OVERDUE FINES: x 25¢ per day per item RETURNIIK; LIBRARY MATERIALS: \ Place in book return to remove charge from circulation records DANE RUDHYAR AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL PAINTING GROUP OF NEW MEXICO 1938-1941 By Robert C. Hay AN ABSTRACT OF A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partiai fulfiIIment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Art 1981 ABSTRACT DANE RUDHYAR AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL PAINTING GROUP OF NEW MEXICO 1938-1941 By Robert C. Hay The Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) was a group of nine painters who gathered in Taos, New Mexico in l938 and issued a mani- festo stating their intention to pursue non-representational, spiritually-motivated "transcendental painting" collectively and to absorb the cultural, philosophic and scientific developments of the age. The TPG consisted of Raymond Jonson, Lawren Harris, Emil Bisttram, Agnes Pelton, Bill Lumpkins, Florence Pierce, Horace Pierce, Robert Gribbroek, and Stuart Walker. Dane Rudhyar, painter, painter, author, astrologer, and friend of several of these artists, suggested the group adopt the term "transcendental." The purpose of this thesis is to explore the contributions to painting and art theory by the TPG and to trace the stylistic de- velopments and similarities within the group. In addition, Rudhyar's own career as an artist is surveyed. Influences of European abstract pioneers such as Nassily Kandinsky on the TPG members are outlined. The work produced by the TPG is evaluated in terms of its sig- nificant contribution to the transcendental foundations of art and to American abstract art. DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my father, John Hay, without whose love and support this research would never have been under- taken, to my mother, Margaret Pearson, whose love, understanding, and aid was crucial in times of crisis, and to all men and women who dare to live in terms of their highest and most creative ideals, unafraid of the responsibility to struggle heroically for the building of an integral, self-determined, radiant, intensely vital civilization. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dane Rudhyar provided me with much information and encourage- ment to begin this thesis and I thank him also for allowing me to present numerous examples of his work and to quote extensively from his books. I also appreciate Leyla Rudhyar’s editing of my rough draft and her comments. While researching in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Florence M. Pierce was an important source of information, encouragement, and friendship; she removed many obstacles during the course of writing the first draft. Best wishes are extended to her for continuing her career as a truly creative artist. Raymond Jonson and Arthur Johnson were most helpful in providing insights into the work of the Transcendental Painting Group and in extending research privileges to me at the library and the Jonson Museum of the University of New Mexico. I should also like to thank the University of New Mexico Press for permission to quote and reproduce from Ed German's book on Raymond Jonson. It has been a great honor to study with the distinquished art history faculty at Michigan State University. Dr. Linda Stanford, chairperson of my thesis committee, receives special thanks for her acceptance of two independent essays which prepared the way for this thesis and for her considerable efforts to formally order the iii material presented here in an objective manner. Also special recog- nition is deserved by a faculty member of my committee, Dr. Eldon Van Liere. His critical insight, congeniality and encouragement in the face of many obstacles and problems helped me to continue. Dr. Sadayoshi Omoto, a member of the committee, deserves recognition for his helpful comments which facilitated the inclusion of my short essay, The Mandala and the Art of the TPG, which clarifies somewhat the differences between mandala art and the art of the Transcendental Painting Group. Thanks are extended to Bill Lumpkins of Santa Fe and Eya Fechin Branham of Taos for allowing me to interview them on source material and for their kind hospitality. Special mention is reserved for Jose Arguelles and Shambhala Press of Boulder, Colorado; MacMillan Publications of Toronto; Stellar Energy Exchange, Russian Hill, California; and Dell Publications. Thanks are also in order to Dorothy Morang, painter and wife of Alfred Morang, for permission to include his monograph on the Transcendental Painting Group. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 1. Chapter 11. Chapter III. Chapter IV. Chapter V. Chapter VI. Dane Rudhyar: Seedman (1895- ) ......... 19 Raymond Jonson (1891- ) ............. 119 Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) ............. 156 Emil Bisttram (1895-1976) ............. 186 Lawren Harris (1885-1970) .............. 215 Bill Lumpkins and Other Members of the Group. . . . 248 Chapter VII. Conclusions .................... 259 Appendices Appendix A. The Mandala and the Art of the TPG by Robert Hay. . . . .......... 267 Appendix B. Four Letters From Arthur Johnson to RaymondTJonson ERplanatOry‘NOte by Robert C. Hay. . . . . . . . 274 Appendix C. Definition of Rhythm by W. W. Charters ..... 295 Appendix D. Rudhyar Interview September 22, 1977 . ..... 297 Appendix E. William Lumpkins Resume ............ . 306 Appendix F. Manifesto Booklet of Transcendental Pa1ntinngro_p. . . . . . 308 Appendix G. Monograph #T of the Transcendental Painting Group by Alfred Morang. . . ........ 312 Appendix H. A. Zodiacal Signatures by Dane Rudhyar ..... 317 Bibliography . B. Raymond Jonson' 5 Zodiac Series Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 .............. ........... 330 Figure 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. 19 20 LIST OF FIGURES Seed Drawigg (1957), Dane Rudhyar . .......... Mandala for New Men (1938), Dane Rudhyar ........ Seed Fulfillment (1938), Dane Rudhyar . Form of Yellow #1 (1921-23), Frank Kupka ........ The Sands of Time, Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ....... The Rhythms of History (1905), Etching-aquatint, Frank Kupka . . . . . . . . . ............. The Beginnings of Life (1900), Watercolor-aquatint, Frank Kupka . . . . . . . . . ..... . . . . . . Storm Gods (1938), Ink Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ...... Aygtar_(l938), Ink and Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . Devolution (1952), India Ink, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . Seeds of Plenitude (1943), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . . . Taos Woman, Charcoal Drawing, Nicholas Fechin ..... Dynamic Equilibrium (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. . . Creative Man (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar ..... Creative Man (1978), Etching, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . Consecration (1948), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . Warrior to the Light (1952), India Ink, Dane Rudhyar. . . Seed of Fire (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. ........ Seed Drawing (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . vi Page 21 35 37 38 41 42 43 45 47 50 52 54 56 58 59 6O 62 66 68 69 Figure Page 21 Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . ' 71 22 Untitled (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ......... 72 23 White Lotus (1956), India Ink, Dane Rudhyar ....... 73 24 Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . 74 25 Awareness (1951), Polished Terra Cotta, Géla . . . . . . 75 26 Untitled (1957), Ink Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . 77 27 Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . 78 28 Untitled (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ......... 79 29 The Nature of Sound: "Study the Monocord," Pythagoras' Last Words (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . 81 30 Integration (1957), Ink, Dane Rudhyar ......... 82 31 Untitled, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 32 Meditation on Power (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 33 Capricorn, Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 34 Capricorn (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson . . . . . . 87 35 Aguarius (1938), Drawing, 0. Rudhyar . . . . . . . . . . 89 36 Aguarius (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ....... 90 37 Piggg§_(l938), Drawing, 0. Rudhyar ........... 91 38 Pj§9g§_(1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. . . . . . . . 92 39 m (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . ......... 93 40 Arigs_(1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ........ 94 41 M (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . . . ...... 95 42 Iagrgs (1938, Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ........ 96 vii Figure 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63' 64 Gemini (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . . . Gemini (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson . . . . . . . Cancer (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. . . . . . . . . . Cancer (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson . Lgp_(1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . ‘Lgp (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ....... Virgo (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar . . Vipgp (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. . . . Lipgg_(1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ........ Ljp§g_(l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ...... Scorpio (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ....... Scorpio (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. . . . . . . Sagittarius (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar ..... Sagittarius (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson ..... Logs Drifting (1949), 0i1, BJO N0rdfe1dt ...... Earth Rhythms #3 (1923), Oil, Raymond Jonson. . . . . . Two Infinities (1924), J. Blanding Sloan. . . Composition Four-Melancholy (1925), Raymond Jonson. o o o o 0 Q o o o o o 0 o o o o O o o o 0 O 0 O Ecstacy (1918), Drawing, Nicho1ai Roerich . . . . Ecstacy (1939), Drawing, Raymond Jonson . . . Southwest Arrangement (1933), Raymond Jonson. . Time Cycle (Trilogy; ”0’01091 N00") (1930)’ Raymond Jonson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Page 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 V104 105 106 107 108 109 110 121 121 122 125 126 128 130 131 Figure Page 65 .Nigpp (1930), Detail, Raymond Jonson ........ 132 66 City Perspectives (Second Version) (1933), Raymond Jonson ................... 136 67 Pictographic Composition #7 (1946), Raymond Jonson ....................... 139 68 Abstraction (1923), Jacques Villon. ........ 139 69 Watercolor #18 (1939), Raymond Jonson ....... 142 70 Watercolor #21 (1939), Raymond Jonson ....... 143 71 Gridshaped (1927), Wassily Kandinsky ....... 144 72 Watercolor #17 (1940), Raymond Jonson ....... 145 73 Polymer #24 (1973), Raymond Jonson ........ 149 74 Polymer #39 (1970), Raymond Jonson. ........ 152 75 Fog Horns (1929), Arthur Dove ........... 158 76 Black Iris (1929), Georgia O'Keeffe ........ 158 77 Star Gazer (1929), Agnes Pelton .......... 161 78 Fire Sounds (1930), Agnes Pelton .......... 164 79 Beneficence (1929), Agnes Pelton .......... 166 80 fptppg (1933-1941), Agnes Pelton .......... 168 81 92y, 0i1, Agnes Pelton .............. 170 82 Messengers, 0i1, Agnes Pelton ........... 170 83 Sandstorm (1932), Agnes Pelton ........... 171 84 Illumination (1930), Agnes Pelton ......... 176 85' Polymer #21 (1961), Raymond Jonson ......... 177 86 Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930), Lawren Harris. . . . 178 ix Figure Page 87 Qppigg (1934), Agnes Pelton ............. 180 88 Indian Ceremonial, 0i1, Emil Bisttram ....... 188 39 New Mexico Wake (1932), Oil, Emil Bisttram ..... 189 90 Katchina Dance (1933), Emil Bisttram ........ 192 91 Hummingbird Dance (1933), Emil Bisttram ....... 193 92 Untitled (1933), Emil Bisttram ........... 196 93 Two Mexican Women (1933), Emil Bisttram ....... 196 94 At-One-Ment (1936), Emil Bisttram .......... 198 95 Creative Forces, Emil Bisttram ........... 202 96 Clavilux Color Organ Projection, Thomas Wilfred. . . 204 97 Oversoul (Fulfillment) (1939), Emil Bisttram . . . . 205 98 Time Cycle #1 (1940), Emil Bisttram ......... 208 99 Mt. Lefroy (1927), Detail, Lawren Harris ...... 220 100 Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930), Lawren Harris . . . . 221 101 Equations in Space (1936), Detail, 0il, Lawren Harris Harris ....................... 225 102 Riven Earth I (1936), Lawren Harris ......... 226 103 Riven Earth 11 (1936), Oil, Lawren Harris ...... 228 104 Abstraction (1937), Lawren Harris .......... 230 105 Abstraction (1937), Lawren Harris .......... 231 106 Skgpgh (1937), Lawren Harris ............ 233 107 ‘ Abstract Painting #16 (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris . . 235 108 Abstract Painting #18 (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris . . 236 Figure Page 109 Abstraction (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris ........ 238 110 Composition #1 (1940), Oil, Lawren Harris ...... 241 111 Lake Superior (1924), Oil, Lawren Harris ....... 242 112 Migratory Flight (1950), Lawren Harris ........ 243 113 Abstraction (1965), Florence M. Pierce ........ 249 114 Abstraction (1965), acrylic, William Lumpkins . . . . 254 xi INTRODUCTION Inadequate attention has been given to a group of American painters that made major contributions to our culture from 1938-1941. The Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) consisted of nine painters who issued a manifesto in Taos, New Mexico, on July 30, 1938, to declare their common interest in creating abstract and non-objective 1 2 in the arts. paintings and to promote the transcendental movement Raymond Jonson, Emil Bisttram, Bill Lumpkins, Lawren Harris, Agnes Pelton, Florence Miller Pierce, Horace T. Pierce, Robert Gribbroek Stuart Walker, and later, Ed Garman joined together to further their mutual ideals in painting. Their intention was to continue to develop the principles of abstract and non-objective painting formulated by the early pioneers of modern art, Wassily Kandinsky, Frank Kupka, Robert Delaunay, and Piet Mondrian. Dane Rudhyar, composer, painter, astrologer, and friend of several of the members of the TPG, suggested the term "transcendental" be adopted. The various artistic approaches taken by the TPG extended from the metaphysical to the materialist (objective) approach, offer- ing a wide field of plastic and philosophical exploration that aided the emergence of a truly cosmic world view envisioning a dynamic new civilization that was to be the creative destiny of twentieth-century America. It is essential to make it clear at the outset that the term ”transcendental" is not used here as more or less synonymous with "spiritual," as long as spirit is considered to refer to a definite basic reality in opposition to the concept of matter or sense perception. The word "transcendental" is used to qualify the constant process of change and inherent self- transformation by which any living whole tends perpetually to overcome its boundaries and to translate the focus of its life by transforming poweg at the center of its outgoing impulses for self-expression. Responding to the life force which directs the cosmic necessity for change, a transcendental movement'hithe arts is a necessary process resulting in forms of artistic expression emphasizing bio-cyclic (birth-maturation-death) and cyclo-cosmic (seasons-evolution-change) themes. Rudhyar clearly defines the meaning and purpose to which the transcendental movement is dedicated: The emphasis is, in the twentieth century, upon process, upon transition--not upon a goal of relatively static condition of equilibrium being reached. We are not establishing a new civilization in actuality--those of us who are transcending old forms and old ruts of creative behavior. We are aware that through us a seeding process is operating, releasing or foreshadowing new potentialities. We are "transcendental" in the same sense in which the seeding is transcendental to the plant: . . . a promise of futurity, a collective witness to the phoenix-character of life, which is a cyclic process of death and rebirth, a process of self-induced transformation conditioned by an organic vital need.4 Thus, it may be assumed that this dynamic, transitional, transmutant process is transcendental, whereas that which is rela- tively static, in equilibrium, is classical. Art, which is moving forward with the tide of life- .transformation, is thus always transcendental. It has always .been so potentially. But there are epochs during which the tide of life is slow, almost static: these are the classical periods, satisfied in the earth, well-established in cultural norm and social respectability. Then the transcendental puls- ing of essential or active life is well nigh forgotten, and there are also periods when, as the result of mass discouragement, and a sense of spiritual futility and fear, the arts fall back, exhausted and shrunken before this gloomy perspective of chaotic world events that seem only to get worse, that promises only the status quo, back to the safe and socially established ideals of classicism, the period that allows neo-classical dictates to advance with the forces of cultural Fascism. . . . It becomes essential today, particularly for any progres- sive and vital creative individuals to stress the transcenden- tal ideal of life and of life-giving, life-manifesting civili- zation. The Transcendental Movement in the arts stands in sharp opposition to the Neo-Classical Movement and to all manners of "back-to" movements which are defeatist gestures, or at least temporary recoils having perhaps individual validity in some cases, but running against the vast collective forces of planetary integration of life in this century. Ours is a century of intense vital dynamics, of fundamental metamorphosis of all that is true to man's noblest and essential estate. . . .5 What we [the Transcendental Painting Group] wish to stress, however, is the fact that the transcendental idea here formu- lated is not identical with the concept of a metaphysical world of absolute and self-existent ideas and archetypes. Art can be called transcendental without being consecrated to the delineation or manifestation of such ideas, without being polarized around a concept of spirit opposing that of everyday experience. We can accept much of the ancient mystical, metaphysical or esoteric approach