COSA MENTAL has left a BIG question mark in my mind.
A little like the FIAC. How do I write this up? Telepathy is a subject that has always fascinated me. We have all had those experiences « of being there before » « knowing that something has happened here where you are »….etc. etc. I have a very close friend in Melbourne who knew all about my husband before I married him and made a lot of clucking noises. Her predictions were truths although I would never have admitted that at the time. Fortunately my ex and I are on good terms today. The friend in Melbourne was very « telepathic » about me for years. Knew when things would happen and what kind of things they would be. Even called me to warn me about something once or twice….How though do you cope with telepathy which intrigued artists throughout the 20th century? This exhibition looks at modern art in the light of fascination with direct transference of thoughts creating a relation between the creator, work and spectator.
The belief in telepathic communication not only had an unexpected impact on the emergence of abstraction, it also influenced Surrealism in the 20’s and its obsessions with collective works. Surrealism I would go along with. Kandinsksy and his Compositions along with his relationship to music, too. Even Edvard Munch now I come to think of it. Perhaps all artists who have had breakdowns or physiatric problems? There are a lot of them around.
The exhibition was divided into 10 galleries which guided you through the different stages of telepathy. I can assure you that the first rooms didn’t influence me in any way pertaining to psychic creation. I knew the artists but probably looked at the work quite differently.
The first rooms, four of them worked around a direct visualization of thoughts at the turn of the 19th century and their impact on early abstraction. Odilon Redon, Edvard Munch and Max Oppenheimer confirm these « auras » seen as they put it. Once you have been told that the paintings are depicting some kind of telepathy, you look at them quite differently. Or I did. Strange to add that they left me rather ill at ease.
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| Edvard Munch "Madonna" 1895 |
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| Odilon Rédon "Paul Gaugin" 1905 |
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| Max Oppenheimer "Henrich Mann" 1910 |
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| Looking back and no, it was not Rodin |
The second gallery or perhaps the third, was sheer bliss.
I have not seen such a gallery where every painting was either a discovery and a very interesting one, or an artist whom I followed and have covered kilometers to see. Kandinsky of course. The set out of the gallery, the space given were breathtaking for me. More so as for the good half hour I stayed there, I was virtually alone.
Many of the artists I didn’t know at all and their paintings left me feeling good, satisfied and very pleased to be there.
Let’s begin with Jan Sluyters.
Johannes Carolus Bernardus (Jan) Sluijters, or Sluyters (17 December 1881, 's-Hertogenbosch – 8 May 1957, Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter.
Sluijters (in English often spelled "Sluyters") was a leading pioneer of various post-impressionist movements in the Netherlands. He experimented with several styles, including fauvism and cubism, finally settling on a colorful expressionism. His paintings feature nude studies, portraits, landscapes, and still life. (Wikipedia)
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| Sluyters "Hommage aan Odilon Redon" 1913 |
Now why had I never come across him before and during many visits to Amsterdam? Perhaps I had and just did not take his name in.
Another Dutch painter.
Jacoba Berendina van Heemskerck van Beest 1 April 1876 – 2/3 August 1923.
She spent her summers in Domburg where she became familiar with the work of Piet Mondrian and Jan Toorop. After 1911 she became influenced by Rudolf Steiner and began paining more abstract art, and her mecenas Marie Tak van Poortvliet began collecting her work and offered her the use of a workshop in her home in The Hague. From 1916 she began designing stained-glass windows, for which she received a few municipal commissions; (Wikipedia)
I looked at her work on Internet and can add, « where has she been hiding? »
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| Jacoba Berendina " Composition" 1914 |
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| Jacoba Berendina - "Synthetisch portret" 1919 |
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| Janus de Winter - 1910 |
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| Janus de Winter - 1909 |
Janus de Winter (1892-1951) is another Dutch artist but all I found on
Internet was in Dutch…..his paintings though are really worthwhile
looking at.
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| Janus de Winter - Aura van een egoïst - 1916 |
Wilhelm Morgner (1891-1917). German this time. He created an impressive œuvre comprising a total of 235 paintings, almost 2000 drawings, 67 prints and two sculptures. He worked largely as an autodidact. As you can see he was only 26 when he died and had done all this?
