New Art

G. Ayres Example of New Art?

Having gone through a series of old vinyl recors from the 60's and 70's, I've noticed the strange word "New" appearing on the covers, and not a few times. Quite frequently the word "New Music" shows up, even today, to desribe contemporary composed music that is not always easily categorized. It includes a wide range of different types of musical projects.

During this time period (60's - 70's) people were actually fascinated, and paid good money, to hear silence in a concert hall for a few minutes and call that "composition", someone plucking and banging various intruments, workshops with modern composers spending hours expounding on the content of their music, which had to be explained to be understood "correctly".

There was a contemporary New York School both in art and music, but only the latter was sometimes referred to as "new".

As so called "modernism" came relatively late to the musical scene, compared with visual arts, I wonder where they got the term "new" from. Because art, as modern and radical it could ever be, wasn't typified "new".

Or, was it?

Imaginary Art

Imaginary City by Pyrros Alexopoulos

A very pretentious title, it is. If something is imaginery, then what would not be imaginary.

Homer Flynn (or was it Hardy Fox[?]), of the Rez' Cryptic Corp. fame, once said that "surrealism is the same as ... life".

But we would hardly perceive anything as "surreal" or "imaginery" if it was indeed part of what is called perceivable life. What purpose and meaning would such descriptions otherwise serve?

No, not another worthless discussion about what is "normal" or not. Just plain human nature at work with creating its symbols and values of what is considered "real", and the habit or playfulness of the mind to ponder what is "not real".

Should we wonder then why Albert Einstein said that "imagination is more important than knowledge".

Kline on taste

Painting Number 2, 1954

Franz Kline once said 'You instinctively like what you can't do', when commenting on Fra Angelico, as interviewed by Frank O'Hara in 1958.

So, with that logic applied, everyone should like Kline's works.

Motherwell's signature

Titled "untitled", this litho from 1966 (ed. of 225 copies) shows the typical works of Robert Motherwell of the day. This particular image has a little resemblance to the map of the British Islands. But you could say that it, together with his similar artworks of the period, was his signature at that time.

Rosenberg revisited

Elaine De Kooning 'Rosenberg', 1956

In his not so unknown treatise on "The De-definition of Art", Harold Rosenberg wrote:

'In practice, "reality" as an alternative to art has been less an anti-art program than a social slogan. It may call for the abandonement of art; actually, it anticipates a renewal of art through raising substance above form' /page 26, 1979 2nd ed.

A typical input of the contemporary art debate of the late sixties and early seventies (first ed. of book came about in 1972)? Maybe.

The discussion of reality vs art, or vice versa, is a superflous discussion to beging with. Art cannot possible represent any other thing than some kind of reality, albeit authentically or distorted. Art cannot create any reality, if it could we'd be in big trouble.

The book for sale

Art with(out) meaning

Who said art must have a meaning. Cannot art be the meaning itself. By itself.

Does it have to have another meaning?

When the end of an artwork becomes an end in itself, don't we forget to behold the artwork? And still the artwork may be the end.

I found above artwork while searching for "art without meaning".

A man of sorrows and aquianted with grief

All too often Jesus (Yeshua/Yahshua) is depicted as a quite happy man, with much self-esteem (the word that modern day health & wealth preachers love).

However the Bible says He was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isa.53:3, KJV).

Handel's interpretation of these scriptures is noteworthy. Here's the full text.

Up and running!

Yessss! We'll see what comes out of this.

Will post some space filling stuff and also try put up some music, so called.