to life without adopting literally its philosophy and its traditional non- clamenture. . . . It may be useful to the philosopher to postulate the meta- physical reality of the two unknowable abstractions, spirit and matter, but spirit and matter, like time and space are merely conventional designations constituting a framework for surveying the process of life. All that we may ever expe- rience, all that can have direct vitality in terms of our livingness as a total organic human being is the process of life itself and not the framework with which our intellect practically and conveniently seeks to surround itself in order to be able to plot it out for practical intellectual use.8 The following is the 1938 manifesto issued by the TPG in which they emphasize the inherent quality of spirit manifested in trans- cendental art and the adequacy of its expression in terms of its technical means. The aim of this group is to present and to further the development of a type of painting non-representational in character and dealing with forms transcending the static, concrete objects of everyday sensorial experience. It is "transcendental painting" in the sense that it reaches beyond the reproduction or interpretation of familiar objects and into the realm of a mental and spiritual awareness of the more individualistic elements of creative 1ife--these elements, however, being made universally significant through a tech- nique of projection based on principles of composition and integration having universal validity. The group is not a mere coterie or an accidental associa- tion of friends. It hopes to become a focal point for the development of a type of art vitally rooted in the spiritual need of these times and expressing the most truly creative, fundamental and permanent impulses emerging from the American continent: an Art which releases from its creators, the deep- est springs of vitality and consciousness and which aims to stimulate in others, through deep and spontaneous emotional experience of form and color, a more intense participation in the life of the spirit. We, the undersigned, having realized in our individual experience as human beings and as creative artists the basic validity of the principles formulated in the preceding statement, are constituting this group in order to further the enunciated aims and to reach through our common ' activities and discussions a broader understanding of our problems, our goals and our place in the world in which we produce our works. In thus joining our forces, we do not seek to gain more acclaim or notoriety, nor to increase, substantially, the financial returns from our painting--for, to us, painting is essentially a release of the creative spirit within each, whence may be derived a peace, a fulfillment, a wealth of Spiritual being which alone makes life beautiful and real. Neither do we seek to deny the validity of or to discourage any other approach to Art. If our paintings have found expression at this level of the transcendental super-objective experience of space, form, proportion, rhythm and color, it is not as the result of an intellectual urge to be different, but because thus, we have experienced the joy of free, crea- tive, individual activity. And because this has been our experience, we wish others to partake emotionally and spirit- 'ually thereof. Such an experience is reached by some of us through the more occult and metaphysical path of knowledge, by others, through the intuitive emotional awareness, by others still by a more scientific or intellectual balancing of elements. Of paths, there may be many. The character of forms produced may be and should be widely varied, within the general limits broadly covered by the term "transcendental." What matters, is the inherent quality of the spirit manifest in the works and the adequacy of the technical means--whatever they be--to the formulation of that spirit. Thus, stimulated by an ideal which we firmly believe to be historically valid and necessary and in the furtherance of our commog purpose, we join in the companionship of the creative life. There have been1r>comprehensive studies of this group as a whole, although a book is now in print concerning one member, ‘0 Another book is Lawren Harris, and another on Raymond Jonson. currently being prepared for publication on the works of Bill Lumpkins. Raymond Jonson and Agnes Pelton have received mention in Sheldon Cheney's 1932 Primer of Modern Art and 1941 The Storygof Vbdern Art. Artist and writer, Alfred Morang, authored a monograph in 1940, The Transcendental Painting Group_that was the only one issued by the American Foundation for Transcendental Painting (Appendix F), and recently a book has appeared on his work, post— Mmmusly. Although numerous articles have been written about these artists individually (especially Raymond Jonson, Lawren Harris, and Em“ Bisttram), in general, they have not received proper recog- rfition. As a group, their activities covered only three years--l938- 4L With the war intervening and attention focused on European artists immigrating to the United States, they were overlooked. The American Abstract Artists Group in New York during the period of the TPG included such painters as Ad Reinhardt, Joseph AJbers, Willem de Kooning, David Smith and other soon-to-be famous painters. That group was dominated by strict geometric abstraction 11 and may have influenced the TPG. A major source of in- formation used here is an unpublished book by Dane Rudhyar, Ihg_ Transcendental Movement in Painting and the Creative Destiny of Twentieth Century America, begun in October, 1938. In that book, however, Rudhyar disavowed speaking officially for the painting group: It is only too easy to write glittering phases and appeal to "sanity" or to “revolutionary ideals." Manifestoes have followed manifestoes, "isms" have succeeded "isms" during the last fifty years of art. What is presented here is a fundamental approach to creative activity which is valid in each and every form of art expression--a non-technical, non- personal, basic, universal philosophy of the creative life. . . . The ideals which are brought forth are as old as thinking man. They were as true in Egypt as they are in the twentieth century. However, the formulation given to such broad concepts and interpretations of the evolution of modern art and of the problems facing contemporary artists are strictly my own. The Transcendental Painting Group or the Foundation have no responsibility whatever in what is written, as this is no official statement of aims or of a philosophy accepted by all concerned.12 'Hfis clearly distinguishes, then, the need to separate Rudhyar, the lfistorian-philosopher, from Rudhyar, the painter-composer. His rela- thnmhip to the TPG was that of friend and supporter of the group at aifime when he also began to draw and paint in his own, unique style. Several of the painters heard him give lectures on his cosmic world \Hew and several of his books were familiar to them. Aware of the controversial nature of Rudhyar's statements about the group, he states plainly in the introduction to his book on the Transcendental Painting Movement: Some of the ideas expressed may seem to challenge the cherished attitudes and concepts surrounded with haloes of traditional respectability. They grg_challenges. For nothing that truthfully claims to be vital and creative can ever avoid being a challenge to the crystallized and o: P :‘G I ' r 'J v i I 1‘... \w \ do...‘ I a "Illo. 'oiiu 0 Q I 'U ' u -o-,.. ‘ r. ‘. ‘- oo- . ‘ ‘o . a. l:---. .. C C . he. . . o . I. '. "\i . I1 ~. 0, ';a ' D. .. . ~" no.. . . -\“ I QC! "“‘. WI..‘ " I. :0. o. ‘ ‘ ‘ ~"v-o...‘ .t. o . h. ' 5.. . I" -. ~' " u ‘- I . '...‘ u." . _ l“- I 0 5'9. o n"?" .‘ I 'v: .- N. .v -:: ;§;.‘ . .‘ ’T ‘."I U .‘ ' \ '.' R“ €1- ‘-.‘ i . ‘ ..~ . I. n :r ‘ I I ' 1' l“ ‘ . I .|' u I a . F u .. ‘ I. o. . V \ u. ' 0 . I .o '0 ' u - P y... ‘ .. ' disintegrating. Today the forces of disruption are very power- ful in the world of art as well as of politics or social organization. It is the fall of a cycle, and all that shone in the sun of western culture as foliage and fruition is dying the unavoidable death of impermanent things. There remains-- seeds. Seeds: the transcendental reality of the plant. Seeds: the challenge to death, the eternal witness to the immortality of life.l3 Rudhyar's association with the TPG inspired him to write extensively on painting and also gave him substantive information amdinsight into the essential nature of art. Based on this experi- ence, he began a rough draft in October of 1938 for the book that remained unfinished and unpublished; it contained a basic treatise that essayed the historical, philosophical, and artistic basis for the TPG and the transcendental movement. In precise semantical and theoretical terms, he defined the historical validity of the move- nmnt and discussed the TPG in light of Kandinsky and Malevitch. He mmmuraged creative individuals whose art was directed by the cosmic necessity for human unfoldment and rebirth--a fair definition of "transcendental artists." He outlined various approaches derived from ‘Um elements of color, space, motion, form, symbolism, art theory, mulphilosophy; in short, he discussed how these elements could be chveloped to present the individual artist's own cosmic or trans- cendental14 world view. These artists recognized that the artist's wfimary function is not to promote intellectualisms, or to solidify a style or label that could be a tool to win fame and recognition. Nor is it to present objects for the mere sake of enjoyment or decora- tion even though beauty has its own raison d'etre. The artist, by ordering his own life, meets the challenges of becoming a more Ad ”'-op0;I. D I 4 c O \" U. . Fa. .'- I.‘ — '7’. ' . r 5.,” . 1‘. ‘ \ 0.. . d enlightened part of the collective whole that can exert enormous forces of distortion, disillusion and disruption. Art is vitally important in this way. Rudhyar, like Carl Jung, Albert Camus, and others, has stressed this crucial nature of art's function. If art has been driven underground it is by a power elite and the usurping power of money conspiring to control art's ability to influence and shape human imagination. Some romantic art and certainly most transcendental art reveal the universal nature of human experience, whereas other art nmvements such as Surrealism often provided blind alleys allowing experimentation to become destructive of its own ends by mirroring truth as absurdity. Transcendental expression attempts to 133;; 91333 the content of unconscious perception or intuition into a neaningful whole connected to the greater whole of the cosmos. BYnmking universally perceivable that which at first is only Personally experienced in the individual stream of perception, an expanded conscious awareness can be experienced by many. It was mfident already in the nineteenth century that the crux of the trans- cendentalist's dilemna lay in not yielding to the glib hostility of finance that was winning over the mind of man. In Emerson's last tmok, especially in the Introduction entitled Poetry and Imagination, it was clear that the transcendental poet's battle lines were firmly (Dawn by faulting science for being unimaginative and stressing that self-reliance was the foundation of all transcendental activity.15 Influences on the TPG such as Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy or Carl Jung's research on mandalas and archetypes A ’ .0 I I D» g. . ‘ . . 1' - 3 4- 0| 5. ' s . ‘I‘ I, Q I I n I, .4. ,- v '- Q’- o‘ \ .05. cu " - "U. Q. ' 1.. .. - . ' . I. U 9 pa ‘5 ' -‘—,. t. " ‘ \ ' '4 Fa. 'Iv _ 5v .u 4 " - . \ i. I-. , .e'._‘o . S. ‘ (7’ ‘1‘ III 1 can be cited. Theosophy was important for Wassily Kandinsky, Frank Kupka, Piet Mondrian and likewise for the Transcendentalist painters, [hoe Rudhyar, Lawren Harris, Agnes Pelton, Emil Bisttram and Bill Lumpkins. It was an essential ingredient that would re-synthesize the neo-platonic ideals of romantic artists, poets, and philoso- phers.16 Theosophy promoted a more inclusive acceptance of non- European philosophical and religious traditions as well as a dynamic view of myth and astrology. Though not dependent on theory per se, the TPG by virtue of the dynamism of its artists expressed an expanded awareness of the worklby developing new techniques or solutions for artistic prob- lems. Theory is never functional without practice. Therefore, caution must be exerted in citing the influence of the aesthetics and tmflmical ideals of early twentieth-century or contemporary avant- garde styles on these American artists. Although the Purism of Le Corbusier and Amedée Ozenfant and the Precisionism of Charles Demuth amiCharles Sheeler compare readily with the work of Raymond Jonson, tMBSimilarity seems to be the result of a parallel, not a derivative development. Similarly, Rudhyar's only influence on the Transcendental Thinting Group is felt mainly in his emphasis on the abstract "living- ress of the seed"--the great, eternal symbol of all transcendental phenomena. The pioneers of non-objective art styles were identified with nwstical movements or thought of primarily in terms of extreme subjective idealism, aesthetically and philosophically. Ideas or concepts such q n A DA A, u '- ‘, .J-iv- ~ v "OIII on‘ C c n d ‘I! V- U U I u- o. p a l 6‘ r n'\ .~ f. 'I Cu O § u 0 I I :2’ _'.r; .00 . 5 _ Us 9 Q r.r1 . . . ‘n . .0. u..‘ . " \- ‘ .vh . ‘ 7". ". _‘ .| o ‘- .' ' u b .‘ . p , 1:. ... .l 0 w. .. .'I. . ' a 0" . .- uo-,.. n'. " p. "-u .‘; :\1 ‘I l‘.‘ .... ; " a. I" : I w ' ‘ s " “‘ o. u. ‘t b - CL... .,. ' ' a “I I; 9’ ‘o - .1. " ‘2‘ e. l.“ I 1.. . ¢.;q a. \ ‘Pa 10 as pure color, pure form, and pure space imply speculations on mathe- nwtical and philosophical order. And yet, not all non-objective painters were mystics. TGP member Raymond Jonson serves as a useful example here, though his work consistently implied a "spiritual presence" at work. Transcendental qualities in existence, the life-force express- ing itself in everyday life, the rhythms created by unfolding cycles, growth and self-realization became standard subject matter for the artist who sought to alter the perception of physical reality to include that of spiritual reality, from the individualized "ego- consciousness" to the collective "soul-consciousness." Rudhyar's mwmuming interest in Jung from the early thirties onward led him 'uirealize that a cyclo-cosmic, synchronistic self-induced metamor- ifimsis is at the core of the transcendental experience, a fact Jung athfibuted to the force of personality development. Jung had in- vestigated such traditional disciplines as Yoga, alchemy, Sufism, ZmiBuddhism and contemplative Christianity to aid this process. In 1939, Alfred Morang wrote a booklet on Rudhyar entitled .BflggRudhyar: Pioneer in Creative Synthesis. There, Morang discussed MMhyar's music and painting in light of the modern art of Cézanne, \hn Gogh and Gauguin and attempted to show the importance of the Transcendental Painting Group as a logical continuation of Cubism, Futurism, and the non-objective art of Kandinsky. Critic Michael Seuphor cited Kandinsky, Kupka, and Delaunay's work around 1912 as ofinjnwry importance to second-generation abstract artists. By inference, this includes the TGP. Seuphor stated: ;P‘o.. ‘ \ Op. o a... Ct " ' V's-m- .II' ‘U g P:'.:!' u. u... I .‘g u \ " ' t.) "'.'!§ (9 ..J. no t ,“, "U r -.-’6_ ~ \ I. e. - ‘ u can; . ,A ~ In ll . when we measure the distance traveled and the enormous present-day expansion of this art and then go back to the core of artists in 1912, we discover, not without amazement, that all the basic elements were already present at the start in the combined works of Kupka, Kandinsky and Delaunay. The rectangular and the horizontal-vertical style can be found in certain canvases of Kupka's of 1912; lyric effusiveness is the very essence of Kandinsky's work at this period. . . . Delaunay contributed order and wisdom in a style rich with a kind of inner vibration. . . . In short, it was necessary to create history with what was yet contained within the seed.17 It is impossible to determine exactly what influence these artists had, or that of artist emigrees like Rudolf Bauer and Moholy Nagy, both having arrived in the United States prior to the groups for- nmtion. 0f notable interest, however, was the Russian painter, Nicholas Roerufln Emil Bisttram, Raymond Jonson, Lawren Harris, and Dane Runwar, all had connections with Nicholas Roerich through association wiuithe Roerich Institute in New York or the Cors Arden Society at the ArtInstitute of Chicago. Some of Harris' landscapes complement those Cfi'Roerich, the Russian painter who was profoundly moved by the tragic disnlusionment of the revolution and war: a time in which ". . . he sought consolation in a species of cosmic mysticism, which found ex- lhession in landscape views. . . .18 Harris and Pelton both captured Mlelement of cosmic mysticism and timelessness in their paintings. The transcendental artists were heirs to Kandinsky, Kupka, mnlMondrian in that they valued dynamic symmetry, the wisdom of the mfiversal, divine scheme encoded in absolute qualities of beauty, mnity, simplicity, and balance. They found a multiplicity of elements that combine to form a dynamic, essential, powerful release Ofneaning and understanding of life, art, and the universe: 12 . . for when art falls short of ultimate concern; that is, the painter's interpretation of the cosmos, it belongs in the category of "sign" or forms which are easily recognized but which evoke no deeper, spiritual response in the viewer. The evocative powers of a symbol transcend language, for its con- notations may be infinite.l9 Technical excellence predominated in the paintings of the TPG for they placed crucial emphasis on perfecting external form, paint surface, and color relationships. Agnes Pelton emphasized the role that color gradation and light itself can perform in widening the perceptive dimensions to which we attune ourselves. Emil Bisttram was essentially a "classical" formalist in technique although, as an experimentalist in both style and design, he adapted to the Transcendental aesthetic for a number of years. Purity of color was important to Raymond Jonson, while color symbolism was significant to Agnes Pelton and Lawren Harris. Emotional or symbolic uses of colors varied according to the inten- tion of each artist reflecting at times the pure emotions of Fauvism and early Expressionism or the symbolism of Gauguin. Robert Gribbroek was primarily known for his film animation. Both Lumpkins and Lawren Harris developed later into abstract expressionist painters. Florence Pierce pursued cosmic and bio- morphic abstraction in wood and resin relief. Agnes Pelton, Lawren Harris, and Raymond Jonson emphasized aesthetic, emotional values--intensity, complement, spontaneity, ecstatic release, light, translucent color and an emphasis on intuitive, 3.. PA - rr- ’0' . U DUI I‘ U 'rp:::"flf‘l U "pr-'0 rA .1 .i .4 1' '10....