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| Wilhelm Morgner-1912 |
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| "Ornamentale Komposition ll - 1912 |
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| Wilhelm Morgner- Astrale Komposition lll - 1912 |
Kandinsky and Kupka are known to you and those were the only painters I knew - and love -
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| Vassily Kandinsky "Tableau à la tache rouge" 1914 |
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| Frantisek Kupka "Bouillonnement violet" 1920 |
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| Frantisek Kupka- "Facture robuste" 1920 |
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| Frantisek Kupka"Traits noirs enroulés" 1911,12, -20 |
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| Frantisek Kupka- Motif hindou - 1919 |
Another one. Jacob Bendien and would you believe, another Dutchman.
He was born in Amsterdam but moved to Paris in 1911 where he met and worked with the sculptor-painter John Rädecker and the painter Jan van Deene. With them he later started making "Absolute schilderkunst", or "Absolute art", a form of abstract art that grew from their combined Amsterdam art show for the Amsterdam "Independents" art club in 1913.
I looked at this work and like it in the context of the gallery, but perhaps I am not as attracted to what I saw on Internet as with the other artists.
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| Jacob Bendien - "Composition" 1912 |
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| Jacob Bendien "Twee Koppen" 1912 |
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| Jacob Bendien - "Composition" 1912 |
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What is intriguing about all this is probably the « Thought-Forms » I was unaware that so many books had been printed on the subject. They associate shapes and colors with specific emotional states. We know this of course. Red is the color of anger and passion while blue corresponds to spiritual devotion. Blue is my favorite color but I don’t think that spiritual devotion is one of my force. The more definite the feeling or the outline or concept, the clearer the outline from an informal cloud shape to geometric figures. When you really study Kandinsky’s work it is easy to see that he incorporated these colored representations of a state of mind directly into a visual language. Despite the fact that these « Thought-Forms » are quite fascinating, I’m not sure that they will have an effect on how I look at art.
To describe these « Thought-Forms », there were four ColorLightForm by Christian Sampson. He’s an American but very little can be found about his work on Internet.
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| Christian Sampson "ColourLightForm" 2015 |
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| Christian Sampson "ColourLightForm" 2015 |
The following galleries didn’t do too much for me. Another artist to be discovered.
Wilma af Klint. 1862-1944) was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings were amongst the first abstract art. A much of her abstract work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky. She belonged to a group called "The Five" (a circle of women who shared her belief in the importance of trying to make contact with the so-called 'high masters' - often by way of séances) and her paintings, which sometimes resembled diagrams, were a visual representation of complex spiritual ideas.
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| Hilma af Klimt - no titles (Portraits" 1922-33 |
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| Hilma af Klimt |
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| Hilma af Klimt |
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| Hilma af Klimt |
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| Hilma af Klimt |
I discovered more of her work on Internet and like a lot of it.
There was work I liked but not in the concept of telepathy of psychic association. Joan Miro, « The Sieste » (1925)
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| Joan Miro, « The Sieste » (1925) |
Miro and Lise Hirtz; 7 songs and 3 songs, Hyacinthe (1928 ) (Lise Hirtz 1898 -1980) was a French writer associated with the Surrealist movement.
Victor Brauner with his sculpture « SIGNE » (1942-45)
The etchings of Robert Ruis and Benjamin Péret. They both belonged to the surrealist movement.
Sigmar Polke obviously and yet these works are far from being obviously Sigmar Polke.
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| Polke - 1922 |
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| Polke - 19999 |
Then there was a very weird gallery called « Environment Transformers » with works by Haus-Rucker-Co.
Casks to communicate with another life…or Mind Expanders.
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| « Environment Transformers » Haus-Rucker-Co. |
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| 1968 |
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| « Environment Transformers »Haus-Rucker-Co. |
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| « Environment Transformers » Haus-Rucker-Co. |
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| Mind Expander 4 - 1970 |
An equally curioous installation with this on the wall and cards on the poles. I was not sure who they were by and am not too sure that it matters for me.
So was this an exhibition? For me, not, and experimentation perhaps apart from that one gallery which I returned to twice.
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