terms, it is not art. It is merely
> experimentation. The fine arts of Tolstoy's day were predicated on subtlety.
> Both in thought and communication (what he called 'infection').
>
Indeed.
> By all means let us embrace chaos. But let us not be seduced by those who
> embrace it to disguise other failings. As a painter I use chaos.
>
Chaos is randomness - unpredictability - that which cannot be controlled. Do you
really use chaos in your paintings? As a painter, isn't every element under your
control, even if it is as something as subtle as intuition and instinct?
Granted, there are some forms of painting which are purely chaos, even despite
"intuition and instinct". Having a brain isn't enough to create art. You've got
to use it as well.
> I use it as
> a force in the following circumstance; I imagine life as a room and the room
> has a partition. On one side of the partition is a continually moving,
> changing world of disorder or chaos. It is populated by all the creatures of
> the imagination - and more than a few not invited. It is a world of the
> surreal, of dreams and nightmares, of anti-logic and senselessness. On the
> other side of the partition I have order, logic and regular forms. The world
> of the pyramids, spheres and cubes, the world of habit, pattern and order.
> Some people are not comfortable until the partition is forced almost
> completely to one end of the room (90% order 10% chaos)others can live in a
> 50/50 situation, others rejoice in the high chaotic count. Some people
> believe it is a factor of age, gender or potty-training. Some refer to it as
> the Jeckle and Hyde, Don Quixote or madness syndrome.
>
"The sleep of reason produces monsters ..." - Goya.
> I believe we must live
> with both sides of our existence and recognize the importance of each. We
> need chaos to think laterally to be inventive to associate disparate ideas
> and concepts.
>
The chaos you refer to seems have more in common with a Jungian notion of the
unconscious? Is this correct?
> Iian I enjoy your imput,
> John Hagan (sometimes Cowdisley)
>
Thank you, John. I find your posts very thought-provoking.
Regards,
Iian Neill.
Andrew Werby
> By all means let us embrace chaos. But let us not be seduced by those who
> embrace it to disguise other failings. As a painter I use chaos.
>
Chaos is randomness - unpredictability - that which cannot be controlled. Do you
really use chaos in your paintings? As a painter, isn't every element under your
control, even if it is as something as subtle as intuition and instinct?
Granted, there are some forms of painting which are purely chaos, even despite
"intuition and instinct". Having a brain isn't enough to create art. You've got
to use it as well.
I'm afraid you've got an old dictionary. Iian. "Chaos" is defined somewhat
differently these days. It has become the focus of quite a bit of scientific
investigation, as people started to realize that phenomena previously
considered totally random were actually subject to rationalization. As it
became more important- and, with the help of computers, possible- to model
complex dynamic systems like the turbulence of igniting gasses or the
patterns of the weather, it was realized that some fairly simple mathematics
could describe them, and that patterns had a way of emerging. In fact, it now
seems there is actually quite a bit of order in "chaos". Take a look in James
Gleik's book: Chaos, Making a New Science" ISBN 01400.9250 1 Penguin Books c.
1987.
Andrew Werby
UNITED ARTWORKS- Sculpture, Jewelry, and other art stuff
http://unitedartworks.com
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