- 1 l I-l'.~, '3’ '0‘ ES no . . I u“‘o \ I‘- e 0...; :' I -I I" In 1.. ll' ' 2' :9: o’ .’ o I '5... ‘\ 9‘1 8 I I'n u z" .. I - . _ :- ‘l o “5-..- .o 'h” "~ ‘ 3" u U “n '{M o b A. l .- r C I .‘ u‘o . ‘ I I I 1" ’1 ‘o 6",! N, D V 1 g. p. s I U ‘1 o'I. '1 .‘o o ‘. : _ fl 9 U; .n P;.p, b. t h ,l’o "I fl" I ‘9 R" A U .0 .‘. ,- ‘ :i.. I ’ D h‘ ‘ 13 direct perception. This places them in the tradition of Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism. Jonson and Pelton developed out of portraiture and realism, but Johnson embraced geometric abstraction. They all progressed toward increasing levels of abstraction into synthetic, integral art, stressing the mental or spiritual or psychic intuitive synthesis of art, that is, stressing revelation, thought or experience beyond form in the outer, physical sense. Bill Lumpkins, Stuart Walker, Ed Garman and Florence and Horace Pierce shared similar developments, though with different approaches and interests. Emil Bisttram and Robert Gribbroek both evolved toward abstract, geometri- cal, non-objective work from Cubo-Futurism as well as toward figura- tive styles influenced by commercial art. Dane Rudhyar developed an intuitive approach with a non-objective, or informal symbolic style. He set an example of the well-rounded artist conversant in painting, nmsic, poetry, philosophy and religion, but exerted no formal influ- ence on the TPG. He is included here to clarify the values, goals and works of the TPG through his own similar concerns, for it is quite evident that he understood and appreciated many of the great thinkers, composers and artists of his age, and thus admired the group for their talent, courage, and determination to work despite the lack of popular acclaim. Rudhyar offered the term transcendental to the group because it was being publicized in relation to the centenary of the trans- cendental poets from New England. Although they disclaimed the need for an overall theory of transcendental art, the TPG members were sympathetic to the mono- graph in which Morang echoed Jung stressing the importance of racial archetypes and potential ideological expression and 14 supporting the theories expressed in Kandinsky's 0n the Spiritual in Art or in Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. Transcendental Painting offers an endless opportunity for plastic and ideological exploration. It may, by solidifying racial memories, use them as a spring board from which to leap into the unknown future or it may, by reverting to the earliest impulses of mankind, to record its experiences through line and color, achieve a unity with the basic art consciousness within the social structure. In Transcendental Painting, the painter is left to adven- ture beyond the limitations imposed by nature. He has freedom to catch the rhythm of planetary bodies or to record the move- ment of the life force within the earth. In Transcendental Painting, the space between geometry and improvisation is bridged by a collective approach that is not dspendent upon any theory as a part of its working equipment. Kandinsky spoke of the spiritual pyramid which connects this world with the spiritual domain and observed, "Anyone who adsorbs the inner most hidden treasures of art, is an inevitable partner in building the spiritual pyramid which is meant to reach into heaven."21 There can be little doubt, however, that these painters felt firmly Planted near the top of that pyramid, a form that appears in many of their paintings. The TPG, therefore, exemplified in their work various approaches to immense, cosmic subject matter: time, space, tfirth, death, rebirth, cosmogenesis, the individual versus the ufllective, human evolution, the spiritual elements of nature, mfiversal symbolism and the "language” of color. They examined scien- ‘Hfic, philosophical, psychological, sociological and pictorial prob- lems'with a ferverent optimism for they counted themselves among the vanguard of those willing to accept the serious challenges of integrity 15 and interpretation of the human psyche and the individual's relation- ship with his society. Professor Raymond Piper who devoted his life to the study of the transcendental and cosmic in art, recognized three kinds of transcendentals operating in art and society: Value transcendentals are an inexhaustible resource for real- izing human desires. They embrace all existing realizations of human interests and are emotional, desirable, sharable universals. We call them ideals before we realize them, and norms if we attach importance or weights to them. Social transcendentals emphasize the endless gifts that other minds, past and present, may share with us if we justly share the conditions of receptivity and reciprocity. The most pro- found, terse, and persistent truth is that self and society are twin-born. The individual cannot become human by himself. Solitude is not productive without the act of communicating. Communication is the desperate necessity. Self-being is only real in communications with another self-being. Alone, one sinks into the glooms of isolation. Subliminal and psychic transcendentals point toward the immeasurable vastness of man's latent capacities at many levels of possible unfoldment. Here belong the nearer realms of sub-consious potencies, all traces of new and ancient memories, divine deposits, racial instincts, and perhaps even vestiges of previous incarnations. Beyond these lie the mysterious higher realms of consciousness--realized by few men, it seems.22 The TPG members represent these three different approaches to cosmic concerns . FOOTNOTES--INTRODUCTION 1Abstraction is the process of reducing the given facts of the physical realm and presenting them as essence. A good analogy to this process is the polishing of a gem stone. The form taken by the finished stone is therefore the result of the reduction and the selection of one of many shapes or styles which the form can take. The selection is usually dictated by the given raw material in terms of optimalization of the given. Similarly, abstract artusually optimalizes the material with which it works and takes into account such values as simplicity of design, compatibility of form and color and symbolic significance of the elements which order the composition. Non-objective painting does not originally depend upon objects or symbols for expression and meaning. The observer of a non- objective work is left with a sense of direct experience of the given, a perception of its reality without signifiers or signified which do originate in the given, thus, a "primordial experience." Obviously, works can be both abstract and contain some non-objective pictorial elements, or vice versa; non-objective art can contain elements which have been abstracted. However, the former is generally the case due to the rare imaginings required for a truly primordial creation. A "transcendent object" is defined in Webster's Third Dictionary as: a thing as it exists in itself, unmodified by human cognitive faculties; cognition being the act of clearly and correctly apprehending facts of truth; knowledge especially as gained by personal experience--rising above the common notions of men; all intuitive truth of beliefs is transcendental; being is transcendental. It should be noted that the TPG used the terms "non- lepresentational" and "super-objective" in their manifesto to avoid ‘Ue difficulties that inevitably result from the confusion of the lerms "abstract" and "non-objective." They felt that the term “trans- cendental" was important in that it emphasized a common direction lmward a more vital, spiritual type of art than was found in most abstract and non-objective painting. 2Dane Rudhyar discussed this term in his book, The Trans- gygental Movement in Painting and the Creative Destiny of Twen- £335 Century America, OctoberTl938, unpublished, p. 5. TThe book has c0pyrighted by the American Foundation for Transcendental Painting 16 l7 Ilnc., October 14, 1938. With the intervention of World War II, Rudhyar pursued other projects and left the book unpublished. 31bid. 41bid. 51bid. 61bid., p. 6. 71bid. 81bid., p. 4. 9Alfred Morang and Dane Rudhyar, “Manifesto of the Trans- cendental Painting Group," discussed July 30, 1938, New Mexico Examiner, August 21, 1938. 10Ed Garman, The Art of Raymond Jonson, Painter (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976); and Bess Harris and Northrup Frye, eds., Lawren Harris (Toronto: MacMillan, 1969). 11The Martin Diamond Gallery of New York City, specializing in work by the American Abstract Artists Group, is currently mount- ing a touring retrospective on the TPG. 12 Rudhyar, pp. iii, iv (Introduction) 13Rudhyar, p. iv. 14Cosmic art is defined by Raymond Piper in Cosmic Art (New York: Hawthorn Press, 1975), p. 10. All art is cosmic in the metaphysical sense of existing in a definite setting in the total universe. A work of cosmic art originates when an artist expresses his consciousness or awareness of some significant relationship or linkage to the large forces of unseen realities. It becomes religious when its creator experiences a new or more intensive feeling of reverence, worship, or mystic or psychic vision. Cosmic art encompasses psychic, spiritual and transcendental art and generally is in concordance with aesthetic principles based on laws Ofrmture and beauty which each subjectively presents without inter- ference of systems, theories and "established critical standards." The TPG created images based upon their individual spiritual aware- nesscw~universal insights, and this was the cosmic characteristic of the whole group. 18 15Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Complete Essays and Other Writings (New York: Random House, 1940), p. 333. 16Nancy Holz points out that through Goethe and Emerson a wider acceptance of the truths inherent in ancient myth was made possible and this may have aided the acceptance of Theosophy. Emer- son was convinced that human life is irrevocably linked to that of the universe. Goethe's contention that nature's secrets were parti- ally to be gathered from greater knowledge of the larger bodies in mn‘solar system was to be substantiated in the twentieth century In discoveries resulting from space exploration. Nancy Holz, "The 'hanscendentalist View of Astrology,“ Horoscope Magazine (May 1978): 98. 'The Mariner space probes revealed that Jupiter's (Zeus) orbit ind enabled life on this planet by throwing off carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, thus Zeus as father of the gods. 17Michael Seuphor, Abstract Painting (New York: Dell Publish- ers. 1964), p. 9. 18Christian Brinton, Roerich Exhibition Catalogue (Chicago: Museum of Fine Arts, 1923), p. 20. 19Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), p. 41. 20Alfred Morang, The Transcendental Painting Group, Monograph #1. (Santa Fe: Rydal Press, 1940), p. 5. . 21W. Kandinsky, Uber das Geistige in der Kunst (Munich: R. P1Per and Co., 1912), p. 132 (my translation). 22Piper, Cosmic Art, p. 104. CHAPTER I DANE RUDHYAR: SEEDMAN (1895- ) Introduction History provides numerous examples of men and women who have gone beyond the given reality of their day and have made bold attempts to extend and to innovate the given to create new parameters and dmensions of understanding of the world in which we live. Dane Rudhyar is such a "seedman," a term which he invented to describe the creative activities of individuals who have taken the line of great- est nesistance in order to dynamically struggle for creative con- cepts, ideas, great thoughts and definitions within which humanity finds the meaning of the great mysteries of life. Nature has proven lerself not only willing to yield to human investigation, but also leing to be a direct force to aid us through an "inner necessity," inherent in our species, compelling us to responsibly face the evo- lutionary imperative to change, adapt, and grow. Rudhyar, in over seventy years of creative activity, has exercised discipline in marshalling the very forces of change mani- fested in cyclic and evolutionary processes which have added a pro- found significance to his creative work. A series of drawings he "Ede as covers for a monthly, mimeographed magazine, "Seeds for [NPEter Living," were simple symbolical or decorative designs that 19 20 hold a charm and an intuitive side of the artist reflecting an appre- ciation of dynamic symmetry. In an essay much earlier than these drawings, Rudhyar writes: ...as Numbers and Form are slowly displacing the emotional expression of the personal ego, and Art is reaching toward a more universal and impersonal basis, Hambidge's dis- coveries of supreme importance...for only thus can Art be led from the sphere of particular and temporary manifesta- tion to that of impersonal, eternal and cosmically true laws.1 A search for cosmic truth, Rudhyar's Seed Drawing provides symbolic clues (Figure 1). It shows a configuration containing three Udangles, with a fourth introduced into the center, seemingly suggest- ing a fourth dimension to the two-dimensional picture plane containing a 'Hower mandala which lies in the center of a radiant solar circle. The ffiower stem draws the triangle and circle together just as an isoceles 'hfiangle emerges above. This mandala could be symbolic of life in the flower bearing the seeds of immortal life, the radiant victory of the plant. ‘There is also a suggestion of the rush of electrons (in the nficrosphere) around the core nucleus from which our material, physical universe is constructed. The geometry here Rudhyar might explain in the following: Why does the growth of plants occur in terms of geometrical PrOgressions? Because of the interaction of two forces, the root impulse (or earth impulse) pushing the germ on- ward, and the solar attraction. The same is true of most tYpes of physical organic growth. But at times when forms . are symbols of spiritual truths rather than expressions of -PhyS1cal types, as for instance in archaic Egyptian art, in the statues of their divine kings, the arithmetical pro- 9re5s1on is used. 21 \l\1\‘\%1_§11113,4.’ ' I 5EE.D fer (31'7”: Figure 1. Seed Drawing (1957), Dane Rudhyar. 22 Rudhyar argued that as the artist ceases his ego-control over his art works, ceasing to see things in a "particularistic vision of things," he would allow the fundamental urge for the True, Good and Beautiful to take over and cease to take pride in having created the work, and feel entrusted by humanity with "the sacred power of 'summoning out' forms out of the ALL-FORM which is Space--then there is no longer any opposition between universal laws and the freedom of the expressive will."3 In Art as Release of Power, Rudhyar clearly sees art no longer as a matter of aesthetics, but as a pursuit inseparable 'From life itself, a point well made by Jose ArgOelles: Rudhyar's view, by contrast, [to the Surrealists] is from the outside; somehow his consciousness by an effort of the will was able to escape the European cultural cycle, at least to the extent of being able to envision something beyond it...since life is psychobiological in nature, art is psychobiological as well.4 It is essential to deal with Rudhyar's extra—ordinary philo- SOphy of art as a matter of introduction to his work for the general canons of modern art often do not apply. Rudhyar regards the human bOdy and mind as transformers of energy through which Life, Spirit, 'S()L11 or Self perform and therefore can be deemed "magical." "Magic 1.3 merely the release of power through an efficient form by an act of will...."5 One of the essential conditions for a true artist to perform 'tllée'negic which can transform and uplift his world is in the attain- '“Eirlt:of the spiritual life in which sensation and intellectuality have Q" II. ‘- '1 I. O'- a I o u., a P o I . o '07 c ' . s . ' - 23 been sacrificed for the complete order and blissful harmony attained by becoming vehicles for what Rudhyar calls "the Universal Self." The creative force in the ascending triangle interpenetrates with the descending triade of the fecundant spirit of divine love God radiates on our world. This process is internal and revealed in the drawing from the two-dimensional picture plane, establishing a third and by inference, a fourth dimension which is the spiritual realm (letting metaphysics acclaim that time, per se, does not exist in the cosmos, or in God). The triangle moves upward from its physical, planetary base, where already man's needs have been fulfilled. Dane Rudhyar's literary contributions are prolific, with more tlian forty books, thousands of articles and lectures to his credit; easily comparable to the writings of Rudolf Steiner whose reformula- trion of theosophy into anthroposophy has had a major impact on twen- trieth century art and philosophy. Rudhyar, unlike Steiner, has been a1 so both a performing musician, composer, and for a number of years, a :nacticing painter. In the latter capacity, Rudhyar has received acclaim primarily from other artists and is comparable to writer- Pa‘inter William Blake. Like William Blake, Rudhyar has been criti- CVizzed as a painter for being an illustrator of his poetic and Phi losophical-psychological cosmology. It is hoped that the realiza- tVicon of this arbitrary and "specialist-oriented" formalistic criti- Ci Sm will be reversed and the vital creativity of his plastic work (535/ virtue of its own merits) will be recognized. Rudhyar's paintings, few in number, are exceedingly accom- plished. They are inspired, symbolic, informal compositions reflect- 24 ing a variety of themes and subjects from non-objective to more symbolic-representational styles. His message is clear throughout: Transcend! Take hold of your own life and make it work! Contemplate human spiritual evolution and find your own place in the universe. Rudhyar realized at an early age that western civilization was in a state of decline and decay. He read Spengler and felt that Spengler drew an exclusively negative picture in Decline of the West (Untergang des Abendlandes). Rudhyar stressed the role of the seeds that are the germ of the new civilization, and he applied principles of symbolism similar to Spengler's "Prime Symbols” in order to dis- cover the profound conscious awareness of life, joining the individual vrith the greater collective in a relationship of harmony and coopera- tion. It is true that images and symbols, presented vividly to our consciousness, can affect the existence of individuals