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RE: Painting Higher States of Consciousness with Light

in #art6 years ago

I know Tobey, but not that he followed the Baha'i faith. Great collection of quotes. I tend to experience artists only through their works, and sometimes I am almost illiterate when it comes to the biography (just as the nice couple in the video are when it comes to art... they say). So what I know is often anecdotes I heard from other artists or simply because I incidentally have read a little bit, like this post. I didn't know that he worked with John Cage for example.

Funny thing is that the new insight from the quotes only complements the things I already knew from his paintings. The forties and fifties created an art that was solemn and abstract. All the pain of the world just had to distil into this introvert chase of beauty, truth and spirituality. No wonder they had this inclination... and the Baha'i faith fits quite perfect into this. The unity of mankind was a necessary dream.

I always though of Tobey and Henri Michaux together. The writing, the need to be there only as signature, as handwriting.

Thanks for a great post. Really made me think again - my brain has been in hibernation for the last week!

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I didn't really know too much about Mark Tobey either, but after I discovered the Juliet Thompson connection I went on a deep dive. I enjoy these deep dives, it makes the people come to life for me.

I feel the same way you do, I'm artistically illiterate. Thankfully, it terms of music I had the opportunity to interview many of my heroes. The preparations, and the conversations themselves, expanded things for me musically. In terms of art, posting here on steemit gave me the motivation to dig deeper into a few artists whose work I truly admire -- I'm grateful to the steemit experience for that.

You might enjoy this article about John Cage:

Cage cited Tobey (1890–1976) as one of his major influences, going so far as to say, “In [a] sense, all my work is a response to Mark Tobey.” Known for his atmospheric, dynamic paintings bursting with gestural marks, Tobey was the globetrotting “father figure” of the Northwest School. In 1918, Tobey converted to the Bahá’í faith, whose followers believe in the unity of all religions and all beings...

source: https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2014/05/23/john-cage-and-the-northwest-school/

Fascinating text which also introduced me to a new artist: Morris Graves. Really weird paintings he made. It is so very American that he refers back to nature in such a naive way while also taking in modernism. I will find some more of his works.