Census at Bethlehem
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Spectacular events happen almost invisibly among us. Sometimes these events go almost unnoticed, known only to the recipient(s). Maybe they are so fleeting they remain only suspected and never proven. Sometimes these almost invisible events resound with sensational public impact, like the one Brueghel portrayed above.
Merry Christmas
When I came around the corner at The Louvre and saw that fresh, young angel whispering in old Saint Matthew’s ear, the hairs stood up and made goose flesh on my arms. I could feel the little hairs inside St. Matthew’s ears tickle.
The Inspiration of Saintt Matthew
Rembrandt
The thrill of inspiration is physical, and in that case, joyful.
In front of the arresting sight of Peter Paul Rubens’ Assumption of Mary,
The Assumption of Mary
Peter Paul Rubens
I realized, “Of course Jesus loved His mother more; He knew what was asked of her.” This was a physical understanding.
The same kind of feeling (with different implications) stopped me in front of Bill Jensen’s, Guy in the Dunes, 1979 at The Anderson Collection at Stanford this fall.
Guy in the Dunes, 1979
Bill Jensen
In a more puzzling way, that painting communicates a physical knowledge I still don’t understand. Jensen has tapped into an organic and not necessarily verbal realm that renders art exciting for its possibilities to link us together in both the visible and invisible world.
Denial
1983-1986
oil on burlap
Okay, I’ve been reading online about the artist, Bill Jensen, and I’ve included a link to a very interesting interview with the artist by John Nau from the archives of BOMB Magazine. http://bombmagazine.org/article/2882/bill-jensen
Check out the following quotes if you haven’t followed the link and read the article yet. Over and over, since I first started thinking about the subject suggested in the title from last December’s St. Olaf College Dance Performance: What Words Can/Not, the subject in general, and specifically repeats in articles and artist interviews. These quotes represent only a few interesting comments about that subject by the artist in that interview.
“If you let art be a living force, it will tell you what to do; that is inspiration on the deepest level. The trick is to be a very sensitive listener: once something is born into paint, the artist needs to have the ability to listen to it without judgment, and to accept its reality outside of oneself.”
“The Buddhists believe that there are three levels to the way we experience reality. On the first or lowest level are the people who think that what they see really exists. On the second level are the people who have doubts that what they see is real. On the third level are the people who know that the world of appearances is a complete illusion.”
“They are areas of our psyche before the I, me, you, and it.”
What do you think? Is there a world that exists beyond our human ability to see it? Is it possible to express that world; hint at it?
Guy in the Dunes, 1979
Bill Jensen
A second painting in the Anderson Collection made me stop walking and pay attention. Perhaps because my brother kept a trap line when he was in middle school and high school, but the pink and black figure in the foreground of Bill Jensen’s Guy in the Dunes, 1979, looked like a hairless, soulless, drying pelt perched over a precipice, the swirling hole, my favorite shape. I think, metaphor. DNA? Is this a bad time for humanity? Was the artist having a bad day? Strength and vulnerability are both present in this strong painting. The painting stuck; I wanted to think more about it. One more reason to own the catalog.
The Internet is full of commentary, essentially about everything, and I read about myriad articles on it. But, I haven’t read any material about this painting yet. I want to savor it a while for myself, determine what I think before I read other interpretations. The intrigue, the fun in galleries: surprising paintings and photographs that cause me to stop, study, remember them, and continue to think. I can always feel the artist, present there in those moments. The message is personal.
Art - As I See It 