and collectivities, but they do so when they are answers to a very basic need of humanity at any particular stage of its evolution- ary process. I believe that such culture transforming symbols (the "Prime Symbols" of which Spengler spoke) are, as it were, the precipitation in form of values representing answers to specific evolutionary needs. They image forth the new rhythm of a new phase of evolution. They arise out of the basic facts impressed upon the collective experience of humanity at a cer- tain time, even though it is through the minds of creative individuals that they are brought to a clear focus. They do not deal with the small adventures of ego constrained and complex-loaded fields of consciousness adventures in search of freedom, or psychological escapes, or even mind titillating visions or rapturous "feelings of at-one-ment with the uni- verse." All these are indeed more or less passive and always subjective adventures in consciousness. The great experiences ~that change humanity are mutations in the power-structure of the human individual; and this is a very different kind of transformation.5 25 In these terms, work is understood as being not for its own sake, but for the sake of the universe, manifesting through our work- and lives, a unified creation. See Bisttram's At-One-Ment, (Figure 94). The transcendental vision of art is not exclusively con- cerned with aesthetic or pictorial considerations, for the image- making faculties must serve humanity and the task of clarifying social values and promoting the individual's own life-transformations. According to (this) cyclocosmic picture of existence an indi- vidual person is understood to be: that, in and through which a great process with a cosmic origin and a divine end is mov- ing forward one step after another. I am, as a person, one of these steps . . . this step has meaning and purpose with reference to a vast cyclic process. I am actually united in the dimension of time and meaningfulness with the preceding and succeeding steps or phases of that Soul-process and my first task as an individual person, as "I-consciousness," is to become clearly and vividly aware of this fact. . . . In such a sense of participation in time and space there is peace, tranquility, harmony and faith in the future. Does it matter if it is not "my" future as a personality? It is ppp_future, as Souls and as Humanity.7 Rudhyar was born in Paris on March 23, 1895, and was given time name Daniel Chenneviere by his parents, but changed it to Dane Rudhyar when he emigrated to the United States. There were no "NJssicians in his family, little to explain Rudhyar's consuming inter- 981: in music. The name Rudhyar resembles the old Sanskrit terms innF>lying "dynamic action,“ "red," and "the electrical power released 1'1 thunderstorms" originally attributed to the "god" Rudra. "Dane" had to be added for legal purposes when he became an American citizen In 1926. A serious operation changed the course of his life, for it 31 So exempted him from a possible tragic fate after 1914, had he been ‘- 26 At sixteen he passed his Then drafted into the French military service. baccalaureate at the Sorbonne where he majored in Philosophy. he wrote a book, Claude Debussy and the Cycle of Musical Civilization, the second part of which was published by Durand in Paris during the spring of 1913 with three short compositions for piano which he had written as a self-taught composer. Rudhyar attended the premier performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps that madly awakened Paris in 1913. That audience was transformed into a jeering and laughing mob by the primitive gestures of Nijinsky's choreography, entirely unlike anything Russian ballet fans had seen before. The death of his father after his sixteenth birthday released ‘ trim from his native milieu and prepared the way for his trip to America. In 1916 he left for New York City with two associates who fuad been promised the performance of their highly abstract dance- drama, Metachory, which had first been performed in Paris. Pierre Monteux directed it with full orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera on tile: very night that the United States entered World War 1. Because of America's entering the war, few people noticed the appearance of the new talent, although the event marked the performance of one of the f”ir‘st polyptonal compositions in the United States. Rudhyar's exposure to art in Paris during the most exciting years of modern painting was not intensive although the earliest inf’luences upon him may have come from the Synchromists and Robert Del aunay. Rudhyar mentions that he had met Stanton MacDonald Wright. -oo '1. . .I' ”0‘ 0. u o-.s.,. ‘ n P at. in n . \ "VfQ—O- I 9‘ Il- ' .- : ‘.' ii- - I d ...o..‘ -‘ ‘ A " VI. 4': \ " ‘ Q ~ ‘5. I I O‘.. ‘ n 's. | _- . ml. ‘ i I o '5... ..I -p' n u. . U D. O ‘o . 1 v .F ‘ 27 ". . .whose first exhibition I had seen in Paris in 1913."8 This must have been the Carroll Gallery exhibition, which showed paintings of Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Morgan Russell (co-founders of the Synchromist Group). In New York Rudhyar became familiar with Oriental thought as a result of meeting a Japanese artist, Kawashima, and Sensaki, who later became a Zen Master and opened a center in New York. Rudhyar spent a summer in Seal Harbor, Maine, where many musical celebrities had congregated. In Philadelphia he met Christine Wetherhill Stevenson, founder of the Philadelphia Art Alliance and initiator of the Little Theatre. Mrs. Stevenson had also been producing a play based on the life of Gautama the Buddha in Hollywood on the grounds of Krotona, then the Headquarters of the American Theosophical Society, founded by H. P. Blavatsky in 1875. She asked me to compose scenic music for a production of a Pilgrimage Play depicting Christ's life. It was produced in the summer of 1920 in a natural open door amphitheatre close to what was to become the Hollywood Bowl.9 His spontaneous and intuitive nature found a home among the 1~anks of the Theosophists and this further stimulated his study of EEastern philosophy. He realized that the Western civilization in vvtfich we live is coming to what could be called "the autumnal period" of its existence. In 1920 Rudhyar's music for the Pilgrimage Falay (organ, a few instruments and voice choir) was praised by 28 composer-conductor Leopold Stowkowski. Rudhyar's music for orchestra, The Surge of Fire, was well received by his commissioner and friends. In general, Rudhyar's music evokes the concentrated organization of Chinese and Japanese art and poetry rather than adhering to Western musical structures. While writing articles on Erik Satie, Stravinsky and others, Rudhyar spent the 1922-23 season in New York where a concert of the International Composers Guild included some of his piano works. Later in 1925 he became a co-founder of the New Music Society with composer Henry Cowell. The Surge of Fire was performed by the Society in Los Angeles in 1925 and later again in New York. His music began to de- velop along the lines of Carl Ruggles and Edgard Varese: meditative, interior and a fine weave of harmonic consonance and dissonance. In 1924 Rudhyar worked for seven months as an actor in the [Dart of Christ in a Grauman Egyptian theater prologue which preceded c>n stage Cecil B. de Mille's film, "The Ten Commandments." He also éittempted at that time to create so-called "intro—films" that would eexplore the inner psychological states through a series of images. T‘he twenties were full of opportunities for new music and painting and Rudhyar attempted in many ways to find his "niche" as a creative ill”tl$t. He attempted to create a "World Music Society“ and later flee founded HAMSA Publications dedicated to building a new American (Italture which was visionary enough, though equally abortive. In 1925 lace composed a work for piano, Pagapg, Henry Cowell recognized Ppgap§_ ‘Fkar its extraordinary ability to use forces of dissonant harmony in a 29 new form of piano music: concentrated, interior, and built up of tonal stresses that could crystallize a mood. It is a beautifully sonorous work, employing an informal style of approach and feeling for individual tones. His most frequently performed work for piano, Granites, was completed in 1929 in Carmel, California. In January 1929 Rudhyar wrote the half-poem, half-novel, Rania. It was not accepted for publication until many years later due to its "unusual style." Rudhyar had also published a powerfully inspired book of poems, Toward Man (1928), and an insightful book on Art philosophy, Art as Release of Power10 (1930). Toward Man was an exploration into the depths of the human psyche in which he implored God "to teach me to be a god." In June 1930 he married Malya Con- tento. In that year he published a booklet, Paths to the Fire, in which he stated, in occult terms, concepts concerning the evolution of man. He had just met astrologer, Marc Edmond Jones with whom he was to form a lifelong friendship that resulted in a great deal of mutual inspiration. Jones, a graduate of Columbia University, <31’fered mimeographed courses on the topic of the "Sabian symbols"-- 0Ccu1t symbols that had their origin in ancient Babylon though tV‘ansmitted in the oracular form by a clairvoyant. Rudhyar was ll1'terested in adapting such a symbol system and reinterpreting it 't<> reveal the archetypal meaning in 360 phases of human experience. TPanscendentalist poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, recognized (though in 0‘F'l:en contradictory terms in various writings) the validity of asi‘l:rology. He realized that all men contain, more or less as indi- 30 viduals, all properties of the universe: "within every man is the 1] Emerson was convinced that Man's life was irre- 12 entire zodiac.“ vocably linked to the life of the stellar cosmos. Therein lie the secrets of one's own destiny as it unfolds in cyclic patterns. From this period onward, Rudhyar began to study and write about astrology with a holistic approach.13 Articles appeared in 1934 onward in the popular magazine, American Astrology published by Paul Clancy. In the 1930-34 period, Rudhyar started to study the published works of Carl Jung. Jung's insights into humanism and psychology had opened a new field of synthesis in the study of Man's Psyche for Rudhyar while living in New Mexico 1933-34. He also translated into English the Book of the Living God by the great German mystic and painter Bo Yin Ra. Mabel Dodge Luhan, art patroness and "grand dame" of Taos, iuas noted for keeping company with famous artists, poets and writers. ‘Through a mutual friend of Mrs. Luhan, Rudhyar was invited to stay art her ranch for a month in what proved to be a rather uneventful :sunmer. He had given a successful series of lectures on astrology in 15931, and began to write and lecture extensively. Rudhyar gave 14 and in 1933-34 he began to thirty lectures in Santa Fe and Taos VVrite articles which Alice Bailey, noted theosophist, had read in Egggrican Astrology. She asked him to write a book incorporating them \Nhich she published under the title The Astrology of Personality in 1936. In the same year Raymond Jonson had been mentioned in the 31 three volume book, Understanding Modern Art by painter-author Leo Katz in which a Jonson painting was reproduced. Two years later Katz wrote of Rudhyar's art: Rudhyar is a rare combination of composer, poet, mystic and philosopher in one person. His writings show wide knowledge of Western and Eastern culture and represent a rich contribu- tion to all movements which struggle away from the chaotic toward a new order in art and life.15 In the years 1935-37 Rudhyar devoted himself entirely to writing and psychology, while lecturing in New Mexico, California, and Boston, composing music for the Lestor Horton Dance Group in Los Angeles and meeting his wife (in Italy) who had just returned from a trip to India. In 1938 he published New Mansions for New Men.16 In it, he incorporated a poetic approach to the essential symbols of both Eastern and Western culture and firmly established a philosophic basis for his work. His "Meditations at the Gates of Light" is a 17 a book of poems, Inystical epic poem to the Zodiac. White Thunder, 1vas also published that summer. He started a book on the Transcen- cjental Movement in painting and on the TPG in 1938 but he left the taook for other projects and never returned to it. He helped initiate 'tre American Foundation for Transcendental Painting in the Fall of 1938 and became its Vice President, with Lawren Harris, President; Flaymond Jonson, Secretary; and Bill Lumpkins, acting as Treasurer. lie'was motivated to begin drawing and painting while in close asso- Ciation with these painters. Rudhyar held an exhibition of his first paintings in the fall 0f 1938 in Santa Fe. Marrie Ewing of the New Mexico Examiner wrote: 32 1:1: is seldom that an artist brings to his paintings as unusual in background of creative activity as Dane Rudhyar. A noted <:c>mposer, author, philosopher, he has already reached a focal taczint in his attempts with a plastic medium. The result is £111 important expression of life experience which is uni- \t£ersally symbolic yet fully conscious of inner self. Trans- c:£:ndental in feeling, these paintings hold seed ideas for the ‘fHJture. They are pregnant with life rhythms, with projections (Sf’nnnd. . . . While viewing this exhibit one has a real emotive experience. It carries you like a piece of driftwood in the v~ising tide to shores washed of geographical implications but significant in themselves as manifestations of mind power.18 For these earliest works, Alfred Morang provided an important cv~i'tical source for Rudhyar's techniques and medium of expression. Most of us who learn to paint are forced to form our ideas in the mediums of plastic expression. We must struggle with the elements of color and form, and naturally much of our philos- ophy is derived from a slowly growing grasp of the aesthetic principles that underlie any art. With Rudhyar these elements are not new. He has merely coupled with his own individual creative ideas a knowledge of the shapes that have come down to us from the birth of the human race.19 To paraphrase Morang: Rudhyar is able to command the mate- r“ials of plastic expression through his complete knowledge of the Psychological processes involved. His purity of color finds equal atnalication in oil as well as colored pencil. Drawings done with the latter generally contain shapes made up of flatly applied masses Of color that reveal a knowledge of Gauguin's space relationships, wi thout a stylized conception of form. Each shape takes into account the organic force inherent in the colors it contains, adjusting them to offset expansion or contraction within the shape itself. Each ft’rln lias its own orbit relying on the rectangle of the com- position itself. A circle releases the movement in a square that remo‘les the obstacle presented by rising cone shapes imposed against a VaCancy of yellow gray (Figure 3). "a": ” ‘ 'I c IV 91-6 .1 I b' ‘9 a . n in ..n . . , ‘- "::. v 'v' .I; ' ‘ '1‘". 'v. ‘- ~Pn'. ., 6-! 5' #1 D.. n P 0‘ ‘ . V F .i ‘|,. 5 '1‘ 1"», w h' ‘1 v D h o n uz"§‘ .l h i I t IQ oPo' .o ~‘o ' " 33 His oils do not attempt to depend on line and thus have a di ff‘erent mood altogether. Color forms blend from within. He uses greens to suggest arrested movement and other colors to dynamize as staenc:ee.20 Included in New Mansions for New Men is a drawing by Rudhyar which he entitles "Mandala for New Men" (Figure 2). His prelude clearly relates to this drawing and he cites the proper use of the symbol 5 . 2] The caption for his drawing reads: The use of symbolic patterns for meditation and magical work is worldwide--from Tibetan mandalas to Gothic rose windows. In this, as made visual to M. R., the twelve petals of the "Lotus of the Sky" have rolled back away from the apparent center revealing another dimension of spiritual depth, the hidden core of being. The flaming 8 pointed effulgence, which is the "heart of the Sun" discloses the 6 pointed and 5 pointed stars. The figures add to 19, the sacred solar number. The Venusian "bees" represent the three souls of man, come to draw the divine ambrosia from the "Heart of the Sun."2 Rilke once wrote: "We are the bees of the invisible. We frantically plunder the visible of its honey to accumulate it in the great golden hive of the visible."23 José Arguelles discusses tiris point in his book, The Transformative Vision and compares matter ‘tc1 honey, its plundering like the rape of the earth and the degenera- ‘ ‘ticni of man by his pursuit of material well being: "The return of the honey to the great golden hive of the invisible is the necessary ‘ transformation of the spirit-in-matter. The purpose of life is its tra'lsformation."24 34 The Lucis Press in New York in 1939 published a booklet on Rudhyar entitled, Dane Rudhyar, Pioneer in Creative Synthesis wri tten by artist, Alfred Morang, an impressionist painter and tra n s cendental i st. Morang writes: The art of Rudhyar is built upon a non-objective pattern, but i't is not at all like the work of any other non-objective taainter. The same element of root forces is at work in his (:olors and forms. His placing of shapes upon an oblong is not (dictated by any rules of, let us say, Kandinsky or Picasso. 'The remarkable part of his painting is the purely plastic ‘way in which he approaches the problems of line and color. He has not fallen into the trap of literary equivalents that besets the path of so many writer-painters. If he employs an esoteric symbol--and at times he has used them--he places it with exact regard for shape and color-relationship.25 However, Morang was able to see only the beginnings of Rudhyar's painting and was unable to realize the parallel development that Rudhyar had to that of Frank Kupka. The Paintflg of Dane Rudhyar and Frank Kupka There are many similarities between Frank Kupka and Dane Rudhyar though Rudhyar had never heard of Kupka when inquiring in our interview. They both had an early interest in philosophy, theosophy, and astrology, both borrowing only that which they felt Viable and meaningful in these fields, though never accepting un- alterable doctrine. Though Kupka was primarily a painter, like RUdhyar he was also a musician and a lecturer. They sensed the im- Portance of tones and rhythmic colorations. Kupka and Rudhyar both, however, shared a most important goal in their work: to fight against the Choatic social order, to instruct people about man's evolution. 35 Fi gure 2. Mandala for New Men (1938), Dane Rudhyar D I‘ ': PA ‘ D “on fiy . r- ":t odd the, p l:‘-’ o, L' v! v- .J:, . 1 Dog" '- I.