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The whole of painting
Post #834 • July 20, 2006, 3:32 PM • 15 Comments
Rilke, from Letters on Cézanne:
There's something else I wanted to say about Cézanne: that no one before him ever demonstrated so clearly the extent to which painting is something that takes place among the colors, and how one has to leave them alone completely, so that they can settle the matter among themselves. Their intercourse: this is the whole of painting. Whoever meddles, arranges, injects his human delberation, his wit, his advocacy, his intellectual agility in any way, is already disturbing and clouding their activity. Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his reflective processes, and incomprehensibly to himself, all his progress should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition. Alas, the artist who waits in ambush there, watching, detaining them, will find them transformed like the beautiful gold in the fairy tale which cannot remain gold because some small detail was not taken care of.
2.
July 20, 2006, 4:26 PM
This particular translation is by Joel Agee. I found it at a used bookstore.
3.
July 20, 2006, 4:47 PM
Oh, I see, Mr. Hotshot escapee. I suppose they have used bookshops up there too.
4.
July 20, 2006, 4:58 PM
One or two.
5.
July 20, 2006, 5:40 PM
I'm sure Jane Greene's translation reads "disturbing AND clouding"...
6.
July 20, 2006, 5:41 PM
Maybe.
7.
July 20, 2006, 6:28 PM
This general concept also applies in opera, where many of the greatest singers can't or don't care to explain how they do it, or why they can do it so much better than others. I believe it was Lauritz Melchior, arguably the greatest Wagnerian tenor of all time, who, when asked for his secret, could only respond with "I just open my mouth and push."
8.
July 20, 2006, 6:35 PM
That's called the "Lamaze Method" of opera singing, Jack
9.
July 20, 2006, 6:37 PM
Tends to sound like screeching sometimes, but the results are remarkable.
10.
July 20, 2006, 7:45 PM
It all depends on what equipment one is working with, OP. All diaphragms are not created equal.
11.
July 20, 2006, 7:58 PM
Well, it's when they are not working that you progress to the Lamaze stage.
12.
July 21, 2006, 7:12 AM
This sounds like it could have appeared in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
by Shunryn Suzuki.
13.
July 21, 2006, 7:12 AM
This sounds like it could have appeared in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
by Shunryn Suzuki.
14.
July 21, 2006, 7:14 AM
Sorry about the double post I sneezed as I hit enter
15.
July 21, 2006, 11:48 AM
Good quote.I never could paint trying to methodically problem solve . It's more like hoping to be ambushed than waiting to ambush. No guarantees one will be hit by lightening but knowing where a storm is and climbing a tree increases the odds.
1.
oldpro
July 20, 2006, 4:23 PM
Nice.
Did you notice the translator of the book? It's probably my cousin, Jane Greene.