Manifesto
MANIFESTO 2015
Although I have traveled nationally and internationally to see art, for the past 30 years an important part of my link with the greater art world has been through the international art magazines which come out of New York. And increasingly over the years I see a large part of the magazines are given over to reviews of shows which are based on an idea, a concept, or an agenda. Whether based on appropriation from past or current cultures, information technology, or a political, social or religious statement, there is something which the viewer has to "get" on a mental level in order to appreciate or attribute some sort of meaning to the art. In museums, there is often a lengthy statement provided about the art, and long wall texts.
What bothers me about all this is the emphasis on the intellect over subtler faculties of comprehension. Explanations and looking for meaning prevents the viewer from discovering a personal, inward connection with the work of art. The information and image overload provided by our culture today keeps the mind moving, whereas real art provides the opportunity to stop, look, and reconnect with one's own self. Art is great partly because of its silence, its appeal to unconscious elements of the psyche.
In preindustrial cultures, art's mission was to depict the sacred, the realm of the hidden, or revelation. Twentieth century Western art set out to be an art of spiritual dimensions as well, as the search for universal laws of content, form and style gave rise to cubism, futurism, surrealism, etc. The original aspiration of the abstract expressionists was to transcend the personal psyche and explore a transpersonal world of meaning and energies.
What we have today is art which appeals primarily to the intellect, which reflects cultural ideas, social and political issues. This art comes from artists who live in cities, and whose daily environment is made up of people and the things they think and make. Meanwhile, we are headed for global disaster as the natural world is ignored and abused. I can't help thinking that the loss of nature and its invitation to a more feeling and responsive relationship to life is both a cause and effect of the more mental environment of living in cities.
Right now, as a new global culture is arising, our art world lacks a sense of direction or the kind of crucial inspiration that inspired great cultures of the past. What I believe is that we artists can contribute to a new world culture by demanding of ourselves to really stop, feel, and see. The art which will speak and be relevant over time comes from the clearer vision which arises when the chatter dies down, and we begin to live from a deeper part of ourselves. This deeper part of the individual is, paradoxically, universal and connected to all of humanity.
Let us create an art which doesn't give us more to think about and leaves us hungry, but feeds the spirit and challenges us to feel and live more deeply, an art which is beautiful, perceived and experienced by our feeling natures. We can invite the viewer to bring more inward kinds of perception to the center of awareness, and provide opportunities for silence, contemplation, and more responsible living.