- g = "; I:a d o‘: " i 1' "'zr . in I Q .331}.- 0'. ' . ‘ o n _ I .A ._R o. .P\ '- ~ ." “‘4‘ 1 ‘ :l‘ o. d I» o.'\ ‘- '“r. 0' I .v i n; ‘ -‘. . a ‘. "t. .. ' I Ii- .: I, P o . ~ ‘ . -‘..I‘ o ..‘: I: . 1 . . . U 1., 1 .‘ .o,‘ 'I' I' .r‘ I. - i u ‘o I.‘ ‘ ’- -!-_., C ‘v o‘- I n -. '\ .. ' '1 h 4 ...- " ‘ . o ‘ ~ ‘ ‘ C 0“ I .-l I v. -Q ‘ .‘I F ‘ a ‘ o 36 and the horrible crime of social and human injustice of disinterest and ruthless self-interest. Further study on Rudhyar's music might reveal to a greater extent what Rudhyar's connection was to Orphic sources, possible in his first articles and books on Debussy, Hindu musi c , Stravinsky, Scriabin, and other composers. In any event, Kupka and Rudhyar both shared a deep appreciation of Pythagoras. KuDka, like Rudhyar, had also been an emigree to a new country and both were deeply affected by the new language and customs to which they had to adapt. In two compositions, the first, Seed Fulfillment by Rudhyar in 1938, the second, Form of Yellow #1 by Kupka of 1921-23, the titles indicate different concerns though similar means (Fig- ures 3 and 4). Both have a similar open center, lineal arrangement, and perspective. Rudhyar's composition also shows characteristics Similar to his zodiac drawings cited below. Kupka's painting is still concerned with his "around a point" theme while Rudhyar explores the awesome mystery of human creation.26 Although Seed Fulfillment and firm of Yellow #1 are formally similar in arrangement of shapes, Kupka's subject is abstract-curvilinear and Rudhyar's concrete and angular. Rudhyar's work has formal similarities to m and to several of his Zodiac drawings of the same year (Figure 9). Although Kupka was primarily Concerned with the spiral movements around a point that bends shapes, like the musician's ability to shape sounds on the stringed instrument with a POunding movement, he was intrigued by the "mystical" way light was re- fracted in the colored glass of rose windows.27 In Kupka's Form 01’ YEHOW 17— the mystical link between form and color is contemplated, much like his 37 Figure 3. Seed Fulfillment (1938), Dane Rudhyar. 38 Formof Yellow #1 (1921-23), Frank Kupka. Figure 4 P 4 O - .1. . .,. a rh- I O 1' i 1 ‘f a a a '1. U - I '6‘!. ' n '5'... d ‘ D Q U 'v- ‘Q I O u‘ .h u‘ I s n \; u. .. -.r. ,, II \ 39 love of contemplating Greek Doric columns. Jay Hambidge's theories on dynamic symmetry which influenced Rudhyar, are especially visible in works like Seed Fulfillment. Here is also a distinct feeling of experiencing an altered state of consciousness, or the cosmic lan- guage of geometry. One of the most influential supporters of non- objective art, Hilda Rebay, commented on that geometry: It is spirit, cosmic order and creation of beauty which origi- nates the work of art. The circle does not stand as a symbol for some material object or subjective thought. The circle is a self-centered continuity in itself, isolated and floating in its own concentration. Its rhythm is not influenced from within, nor without. The square has eight sides, . . . it gives and receives space and also points by means of its corners in further directions. . . . The triangle directs its points from an indifferent base, but it is the only basic form submittable to variation of its dimensions without losing its identity or absolute form.2 Complex spiritual endeavors and interests that were to develop in theosophy, astrology, and Jungian psychology. when added to Rudhyar's understanding of Spinoza, Hegel, Nietzsche, Spengler and Bergson nay have provided Rudhyar with the idea of the warrior-artist though Rudhyar was a life-long admirer of Oriental art and may have received much inspiration there. As a composer, as an artist-synthesizer, it is not so unusual that Rudhyar's creations as a painter should parallel those of Kupka who had attempted to fuse the vocabulary of music into the context of painting in paintings such as Fugue for Two Colours and a series of works which carried musical titles. Common interests are shared in Rudhyar's Musical Symbols (l939), Soloist (1946), The Cord of Bein (1940), and Exhaltation (l940). Similar subject matter to Kupka's can be found in Rudhyar's Seed Fulfillment (l938), Sacred 0......- l. \ . ' ~ ' I | u a . A U" ?r - ‘h’v '. 0'. :r h: U. " ‘. . ;::"P¢ . ‘.‘.I b ‘ ' a I . a ‘I, '.- u ‘I ‘ . O In \' F 5 ! '7- In ‘:P-. '5 \- d5 '\ .. I.‘ I a ..V B: u‘ ‘d ‘n .I . .. ' Q 0.. " ' u I.. - ‘V ..- . \ . ' J'I‘h'. U‘. 40 Objects for an Ancient Ritual (l946) and Sands of Time, and other works by Rudhyar that had philosophical or allegorical contents. The Sands of Time by Rudhyar (Figure 5), compares favorably to Kupka's The Rhythms of History (Figure 6) as does Rudhyar's Primordial Worship and Kupka's The Primordial. Kupka had dealt deeply with the occult world of astrology and mysticism. After 19l2 he cultivated a reputation for being a loner, aloof from the often "mad, mad world" of avant-garde art. Similarly, Rudhyar went the lone path of the generalist. Stylistically, he was a second generation symbolist and unlike Kupka, embraced an informal personal approach to painting and music. Kupka's The Rhythm of History (Figure 6) still utilizes a formal figurative approach. After l909 and his paintings First Step and Newton's Discs, Kupka found the kind of.techniques he needed for his experimentation in abstract expression enabling him to elevate symbolic images to newer, subtler heights in paintings like Nocturn, Blue, Cosmic Spring, Creation, Tale of Pistles and Stamens, Hindu Motif, Vertical Planes, and Structure of Colors. Though enamored by symbols, both Kupka and Rudhyar felt that any pic- nne was comprehensible if the viewer was introduced and included as a necessary part of the communication.29 Painting has often been called visual poetry. Rudhyar's is free verse, impregnated with powerful symbols that emphathize with the strUggles of expressing man's eternal yearning for transcendence through an understanding heart and mind. His paintings and draw- ings possess a familiar characteristic of self-observation and 41 .. .5. 1.21.2! . u. . .. £21 a; 4.3%.? .. .menvzm memo .m:P3mgn .mawh mo mucmm ugh 455.41.)! Willi-Ali‘s a. .. . a ufirfifl . . _ . .0 \ . ...w ; gwnfin w... . _., khthwwn... .v u... .m wgzmwm ., h...»..t....tm...u .u r. y.» .. . 1....0 ‘53... s C. J . 42 Figure 6. 43 :cih“rd: - “53711. a... ...;_ ,.._, - I .in - -’ § Figure 7. The Be innin s of Life (1900), Watercolorbaquatint, Frank Kupka. ' 44 personal, human revelation, or as Morang put it ". . . as if he stood looking into the workings of his own soul through unclouded glass."3O He sees history as created by a few "transvolutionary" souls who will- ingly sacrifice their ”personal life" for the roles they play in shaping entire cycles of culture. In them, Spirit flows, which is Power and Motion unceasing. They are the true Magi or Hierophants, men of power and wisdom....Later, as the evolutionary phase of the Race begins, another type of men of action will appear; men of physical action, warriors, conquistadors or at best knights; men of character, but with strong earth-passions, strong personalities. They soon give place to men of sensation or emotion, religious men longing for salvation, or later intellectual men framing the outer world into classifica- tions and crystallized forms...A spiritual life is a Spirit-manifesting life rather than a spiritward life. No searcher after truth, insofar as he merely searches and has not yet reached his center, no devotee of any god what- soever, no religious worshipper, no painstaking adjuster of sensation into forms, no enjoyer of esthetical pattern, is a spiritual man!31 Rudhyar's Storm Gods of l938 presents in bold non-objective and semi-representational form (in the lightning and cloud forms) his probable fears of the impending war that was to sweep the planet from l939-45 (Figure 8). Rudhyar described his work as an interplay among three figures under a bolt of lightning: one is feminine, one masculine, the third is an ironical kind of personage. No further interpretation was offered and he denied ever putting any political meaning in his painting or music. The triangles are characteristic occult symbols also found in many of his drawings. Here he also uses them to aid the overall design. It must be kept in mind when viewing Rudhyar's paintings and drawings that his symbols are deciferable on different levels of 45 a$ .5fiy. 54. .y, .J%%%WY\/x. ‘ _. /lv. . . . égfié . .4 \ IVé/IV/ I ,.. , - 27 . c _ . . , , I I .r; I . , . , , ,.,, 1. r \. : / , a, .3. psi; ,, Storm Gods (1938),’Ink Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. Figure 8. 46 abstraction or representation. A series of drawings such as the "Zodiac" and the "Seed for Greater Living" cited below use represen- tational symbols such as lightning bolts or human figures to aid the viewer's understanding of the content and to provide points of departure from the objective realm. In his drawing, Avatar of l938, we are given figurative subject matter and a symbolic use of geometry and lines (Figure 9). The drawing is simply an abstract representation of the forces playing into a human body which has become a vehicle for the descent of spirit meeting the ascent of matter. The decend- ing triangles are the descent of spirit; the ascending forms are the rise of matter; the top figure is the head of the being and the horns...are connected with Taurus and the symbol of fertility so frequent in Egyptian painting.32 The artist who is able to be meaningful for present and future gen- erations 1§_an avatar, having become a "work of art of the spirit." In really creative art is revealed that which ultimately will emerge though the evolutionary process as consciousness... At least such is the art at the beginning of every cycle, the art born of the magical sacrifice of Avatars, or Seed-men on all planes....33 Above the apex of the second pyramid is a spark which jumps the gap to a higher flame. Just as consciousness, intuition and Spiritual longing to merge with God is suggested, there is no way to see with physical eyes in the blinding stream of light that emanates from the Avatar. One must first be power in order to handle power. "To be power is to be the seed, and to be the seed requires that the artist be not just a maker of objects. . . ."34 It requires that the artist be something of a prophet, a teacher, a messenger; and it requires that his work have a regen- A flu C» F I‘lv 47 (I i M65 Figure 9. Avatar (1938), Ink and Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. 48 erative force of receptivity to the incoming energies of the time that is dawning. As I stated in a statement written for an exhibit of my paint- ings at the University of Minnesota Gallery in l976, Art uses symbols to convey the inner collective life of the people, united by a pre-existent religious revelation--the spiritual "source" of the culture, usually drawn from the life of the Founder or Avatar, or as in Islamic Art, based on more abstract principles of cosmic geometry revealing the struc- ture of cyclic life processes. Such an art serves the purpose of human transformation; it is an object for meditation or concentration. The paintings and drawings I exhibited there were produced at a time when my musical life had to stop for various reasons. Those works are essentially non-representative or, as I once stated, they belong to a type of art that could be called transcrete rather than abstract, more as Kandinsky used his term "concrete." In most cases they intend to con- vey for lack of a better term, I can only call "inner expe— riences" or a sense of the operation of inner forces. They evoke what cannot be said in words entirely.35 Rudhyar stressed the key role of integration provided by the avatar. The word ”avatar" comes from Hindu philosophy and stood for the incarnation of a diety such as Khrishna of Vishnu, though in the Christian-Judaic tradition was narrowly applied as Messiah or "only son of God." The Avatar is God's answer to a collective human need fulfilled essentially by a great symbol of integration. All great religious Teachers are sym- bols of integration to the collectivity of the believers; so are great racial teachers--and so are creative artists who give form and organization and "magic power" to great symbols or Ideas which move the multitude. Likewise, if the creator has released vital contents in and through his works; if espe- cially he has given new, compelling and historically necessary formulation to great Images of the collective unconscious in answer to a real racial need-~then, his works of art are spiritual food for the many or the few. Thus, he functions in a more exalted role, as an Avatar, a manifestation of the divigg bestowal of symbols of integration to a human collectiv- 1 y. 49 The falling leaf-form, symbolic of the end of the year's cycle, and also of the age, stresses the wisdom of the seed—leaf- cycle constantly working in nature. Avatar as the symbol of fer- tility and spring, embodies the primordial in nature. Avatar mani- fests on the 3-step foundation an evolving consciousness: physical, mental, and spiritual, and from each emanates a flame: These highest flames are thus first the Divine Thought or Plan; then the Power that forces that thought into objective manifestation by arousing in Matter ener ies which will carry out the Plan by building suitable forms gor operative life engines). When these life engines operate more or less smoothly, then the highest flames act in a third manner. They man the life engines and begin the great alchemical work which they conceived before the “beginning." They unite their pure, all-encompassing and regenerative fire with the slow burning flames that constitute the energies of Nature.37 Thus as seedmen, avatars are focusing agents of the Divine Hill in the descent of creative and transforming energy of the spirit into man who is aided in the process of his spiritual evolution as a race. Rudhyar defines "Devolution" as a term for the process away from the light, of being drawn eventually into the realm of uncon- scious absorption in undifferentiated matter, the 'humus' which will feed the growth of seeds in a future cycle (Figure lO).38 In a scath- ing denouncement of modern man's materialism, Rudhyar's Art of Gesture, Art of Pattern concludes that our "civilization" is spiritually dead, drugged into the devolution of spiritual and mental death by defunct institutions, media, and relationships. 50 Figure 10. Devolution (1952), India Ink, Dane Rudhyar. 51 Man died because he ceased to experience, to go out and conquer the world; because he sat down in front of the uni- verse, taking it as a huge Ouija board, waiting for spooks, or gods, or worse still, God, to do something to him, for him. Such happens whenever the evolutionary period of a race cycle ends and devolution sets in. Then the world is divided into a small group of transvolutionary selves, of Incarnating Souls concentrating within themselves, as seeds, all the wisdom and power of the cycle gone by, and acting out as vehicles for the Universal Self, uttering the Tone of the new cycle; and on the other hand, huge masses of devolu- tionary personalities following the lines of decay of the culture, rattling upon the earth like autumnal 1eaves.39 The early war years marked a deep personal crisis of develop- ment in which Rudhyar seriously questioned many things which he had accepted on faith alone. His marriage, too, began to dissolve. In seeking firmer ground on which to establish his cosmic world view, he wrote Man, Maker of Universes (1940), The Age of Plenitude (1942) and The Seeds of Plenitude (1943) as well as The Faith that Gives Mgning to Victory (1942). Also in February 1943 one of Rudhyar's most popular books, The Pulse of Life, was published. The cover fOr the booklet, Seeds of Plenitude (Figure 11), was a drawing which may lmve stylistically foreshadowed one of his favorite watercolors, Qggggf fixation of 1948, cited below. The following passage, included as a Preface to that booklet, is a deeply religious statement made during 'Um darkest hours of World War II, the Christmas of 1943: Christmas. This is the mystery of the Incarnation: that the divine forever tends to become human, that the perfect seed which was the end of the cycle of living always longs .to sacrifice itself into the plan-to-be, that the highest dream must become reality, if we have enough faith. . . . We must receive God in the home of our common humanity; not where we are most human-not in terms of our aloneness, but as the signature of our most total participation in the life of the Whole.40 Figure 11. 52 SEEDS OF PLENITUDE 9. 5:K i'v‘fw‘éag- ’ ‘7 fz7ggat“ ‘ ,flka-k ..ca.‘;:(}x .- . - . ~ . v 4»! ~31. 21“? "1';~ ‘lfizamm DANE RUDHYAR Seeds of Plenitude (1943), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 53 During the last year of the war Rudhyar and Malya were divorced and Rudhyar became enamored with the daughter of one of the most noted Russian-American painters, Nicolai Fechin, a realist-impressionist portrait and landscape painter who lived in Taos. Fechin, as early as 1939, wrote of Rudhyar's creative abilities (Figure 12): It is to me a wonder how Rudhyar finds the vitality, interest, and energy at the same time to delve deeply into world-problems to compose music and to paint outstanding non-representational paintings. The realm to which these paintings belong is new and it demands real inspiration if the works are to be signifi- cant. It is easy to paint what one sees; but to paint con- vincingly that which exists only in the imagination calls for pure creativeness and rare gifts. I have no doubt that Rudhyar, in this field of painting, has all that is necessary to make a great contribution.41 His daughter, Eya Fechin, was pursuing a career as a professional dancer in Hollywood when they became engaged. In the spring of 1945 she and Rudhyar married and moved to Colorado Springs where Rudhyar began to paint and lecture again. Inspired by Rudhyar, Eya wrote a booklet on the psycho-therapy of dance called Euthonics. Also in 1945, Rudhyar wrote a book that resounded with the optimism of the San Francisco Conference which formulated the United Nations charter. The book was published in 1948 by the Philosophical Library of New York and was entitled: Modern Man's Conflicts: The Creative Challenge of Global Society. During these years Rudhyar was to produce some of his most mature paintings and watercolors many of which he sold. After a short stay in Colorado, the couple moved to Nambe, near Los Alamos, where the atomic bomb had been developed. Rudhyar's 54 Figure 12. Taos Woman, Charcoal Drawing, Nicholas Fechin. .00 I '-a ~0- I loll l g c C 1‘ a, E . a l 1* r. u u I _ 00-01., I I I g 1..- '1‘ I l i 49 V I C" ( I 55 happy married life can be felt in his water colors and drawings of '1946, especially in Dynamic Equilibrium, and in Meditation on Power and Creative Man. These works and others were included in an exhi- bition at the University of New Mexico in the summer of 1948. Later in 1976 at the Walker Museum exhibition in Minneapolis Rudhyar clearly defined his aim: My aim in the arts is essentially to bring to an objective focus, and to release through significant forms, some aspects of the creative processes of human evolution which are radi- cally transforming our society and our civilization. . . . In my works I seek to release effectively emotional power and mental vision, far more than to give esthetical pleasure or a feeling of technical problems overcome. I seek to partici- pate in the creation of a new civilization, by evoking through form, color and rhythm such ideas, feelings, and vistas of inner reality as may contribute to a renewal of human values and human perceptions on the basis of a fuller realization of spirit, in me and in all men. Particularly in the larger paint- ings exhibited here (a series I entitled Archetypes) and in the older pencil drawings The Alchemist, I have sought to convey some phases of transcendental human consciousness in terms of dynamic flow and dynamic "equilibrium." It has not been possible for me to devote much of my time and . . . energy to this aspect of my creative activity, but what has been done may indicate a way, open a door, and help a few sensitive minds to vibrate to possibilities transcending what seems to be the preoccupation of so many artists.42 Dynamic Equilibrium is rich in vibrant earthtones, burgundy reds (Figure 13). Spiral tendrils seem to react like outstretched serpentine arms creating a dynamic tension that embraces the seed symbol of Yang and Yin, male and female. The dynamic is a symmetry suggestive of life and movement. ; Its great value to design lies in its power of transition or movement from one form to another in the system. It produces the only perfect modulating process in any of the arts. This system cannot be used unconsciously, although many of its shapes are approximated by designers of great 56 E uilibrium (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. 1131711 C D Figure 13. 57 native ability.... Dynamic symmetry in nature is the type of orderly arrangement of members of an organism such as we find in a shell or the adjustments of leaves of a plant. It is the symmetry of Man.43 Here, Rudhyar quotes Hambidge's essay, "Diagonal-No. l'' and it applies to this work. This painting balances loftiness and rootedness: earth, air, fire, and water; it combines French curves and Russian reds, and employs both a shell form and the organicity of a plant that combine to form a highly developed sense of dynamic equilibrium. Another of the Archetype series, Creative Man (1946) is a watercolor. A drawing based on it adorns the cover of An Astrological Triptych (Figures 14, 15). Creative Man is non-objective, geometric, and contains stylistic similarities to Rudhyar's Seed Drawipg_(Figures l. 14). Here triangles, diamonds, and spheres are complemented by (nJrvilinear, rhythmic, transcendental forms that tie the composition ixagether. The colors are primaries which are transparented, effec- ‘tively using the watercolor paper for effect. Three spheres match the»equilateral triangles that Rudhyar is so fond of employing. The Spiral movement recalls his statement that "the spiral is the perfect form, not the circle; and a spiral results from the integration of an outward release of spirit and a circular motion. This integra- tion is life, in universal evolution and in cosmic meaning."44 Eggsecration (1948) represents "prime symbols" which the creative artist receives as inspiration and renewed spirit (Figure 16). This transforming and renewing spirit ggp_become focused through a human individual who then gives it concrete form. Art, in this sense, is the focusing of creative power through man and the condensing of this power within some 58 Figure 14- Creative Man (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. 59 Dane Rudhyar. 1ng, Etch' Creative Man (1978) Figure 15. 6O Consecration (1948), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. Figure 16. 61 kind of "engine" from which it can be released, in order to "transport" other men to new levels of con- sciousness and feeling. These "engines" are the sacred forms, Prime Symbols, Archetypes, religious Images, which appear at the close of a civilization.... 5 Artists, in struggling for order in their lives, culture, and relationships to society, become warriors, not with a gun, but with the force of their ideas, emotions, and innovations. In his ink drawing, Warrior to the Light (1952), Rudhyar achieves a powerful, yet simple design which evokes a feeling of dynamic action and sug- gests also a process of transmutation from the inner to outer forms, consciousness as revolution effecting a radical external change without the shedding of blood and tragic warfare (Figure 17). Rudhyar's warrior is the new hero of the cosmic age who transforms the personality from within, who raises the level of vibratory con- sciousness beyond the level of the ego. He writes: In its broadest senses, this “raising" process is what is really meant by "civilization"--that is--as a process of transformation of unconscious biological drives into the conscious and individualized structures of a mind pervaded by the."Light" of the Spirit (the "supermind in Sri Aurobindo's terminology"). ... . This spiritual light takes the place that "Life" and its energies had occupied at the level of the biosphere, i.e., within physical bodies.45 Rudhyar accomplishes much with an incredible economy of means, a trait shared by many of the members of the TPG, and also characteristic of film animation. His coiled-up line reminds one of the coiling root that spirals down into the earth 62 Figure 17. Warrior to the Li ht (1952), India Ink, Dane Rudhyar. 63 so that the seed can push its way through the resistent soil toward the heat, warmth, and life-giving light of the sun. Rudhyar's expressive intentions can be acutely felt in the line surging upward with the directional arrow shot toward the light. Though no actual warrior figure is represented pictorially, the combination of elements comprise an entity which, like a Futurist construction, hold together a dynamic rhythm that symbolizes the warrior in dynamic action. Albert Camus, the French existentalist philosopher, expresses similar views in a lecture given before receiving the Nobel prize for literature: "The only really com— mitted artist is he who, without refusing to take part in combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a free- lance."47 For Rudhyar, the warrior to the light is the artist who meditates on a "seed-thought," is illuminated by it, and, fecundated by this thought, transforms it into a potent "seed-idea" by deciding on dynamic action. New thoughts develop and new ideas "descend" into a sensitive mind that is well disciplined. Thought is a form of con- sciousness whereas the idea is formed power, creating what Rudhyar calls: "a focus for the creative activity of the Mind of God,--or . . . an agent of divine Intelligence."48 Therefore, artists must be disci- plined, purified, and receptive in meditation to receive the force of di- vine inspiration. Courage is required in order to apply the force of the seed idea that has taken root in his or her consciousness. Lukewarm reforms and half-hearted ideals present barriers along the path to the 64 truly transformative expression of the cosmically conceived "inner necessity," which matures in the creative mind. The Warrior to the Light abstractly portrays the cosmic agent in the process of transmutation, both inner psychic-emotional and outer social-religious transmutation of the given problem, realized by facing the unyielding forces of Karma, the residue of past incompletion which can devastate the power of the will to face the tests of spirit, mind, and body. Asserting with the idea-force of creative, problem-solving insight and self-acceptance, a new personality structure evolves. There are other issues which Rudhyar deals with in terms of an explanation of the metaphysical term "light" which he says has both substance and power and is esoterically symbolized by the number 6 which also finds formal expression in The Warrior to the Light draw- ing.49 The warrior learns the power of evocation as well as the technical methods and excellence that attend the creation of great works of art. For without this knowledge, technical excellence is mere virtuosity, a gilded and empty cage. Rudhyar defined evocation as a method to uncover the innermost quality of being, animating and structuring the outer form our senses have perceived or life- situations we have experienced. Kandinsky's "inner necessity," and Teilhardt de Chardin's "cosmos within" are revealed through evocation in art. .A painting should evoke some unformulatable essence, or "presence," inherent within the painted forms. These forms may reproduce within the range of perception of our physical eyes. Whatever the painting reproduces in forms and colors-- or in the stark contracts of blacks and whites--shou1d be translucent to the light of "meaning." 50 65 Not only do the forms relate to the perceptive range which our physical eyes utilize, but also refer to the form and content of inner perception, symbolically revealing a psychic or cosmic level of reality which is perceivable through the "light of meaning" inherent in the concrete objects themselves which effectively transfigures the ego into a more spiritual state.51 Though Rudhyar's oeuvre in painting was not great in terms of number, the extant works are significant. Because of his activi- ties as composer, poet, and philosopher-astrologer, he had to be a generalist, grasping historical and cosmic processes, aware of his personal responsibility to aid the emergence of a global civiliza- tion. He feels that such a future for humanity cannot be reached unless a fundamental change in consciousness and the quality of social, interpersonal relationships be achieved through a major reworking of all human values and a major re-evaluation of its major institutions. Thus, Rudhyar was totally absorbed in formulating broad, all-inclusive terms that would supply basic principles that are essential for the world transformation. His motto was expressed in the following words: SOLIDARITY, SERVICE, SYNTHESIS. Rudhyar's Seed of Fire deals with the Fall of the old civilization and the building of the new (Figure 18). Though it can be read in a number of ways, since fire is variously associated with determination, enthusiasm and even wisdom, it has the power to evoke strong emo- tions, and is generally considered by itself as hypnotic in its effect. Rudhyar uses it in other titles: Surge of Fire and Figure 18. Seed of Fire (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 67 Fire Out of Stone. Civilization is the form of energy released by the spirit of man's inner and outer environment. Civilization develops as the releasing process becomes gradu- ally more efficient, more far-reaching, more total. Fire was found in nature, lightning and solar heat caused forest fires but the controlled use of that fire marked the beginning of civilization--and of human industry.52 José Arguelles maintains that recent art history has been a means of political and social bias which conveniently ignores the truly gifted, substituting ritual or magical artifacts of diverse cultures to fill the gaps. . any textbook history of modern art. . .the art of the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries. . .includes only the artists, of whatever nationality, who have accepted and followed the cannons of art-historical avant-gardism, and who have been able to find a market for their work.53 Such a situation plants the very "seeds of fire" necessary for its own destruction. An untitled line drawing (Figure 19), reminds one of Rudhyar's 1 ine in New Mansions: This world of power will reveal itself through an eight-fold rhythm of alternating positive and negatives. Eight in the ancient number of the Sun; the number of the Christ-the number of the light as Man becomes aware of it in his world of number and form. The galaxy is a vast diamond-cell cut in an eight- fold pattern, because it is for us the symbol of the universe of radiant light; whereas all bodily substance, which is but reflected light, presents itself in mystic symbolism under a twelve-fold form encompassed by the sphere of divine love. . . .54 The lines in the drawing also suggest ripples in a cosmic pond, parting, yet eternally moving together. .Untitled (1956), reveals a mystical appearance of the swan which in ancient myth symbolizes the melancholy of the artist wedded to his art--here a seed has fallen through the cube of matter into the soil (Figure 21). From ,.m-__~_ -.-<— ~* . .- ‘ .. 's Wh~M oh. “a... ~ , Figure 19. Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 69 Figure 20. Seed Drawim (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 70 1956-1959 Rudhyar sent out mimeographed booklets called Seeds For Greater Living, on subjects ranging from art, history, philosophy, astrology and politics (Figures 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30). White Lotus, should appeal to the artist "who has the power not to accept the image named at once by the mind, but to retain pure his own sense-image and entitize freshly this image" (Figure 23). Rudhyar often uses sacred myth and allegory as sources for his symbols, however he intended the Seed For Greater Livingggrawing§_merely as decorative covers. Occasionally he would create line drawings on mimeograph paper which recalled some of his paintings. Such was the case with Rudhyar's drawing (Figure 24). It was based on an earlier occult painting, Mystic Tiara and interestingly resembles a sculpture by Archipenko's wife Gela, whose sculpture Awareness appears in liaymond Piper's Cosmic Art and is captioned "really seeing face to ‘Face, seeing the other and seeing oneself" (Figure 25). Rudhyar stated that his drawing represented the tiara of the pharoahs. White l_otus and an untitled drawing, among others, were used as decorations 'in his book, An Astrological Triptych (Figures 23, 31). Another untitled drawing in the series possibly symbolizes ‘ Christian "agape" all-inclusive, universal, divine love (Figure 26). The Disciple on his way to Initiation into the mysteries of Light must have overcome not only the pull of earthly fecundity and of self-establishment in a home, but the pride of his individual realizations as a Soul. Only then can he commune with the Virgin within the pure ecstasy of translu- cent September skies. Only then can he know the universal 71 f0 ‘s ' .. Greaterb‘v/ng Figure 21. Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 72 . ab Figure 22. Untitled (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 73 L 03"?“ R. new. Dane Rudhyar. White Lotus (1956), India ink, Figure 23. 74 —\ “" \.;x "k. ~ ' . -c‘. I .I U a . .I I ' i . l .‘ . I . ’ ‘ I . l O - ' I .’ ,I . I ‘ —l . . - . - ‘x'S, "- ”0 -—o_ov~—‘- - ' O -- . O. u .. \ q ' . . i . . ...-.-nb- - ‘~ A; . o v n, i ' o . - '0 ho- -o.——-¢* ..- O Q 0 > o w- .. . - o . Novemcerio 536 Figure 24. Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 75 111 V. .JEEXK.\L\ . . . ...\.\A.41‘.H K3341 \\\.u. mkfikgbm? J ......N¢\ wank- ’ ished Terra Cotta, Gela. Awareness (1951), Pol Figure 25. 76 "Beloved" and drink of the "Wine" of mystical life. To him who is bound to his own pride the "Virgin of Light" can be but a mirage of the desert, a projection of his own thirst and his own longing. . . . His consciousness must be transfigured into the mystic countenence of the Virgin. He must have become a Universal, borne by the tamed energies of the indi- vidual Soul to the Place of Rebirth, where the Virgin's con- sciousness will become fecundated by the Star of Initiation, and the lion's body will take wings to soar toward the "New Jerusalem” descending from the skies: the Seed of Spiritual mankind.55 In Untitled (1956), the birth of Christ is clearly evident (Figure 27). Christ's life, Rudhyar sees, as symbolic of cosmic and eonic patterns: . . every event has a symbolic meaning in terms of the spe- cial character of these persons who fecundated the collective mind and aroused the Will-to-Transformation-and Transcendence in millions of people. Their lives were rituals in the sense that whatever the superficial biographic facts may have been, all major events had a "transpersonal" significance as spe- cific phases of a process unfolding according to structural, cosmic and eonic principles. We can believe that every move in such ritual lives was pre-ordained--as Jesus is reported to have said, "in order to fulfill scriptures." But we have to be careful in defin- ing the meaning we give to the term "preordained." The "order" is not an imposition from outside, a pattern forced upon an individual person--thus, what is usually understood as "fate." The avatar is ppt_an individual in the ordinary ego—sense of the word. He j§_the order that ritualistically gives structure to the life-span of his body and determines the function and meaning of his responses to the actions and the "thinkingefeeling" of his community. He is the embodi- ment or incarnation of a principle of activity, a quality of being . . . determined by the needs of his time.56 In ages past, prophesies and collective cultural expectations could be realized in such avatars. Today's world has substituted norms, statistics and laws. However: Its statistics deal entirely with the surface-being of groups and categories; its laws, with averages and map-expectancy. L/ ~ .___.. . 1| xgxx.\\ ~, -;;;y . j‘..;/,-' ///.'1 l/ I :_ D 106 GREAT ERLMNG ' Figure 26. Untitled (1957), Ink Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 78 Untitled (1956), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. Figure 27. 79 ,I: _, or R LIVING ’2 a. T' 152252? O ../ g//”/ ' /’/ .I \ . . I .. ... B . . . 1 _. . C , u . .. I ‘.. . - .\~ \. \ a \. .\ \ .\ D \ \. . o. , .0 C "1..“ I. .s . \ ... \‘. p... . I .. so \ .\ .‘u.. n . .\, \ . . . r.. ..mgfim \ . v... .70.:v.«(~..~\,\...,/..,. AX\. .\;\. ...; a «Mr/... .. 91 ; I . I . .V \ . a o O to ,..o.l . .4 . . o .....wo: . a u . a ; . . . . . . 19.. n.’ u . u ” ... I... I ...... p..." .... .. ”.../u»... . swag/.... ..... KAI/21.. ,/.r...... / /.//x...r.../. #1.. //./1.././0/.//h5r/.2/. fuflfimii. Tramp/a . . 7/1 4” / l . .0 m Untitled (1957), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. Figure 28. 80 It seeks--or claims to seek--a global fulfillment. But the globe it envisions is essentially a shell. It has no liV1ng core; no center; no single originating focus.57 In a drawing entitled The Nature of Sound: "Study the Monocord" Pythagoras' Last Words Rudhyar recalls what the Greek master revealed to our western culture: the "Aum" sound (Figure 29). He builds a twelve-tone scale in its thrice-four-fold ascent and descent simply indicated by up and down arrows. Integration is an ink drawing that uses simple forms pitted against forms that seem to threaten like giant waves of destruction. He reveals his ability to say a lot with a few lines and shapes. The composition seems frozen at a moment preceding inundation by external forces. In 1938 Dane Rudhyar did a series of drawings (Figures 33-56). Rudhyar showed them to Jonson: He asked me if I would mind if he would take them as the basis for a series of paintings. I was impressed by his interest as I had just begun to paint that summer of 1938 and gave him the sketches which he kept until he had finished his series. The idea was that the Foundation for Transcendental Painting would eventually publish the series of his paintings with a monograph I would write on each sign.5 Jonson seems to have forgotten and Rudhyar had to remind him in 1972: Dear Raymond, I am very glad to hear from you and to know that the Hill Gallery in Santa Fe is thinking of publishing a portfolio :of the zodiac series of watercolors. [This series was never issued.] After all, you probably remember that the original pencil drawing on which you based that series of zodiacal designs was made by me in the sumner, 1938. Of course you have changed the forms to some extent and the colors change things, nevertheless, the initial impulse and patterns were 81 THE NATURE. OF SOUND " Si’udy ’ The. Nafiochord PS/fiéaom'os ‘ Fest? .ercis Figure 29. The Nature of Sound: "Stud the Monocord " P tha oras' Last Wor s: 95 , Dra ng, D. Rudhyar. 82 Figure 30. Integration (1957), Ink, Dane Rudhyar. 83 . Rum“. Figure 31. Untitled, Dane Rudhyar. 84 mine. I still have the pencil sketches, and if they are not so faint I might have them reproduced someday. They could easily be made in ink.59 Forrest Judge Johnson copied them in charcoal and ink, and the collection was published under the title Zodiacal Signatures.6O There is little doubt of the formal similarities, nor that Raymond Jonson's color sense masterfully brings the compositions to life. Rudhyar's Meditation on Power (1946) is also included here as it is based on his sketch for Capricorn and makes interesting comparison (Figure 32). When inquiring if Rudhyar had a system, he observed that: . .my artistic expression is very unintellectual . . . in some way . . . I mean, it's not at all deliberate, either in painting or in music, it's a very spontaneous and rhythmic expression, it's not in any sense formal. I am the most unformalistic person there is in a sense, either initially aware or unaware of the results, that is why they think it's not “professional" sometimes, because it doesn't follow the formalism of the moment, according to rules and principles, either scholastic, occult, or so on. . . . If things are there, then it is because I feel it should be there. And thus the sub-conscious contents are revealed? Yes, but it doesn't need to come from the sub-conscious. It may come from the sphere of consciousness, from the response to life at what you are as a person. . . . If you have a mind which has passed its existence in dealing with symbols, and all that. Then, in a certain sense, everything that is created is symbolic even if you are not thinking about it at the time.51 In discussing the complementary character of the signs of the Zodiac, Rudhyar writes on cyclo-symbolic meaning of the Zodiac: The zodiac, with its signs and symbols is a symbolic expres- sion of a cyclic sequence of archetypal types of experiences. 'It is essentially lives at all times by human persons who have feelings, doubts, social problems, aspirations, and yearnings for transcendence. The symbols themselves deal with very concrete scenes, usually everyday experiences of Americans. I have attempted to extract from all the elements 85 Figure 32. Meditation on Power (1946), Watercolor, Dane Rudhyar. 86 l.IaD)-\. ... J‘Jdlii. 'uv’ 1%.??? ‘uo.\l..\o. nagfls fl “.5 Law... ....»er LFL% «v ...s..“~ Dane Rudhyar. 1ng, , Draw Capricorn Figure 33. 87 Figure 34. Capricorn (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson 88 of these scenes or images their vital significance in terms of transformation of seemingly haphazard events into sig- nificant and purposeful ones. A great occultist and a healer with a most compassionate heart, Dr. D. J. Bussell, once said that "Time is the working out of God's Plan." Symbols are units of cyclic time. They flow in an experi- ence of duration toward a conclusion, which is also the seed of a new beginning. It is the living that is signifi- cant, and the direction in which this living is moving.62 By relating the four elements to the equinoctial and solstitial points, we obtain holistic and archetypal se- quences showing the relation of the Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) under three aspects within the whole zodiacal cycle. . . . From the point of view of the entire cycle there are three cycles, each beginning with an "emergence," each emergence taking a specific level of activity and con- sciousness: The bio-psychic level, the personal-individual level, the social-collective level. We then see the possi- bility of a birth in the body, birth in individuality, a social gand in some instances, truly spiritual-occult) birth.6 It seems appropriate to conclude this chapter with some of the first works of Rudhyar because they were on the subject of the signs of the zodiac. Since Rudhyar has distinguished himself as a writer and philosopher of astrology more than in other fields (except pos- sibly music), it is essential to remember that as an artist he created (informally or otherwise) symbols of the reality to which he was drawn, the reality of philosophic inquiry into the spiritual realm. Though after stressing the unintellectual means of expression he em- ployed in his painting and music, there is nevertheless a feedback of awareness of great symbols and archetypes of forces that act upon his creations, shaping them with a sense of cosmos and an eye for the universal validity of geometry and design. In studying his work, I have grown fond of a number of his works because they present more than a single summation of content, 4-%.,~ .. Us . Figure 35. Aguarius (1938), Drawing, D. Rudhyar. 9O Figure 36. Aguarius (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 91 .Nm wkzmwu .mcwzmco .Ammva mmomwa .mesnam .o 92 £0 ' ' 1. , ‘ ' ‘2". '9‘- . ,- Figure 38. Pisces (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson 93 . ' ' V... . a .v t . u‘. » ..- ' ‘. a: 5" ‘ ' 3 1 . ' .q ‘ 1 5 . 3. . I I .v ,2!’ P'r , ,. :1 t ' 0‘... .' 1 '7 .l .’ b ,‘ é ’- ' l . .j ‘ 9. Y‘ ‘3- e 3'. b ... 5 wt 0' “a o l L if" — . ‘ ’ . . - ‘ , ',4 , - j I 7' - ' .j ;' .~ ,‘-...f 5' ' u I +t£ 2‘ '21 . 1‘”. . ,7. I ' :o“ .4. \- . .‘v‘ {A "W. 15.3: I’- ~';. ‘7‘ ‘ r: 1’. K f‘.‘ . ‘3: a! «r, ..c'l. '.'_- '.' , ..r. '1 ,-\~R ..1 :/ MNWM1.11V p.11 cl " _ yaw ‘ 's . o o 1. I ‘ * . o u- 111* .> I u-‘ . . _ ‘ a p _ . .\ .., _“‘f . .- 7‘51‘3‘ié'k-Z'P,‘ cg; ‘5 ’ I 1‘ . 1 u. . I .. N . ‘ " I“: ‘1‘ -- . '1‘" - v -‘ ‘_ ‘ '»y l .1 _ ’ 'r‘lf“.-‘.. r 1 '4'=.9’—‘1 - * .‘fi‘ 1 'T.“r ‘1 ‘, : ‘ l Figure 39. Aries (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 94 . 71.33.01. .9 - Figure 40. Aries (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 95 Taurus (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. Figure 41. 96 Taurus (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. Figure 42. 97 .1' ‘ .’ I l l 1. .1 . q ' .‘1 0‘; I .- '. ~. . ' . | . 4 : J '. 7.1 '3‘ v a ‘I . ., _..-.' 2'. S.- Figure 43. Gemini (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 98 7"" 1'?” ”‘7'73'3W5' ,: »‘ I 1~ *‘ ‘5! 21 9’ . l a 1 Figure 44. Gemini (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 99 .mecuam acme .mcmzmso .Ammva Loucmu .mv mgamwu g“ -~"~h’ 1.9," . ,-_,. . . . , . t” " .4)“ 7' up. i y- .‘~‘ . Nit-i:- a, I! 1 . '55: «a. 1 Ix.‘ 100 Figure 46. Cancer (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 101 .gmzcusm mama .mcwzmgo . Ammmpv.mmm .Ne 823822 102 Figure 48. Lfl (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 103 Figure 49. Virgo (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 104 Figure 50. Virgo (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 105 .Lmasczm memo .mcwzmgo .Ammmpv mgnvd , .. . . x‘ .1 . 11.110: .. 1. .1 1 \ 0...»... . . .... _ . 1 ,. . (V .... . .1'Ous,\a.. AK a.. ...1. . . , 1. .. . Ur 4.. .i.. ,9 . .0. ...A I... . . ‘1‘! .. fi ‘- I.u’.o 1 ... HOVW-d.“ C. . w . \ , , . 1’4 1. 1 .XV... .‘tfi.,'\a. l. rut... . . .... . . y . r a l .. k . ....-. .... .4... -34 .1 . A... . .- . . 11.5.". (first . 1. .a .. u ‘9.“ . . ., . I... u 1 .1 .....o w\ Tobi». J 9...r i s . . .I. 1... . . . up 1 . . . .. I V .4\ L’luu‘fduo-k a 1. . - .s I . . . , . . . . .. 1 .1. . .4.) . f.. 1 t. , a. . 22‘ . , 2.... . . 13.... ..nn 1 .10....“ . . p..\\1.’1 J. 11 11 ...-t or. I .. \v\ol . S 3:3“. . r. .n L . o u a . 11.... u 106 Figure 52. Libra (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 107 .gmxzuam memo .acwzwgo .Ammva opmgoum .mm wgzmmu . x . ...... - .'0‘.!0:\.\ \ 1'1"‘.10 - .21.... .1... l o .. a . .1. . . we 108 Figure 54. Scorpio (1938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 109 Va “:14 1.. Mn: «fri- ' ;H: (g 91 “at 3;; Evita?“ -”~’ 0 ‘ L.‘ ..;'., .1 #3,, a Figure 55. Sagittarius (1938), Drawing, Dane Rudhyar. 110 Figure 56. Sagittarius (l938), Watercolor, Raymond Jonson. 111 while remaining ever new to the imagination and enigmatically elusive and demanding. This is a valuable quality in any work of art, espe- cially in an age of second-rate mass consumerism in which people are to be instantly gratified. Rudhyar did not create a large body of paintings and many works he sold have disappeared without a forwarding address over the years and thus cannot be presented here. However the works included here provide evidence of Rudhyar's draftsmanship and artistic sensitivity which justifies inclusion with the work of the TPG. Rudhyar's zodiac drawings are intriguing not only for their sub- ject matter as visualizations of astrological archetypes. They are beautifully composed improvisations on abstract hieroglyphs that have been in western culture for thousands of years. Much of Rudhyar's work reverberates with a primordial quality unaffected by the trivi- alities of his age. It seems apparent after much reflection on his artistic work that Rudhyar, as indeed many members of the TPG, was not intent upon the mere creation of symbols. That indeed would be philosophy and I1ot painting. Rather he was interested in re-vivifying symbols for tase in art to the extent that objects, shapes and lines could exude ii life of their own. They are laden with meanings, not as literary <>r~philosophic referents, but as meaningful speech in a meaningful liinguage of art that speaks from the work itself. In a direct, in- ‘tLIitive and informal way, capable of succinct yet verbally unformu- TEltable expression, Rudhyar's images breach the middle ground be- tween object and experience, between the sun, let us say, on the one hand, and the joy of the light, warmth and life that it brings on 112 the other. Herein is an essential difference. Modernism has been destructive to the nature of symbols due to abstract art's total self- justification by the art process itself. Abstractions could be seen wholly independent of all other signifiers, focusing in upon themselves as a world apart. Transcendental art was in part made possible by the pioneers of modern abstraction, yet it places great stress on re- taining a connection, a bridge, to both the objective and non-objec- tive realms, employing a systematic approach to themes, motives and geometric forms. Symbolic art necessarily rejects the abstract pre- mise of self-sufficiency. Transcendental art shares with symbolism a need for reference to another order of meaning which can ever re- kindle the flames of new interpretations in the mind of the observer and can be more than merely the sum of these interpreted symbols. Rudhyar and the Transcendental painters too were not bound to any tight system of meanings and interpretations of symbols. They de- tested intellectualism in art as much as anywhere else. However their art had to assimilate both the splendid advances of Cubism and abstract arWLby rejecting purely representational means and by reaching “beyond 'trmlreproduction," or interpretation of familiar objects into the reahn (If a mental and spiritual awareness of the more individualistic ele- ments of creative life...." (TPG Manifesto). Rudhyar undoubtedly pursued in his painting and drawing what he 'felt were prime symbols of cultural transformation, images that tnoought forth new imaginative possibilities for future generations that vividly stimulated new conscious awareness, new hope for the 113 triumph of quality, harmony and faith in human evaluation. In pur- suing these ends, the symbols he created burst forth with philosophic vitality that was not the result of contemplation of mere aesthetic or stylistic considerations such as line, shape, surface and symmetry. He imaged forth a language of transcendence and spiritual commitment that earned him the respect afforded the sacred artist who needed only the help of divine inspiration. FOOTNOTES--CHAPTER I 1Dane Rudhyar, "The New Sense of Space," Art as Release of Power (Oceano, CA: Halcyon Press, l929), p. 17. See also Footnote 6. 21bid., p. l6. 3Ibid., p. 19. 4Jose Arguelles, The Transformative Vision (Boulder: Shambahla Press, l976) p. 229. 5Rudhyar, Art as Release of Power, p. 5. 6Dane Rudhyar, The Rhythm of Human Fulfillment (Palo Alto, Ca.: The Seed Center, 1966, p. 3T2 7 8A letter by Dane Rudhyar to Raymond Jonson dated February, 1955. Rudhyar's letter to me of November 3, l980 states he knew Morgan Russel also. Ibid., p. 74. 9Interview with Dane Rudhyar, 22 September 1977. loRudhyar, Art as Release of Power. This book contained essays that were visionary and highly original for their time. He quotes Jay Hambidge on dynamic symmetry in his essay ("A New Sense of Space," p. l6 and 25). 11Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph W. Emerson, Vol. IX, (1843), H. H. Gilman and J. E. Parson, Eds., (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970) p. 3ll. 12See Nancy Holz, "The Transcendentalist View of Astrology," Horoscope Magazine (New York: Dell Press, May l978), p. 99. 13General Smut's book, Holism and Evolution, also interested him, and with his knowledge of Henri Bergson's philosophical works, Rudhyar, himself, was given an opportunity to synthesize these new ideas into what ultimately he came to call "humanistic or trans- personal astrology." See Rudhyar's book Beyond Individualism (p. ll for further elaboration. This book includes a helpful index). ll4 115 14A Ph.D. dissertation on Taos and Santa Fe by Kay Aiken Reeve traces the making of a truly American cultural center in New Mexico's attraction of many notable, creative artists such as D. H. Lawrence, Andrew Dasburg, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others. In it she interviews many artists and writers who recall the era of l898-l942, including Raymond Jonson and one of the last interviews of Emil Bisttram. See Kay Aiken Reeve, The Making of An American Place: The Develop- ment of Santa Fe and Taos, N. M., as an American Cultural Center l898-l942, (Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A & M, 1977). 15Katz quoted in Alfred Morang, Dane Rudhyar: Pioneer in. Creative Synthesis (New York: Lucis Publications, l939), p. 23. 16 Rudhyar writes of New Mansions in his Introduction: Indeed it should be read as a poem, an epic of the human soul. But not a poem in the modern sense of "literature;“ rather, a poem as poetry was understood in olden times, as a revelation of permanent and essential meaning through symbols that have power because great beings who lived them poured power into them. 17Hazel Dreis Editions, Santa Fe, l938. 18Marrie Ewing, New Mexico Examiner, 2 October l938. 19Morang, p. 18. 20 2IDane Rudhyar, New Mansions for New Men (New York: Lucis Press, 1938) Preface. Ibid., pp. 18-19. We must let the symbols live within the actuality of our quest for richer living. They are not dead butterflies pinned upon the pages of a curiosity-seeker's album. They are live seeds. They would be futile, indeed, and all this would be in vain, were they not to glow more brightly and live more understandingly with the fire and the wisdom that these symbols stirred within our souls. 22New Mansions, caption by the editor. 23R. M. Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. M. D. Herter (New York: Norton, T942), p. 133. 24 25Alfred Morang, pp. l7-l8. In this booklet, Morang dis- <:usses the historical lineage of non-objective art, and is somewhat l imited in his perspective of Rudhyar's art work due to a lack of distance from it. Jose Arguelles, The Transformative Vision, p. 289. 116 26Once a holistic, cosmic world view is attained, inner struc- tures of life, its processes and meaning, rhythms and archetypal images can be seen as vibrations, forms and pulsations of the divine plan. 27For a further discussion on Kupka on these points, see Meda Mladck's essay, "Central European Influences" in Frank Kup a Exhibition Catalogue Kunsthaus, Zurich, January 1976, p. 31. 28Hi11a Rebay, "Non-Objectivity is the Realm of the Spirit," Exhibition Catalogue #3, New York, Guggenheim Museum of Non-Objective Art, 1938, p. iii. 29Transcendental art ultimately seeks to communicate, to be understandable, and involve the viewer rather than to be obscure and unpurposefully esoteric. Ludmilla Vachtova points out that Kupka thought that the raison d'etre of his painting lay in philosophical messages he could communicate, in her book Frank Kupka, 1968, p. 252. 30Morang, Rudhyar, p. 14. 3'lRudhyar, ”Art as Gesture, Art as Pattern," in Art as Release of Power, n.p., p. 28. 32Letter from Dane Rudhyar to Robert Hay, November 3, 1980, p. 6. See: Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 13 and Footnote 2, Introduction. 33Rudhyar cited in Jose Arguelles, pp. 230-231. 34 35“Art as Evocation," in Rudhyar, Exhibition Catalogue, University of Minnesota Art Gallery, February 1977. 36Dane Rudhyar, Occult Preparations for a New Age (Wheaton, 111.: Quest Books, TheosophicaT’PuB1ishing House, 1975), see Part IV, pp. 230-231. 37Dane Rudhyar, Paths to the Fire (Detroit, Michigan: Hermes Press, 1978) (reprinted), pp. 17418. 38Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), p. 319. 39 Ibid. Dane Rudhyar, "Art of Gesture," Art as Release of Power, p. 28. 40Dane Rudhyar, Seeds of Plenitude (Santa Fe, N. M.: Rydal F’ress, 1943) (excerpts from Rudhyar‘s writings) preface. 117 4lNicolai Fechin, quoted in "Dane Rudhyar Seedmanz" Human Dimensions Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Buffalo, New York: Human Dimensions Institute, 1975), p. 7. 42"Art as Evocation," n.p. 43Dane Rudhyar, "A New Sense of Space" in Art as Release of Power, p. 14. 44Rudhyar, An Astrological Triptych, Second Edition (New York: ASI Publishing, 1968), p. 187. 45Dane Rudhyar, "Where Do We Stand In The Arts,” September 1959, Seed For Greater Living Magazine, p. 14. 46Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala, p. 318. 47Albert Camus, "Create Dangerously." Nobel Prize Lecture Upsala University, Sweden, December 1957, New York, Knopf, 1958, p. 267. Rudhyar notes in a letter of November 3, 1980, Camus had no influence on him having first read his work when he returned to France in the late 50's. 48Dane Rudhyar, Seed Letter, December 1956. 49Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala, p. 318. 50"Art as Evocation," n.p. 5lDane Rudhyar, Beyond Individualism, The Psychology of Trans- formation, (Nheaton, 111.: Quest Books, Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), p. 41. 52Dane Rudhyar, We Can Begin Again Together, p. 23. 53Jose Argfielles, p. 261. He cites Rudhyar as having long seen through the sham of avant-guardism once it sold out to market values. His chapter "Art and Alchemy" deals extensively with Rudhyar and should be considered an essential reading of Rudhyar's insights into the nature of contemporary art. The following is a good example: To accept Rudhyar's vision is to accept not only the death of this civilization, but the exalted coming of a new phase of human development totally unpredicted by the present phase. Rudhyar's vision is cyclical, like Yeat's and Jung's. More emphatically than anyone else, except perhaps Spengler, Rudhyar has declared the irrevocable death of the present civilization; and more surely and clearly, he has envisioned the birth of a 118 new civilization. But the new era will arrive only through a transformation of certain elements in the present era. Follow- ing Breton's cue, Rudhyar took up the ancient language of astrology, which provided a structural viewpoint within which the cyclical philosophy of the seed could be properly articu- lated. In fact, placing the ancient science on a psychological footing appropriate to the condition of the modern spirit, Rudhyar, along with Marc Edmund Jones, must be looked upon as one of the renewers of astrology (Ibid., p. 231). (The avatar-as-artist was vaguely postulated in Breton's Second Mani- festo of Surrealism.) 54Rudhyar, New Mansions for New Men, n.p., p. 226. 55 56 Ibid., p. 251. Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala, pp. 379-380. 57 58 59Rudhyar's letter to Jonson, October 1972, the Jonson letter archive, Jonson Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. 60Figures 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 45, 51, 53, 55, 57 are copies by Forrest Judge Johnson of Rudhyar's sketches, published as Zodiacal Signatures along with Rudhyar's poems to each sign (see Appendix H). 61 Rudhyar, An Astrological Triptych, p. 131. Rudhyar's letter to Robert Hay, November 1980. Interview September 22, 1977, Appendix D. 62Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala. PP. 311. 63Ibid., pp. 335-336. CHAPTER II RAYMOND JONSON (1891 - ) The TPG could not have existed without Raymond Jonson. Jonson's work represented a synthesis of technical excellence expressed in abstract-geometic and psychological- symbolic subject matter. This synthesis is the essence of Jonson's visual poetry. Sheldon Cheney in his Primer on Modern Art (1932) and Story of Modern Art (1941) was one of the first art historians to recognize Jonson: "For many years Raymond Jonson pioneered at his retreat in Sante Fe. achieving the first considerable body of effective American semi-abstract inventions. . . ."1 Raymond Jonson (pronounced "yon-son") was born to Swedish emigrants in Iowa on July 18, 1891. Since his father was a Baptist nfinister, the family moved to new parishes on occasion, eventually locating in Portland, Oregon where Raymond was to spend much of his :Youth. It is evident in his later work that the strict religious tJackground had a profound effect on Raymond for much of the work he vvas to produce had definite "sacred art" qualities although it did not adhere to formalistic or liturgical prescriptions. After attending a newly established art school at the Port- 1and Museum, studying under Kate Cameron Simons, a former student 01" Arthur H. Dow, Raymond moved to Chicago where he attended a few 119 120 courses at the Academy of Fine Arts. However, this association was not as formative as his studies with Wellington J. Reynolds. Later in 1912, while renting a studio with artist J. Blanding Sloan (Figure 59) and Carl Oscar Erickson, Jonson was to meet his Swedish-born mentor- to-be, artist B. J. O. Nordfeldt, whom he greatly admired for his in- formal teaching manner which he was later to emulate (Figure 57). In 1912-13 Raymond began exhibiting works in oil. With the arrival of the Armory Show in 1913, which was the most comprehensive show of modern art to be seen in America, his career as a painter took a decisive turn in the direction of abstraction. At that show were paintings by Agnes Pelton. Pelton and Jonson would later become fast friends, and corresponded for many years after the Transcendental Painting Group broke up in 1941. Their first exhibition together was at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe in September 1933. Rudhyar was asked to write the introduction to the catalogue and they became friends. The following is a list of some of the drawings Jonson exhibited at that exhibition: Pattern of Growth, Ascending Circle, Rising Line, Design of Structure, Suspended Ovals, Energy, Stream of Light, Arches in Light, The Pit and Light, Mask, and Orbits. Rudhyar noted the musical qualities in his work, and like Harris, spoke of a "bridge" to another realm: 'Hhile the expressionist emphasizes his emotional reactions, in terms of poetic images burdened with strain, his art with a more sublimal consciousness detached from phenomena and soaring with ease in a psychological real of free creative Figure 57. Logs Drifting (1949), Oil, BJO Nordfeldt. Figure 58. Earth Rhythms #3 (1923), Oil, Raymond Jonson. Sloan. ing .\\.. 1.1 . 122 ties (1924), J. Bland 1ni Two Inf Figure 59. 123 activity. . . . It would be rather banal to say that by so doing, he finds himself in close comradeship with the musician,--yet it might not be altogether senseless to compare him to a Schoenberg in music--especially, perhaps, in his drawings. These close and vibrating notations of almost super- conscious feelings and introspections may be considered as . . rhythmical and harmonic compositions of formal elements, which have the insistence, and directness and emotional values of musical themes; and in some cases, the eyes are evidently expected to move throughout the space encompassed by the drawing, as if following a progressive development of the patterns. This is an art whose appeal is interior and trans- cendent--a bridge between the world of sense-perceptions, of things as they appear, and that of introspective self- discovery and self-revelation. As all great art, it leads to a progregsive expansion of consciousness within their own natures. It would seem that Rudhyar had almost named this art "trans- cendental" by 1933! Jonson showed a number of drawings that revealed a growing predominance of abstract forms and rigorous sense of cubistic-geometric organization. The series, Earth Rhythms (1923) is discussed in a letter by Arthur Jonson to his brother (Appendix B). Jonson's use of design concepts of dynamic symmetry give this composi- tion balance and formal integration (Figure 58). Lionel Feininger's use of rays of light to facet his compositions and his belief in their spiritual, evocative nature, parallel Jonson's "statism" a term given by Rudhyar to Jonson's painting in his book, The Transcendental Move- ment in Painting. By 1923 Jonson departed from the mere representa- tional painting that he had employed for over a decade and began to work abstractly. His first trip to Santa Fe was in June of 1922 where he did the preliminary sketches used here. The exhibition with Pelton and Cady Hells in 1933 marked the appearance of some of his totally 124 abs tract work after a decade of experimentation. Another painting that was important for such a development was Composition Four- Lelancholx of 1925 which can be favorable compared to Pelton's Fire Sounds (Figure 60, 78). In the former: There are elements in it derived, one supposes, from the same sources as earlier works, but everything is used in a different way. The shapes may originate in part from nature, but the expression here is of something beyond natural shapes, for it reflects the pressure of an inner turmoil, the "agony" of having been away from painting for more than a year.3 Jonson's subconscious guilt for having been "architectonic, a '4 and not a painter of paintings, bubbles to the surface in Composition Four-Melancholy. draftsman ," Pelton's Fire Sounds was the paint- ing she considered her best emissary (as of 1934) to the "big world"-- powerful rather than intimate and possessing a decorative quality that appealed to people on an aesthetic level. However, they both had come to realize that art shouldn't be created to suit popular taste. They realized that: "artistic creation is the metamorphosis of the external physical aspects of a thing into a self-sustaining spiritual reality."4 A drawing Jonson saw at an exhibition by Nicholai Roerich at the Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 1921, Ecstacy, is the ecstacy Of a Sisyphus (Figure 61). Roerich, the Russian symbolist, realized his life was ending but savored the ecstacy of knowing his travail is over as light descends from above the figure of the old man. Jonson‘s m, a drawing included in the TPG monograph of 1940, expresses the 125 (1925), Raymond Jonson. Com osition Four-Melanchol Figure 60. 126 We” . ... Drawing, Nicholai Roerich. Ecstacx (1918) Figure 61. 127 ecstacy of artistic fellowship (Figure 62). Though Jonson's drawing is non-objective, it contains rhythmic lines recalling Roerich's drawing. Pelton also did a painting with the same title, so the attribution or inSpiration is uncertain. Speaking of the Roerich exhibition, Jonson writes: I find that the work that is simply for itself and not a design for something else is by far the most complete and satisfying . . . what I mean is that indispensible something which deals with the spirit. This art should be recognized as fundamental, should be thought of outside all physical aspects. It is the great love. It can have no use outside of feeding the spirit.5 The word ecstacy is from the Greek "ekstasis" and may be applied to any strong emotion, fear, joy, rage, adoration, love. It is a word close to "transcendental" when defined as transporting or lifting one out of oneself, provoking vehement expression or even frenzied action. It does not merely refer to rapturous bliss or intense, trance-like, overwhelming emotion, for it may be the feeling of deep involvement. Rudhyar, speaking of Jonson's development, realized the importance of New Mexico for his work: The powerful earth-forms of New Mexico and Arizona landscape were strong stimuli indeed to the sense of structure of the artist, while sunsets and the clouds brought ever-changing composition in light and color to the eye. These influences of the land served however more as a cathartic than as a basis for the more mature productions of a mind open to racial currents and almost too familiar with the mechanics of middle west metrOpolis. They liberated rather than inspired. - Jonson's painting Southwest Arrangement (1933), which embodies his ideals of design, bears a title which denotes a process of arrange- ment, adjustment of abstract designs and motifs and it reflects 128 Figure 62. Ecstacy (1939), Drawing, Raymond Jonson. 129 the environment of the southwestern United States (Figure 63). The art-i st has left objective subject matter for complete abstraction and wi th this painting finds a turning point in his work. Here there are no longer such recognizable things as rain, wind, storm, and c1 ouds , or rays as in Melancholia, but there are abstract equivalents of "i mpressions or feelings of the Southwest. Intuited perhaps in certain designs and colors that admit cosmic influences from Indian Art of the Southwest are certain recurrent rhythms and movements 91 "Btu re 11 that setting. The painting had originally been entitled $31.; 1: hwest Constructions.7 Beginning a personal tradition for Jonson of trilogies and eye 1 e-paintings was a series of three works in 1930 called Time Cycle. Other cycle series follow: Life Cycle (1940), Space Cycle (1950), L01 or Cycle (1960), Curvilineargycle (1970) and Symmetrical- GEOWtrical Cycle (1973). Time Cycle demonstrates Jonson's curiosity regarding the physical nature of the universe (Figure 64). If time Serves as one of the major abstract variables of existence for the art‘i st, as well as for the musician,it represents a dynamic element 1“ artistic expression. For the visual artist, time serves as a VaY‘i able in terms of the sunlight which falls on objects reflecting “'1 th varying intensities the material world. Time Cycle is a three- paY‘t representation of "Morning," "Noon," and "Night" (Figure 64. 55) . The triptych acquires symbolic force by embodying essential a“litributes that these periods of light and dark represent: shading, ray-effect, modeling of objects, as well as the idea of the orbit 130 Figure 63. Southwest Arrangement (1933), Raymond Jonson. 131 .:Om:on ecoszmm .Aommpv Acooz mcwcgoz ”Amo_wghv mpuxu weep em me=m_a 132 .comcoo ncoszmm .F_mpmo .Aommpv “gum: .mo weaned 133 of planets and the "planetarization of consciousness" (Rudhyar). New Mexico offered Jonson a place of intense confrontation with the awesome forces of nature, the riven earth, the strong sunlight. The geometry of natural forms and the dynamic synmetry in the landscape convinced him to paint the very rhythms which he intuited in abstractions created in the spirit rather than the appearance of things. These rhythms and designs would eventually result in polymers that were utterly refined ‘i’ nto simple forms that spoke for themselves. He discovered that a <2 ‘i rcle confined or contained by parallel lines seemed at one and the Same time to hold the sphere in space, yet when juxtaposed to muted background concentric circles, created tensions which evoked numerous 0'1”: her interpretations and exemplified his own artistic pursuit of per- 1“ection. In this way Jonson could paint abstractions that were charged W‘i th association yet limit himself to the forms themselves. Once 1 eaving specified subject matter such as Life Cycle or Interlocked F0 r-ms which immediately preceded his work in the TPG, Jonson's polymer ser‘ies allowed him to dedicate himself to a life of art which would 1 ead him beyond the limits of semi-representational art into pure abstraction. Just as words fail to express or define love or religious eXperience, literary or representational art generally fails to embody the ideals or truths to which the artist is heir. Love and religion have failed as expressed by power, and so we can well dedicate our effort toward an a stract vision of the ideal that underlies the truth in them. Jonson spoke from the frustration he felt at the outbreak of World War II. He had reaffirmed his vision by reading Kandinsky's Concerning 134 the. Sjiritual in Art, a book Jonson held to be the greatest book on art he had ever read.9 In Jonson's Time Cycle, and especially in Night, a clear juxta- position of the given reality of the senses and the dream reality of the sleeper at night can be seen. These works were, along with the Ea rth Forms series, major steps towards formulating concepts of space and time which would lead to his Universe series and homages to science, mathematics and astronomy, a few years before the formation of the TPG. Ed Garman stressed that Jonson, unlike Kandinsky, worked from the material object itself, giving witness to the material thing itself and n oticeably evident in his later work when Jonson used aggregates added to the paint. Garman: He can also have the possibility of responding to the spirit implied by the kind of order impressed on the material by the creative act. Here was an extraordinary challenge that kept an artist of Jonson's persuasion hard at work: the challenge to eliminate the opposition of inert matter by so transforming it as to evoke the immaterial creative force. He saw this activity as functional to all creativity and considered it a source of the spiritual in art.10 Jonson sought the active release, the ecstatic creative mark that lent ugenuine art" its distinctive quality, as well as the resulting state o-F equilibrium of spirit which exemplifies the idea of order or haDpiness.n In the winter of 1931, Jonson held his first exhibition in New YOrk at the Delphic Studios where, according to Jonson, the critics la- bEled him a "Western artist" and one producing "color charts of a low Order". He wasn't to have another show in New York for over 50 years and after already having put away his brush in 1978. Though his works 135 fit well into the stylistic manners of the time, Jonson's work retains a distinctive, rather than derivative characteristic, making his work readily identifiable. This may be accounted for by his intense emotional attachment to his art. I believe in the art-emotion--and live-idea of the universe in which we find ourselves. I cannot but feel our sub- conscious is held within the physical world. I believe in life and I love life and want all I can get of it and in so doing I live. And what I leave behind after I am through with it is not some unknown, unsolved riddle of the esoteric idea of some mystical idea of creation, but rather a rich message for man of man because it includes all thoughts and ideas possible within the mind of man. That in a sense is the real meaning of the abstract in art.12 J Onson's works beg comparison with the American Proto-Precisioni st, Charles Demuth. I Saw the Number Five in Gold, a painting which he Saw when in New York in 1931 makes interesting comparison to his Axb§tract Five of 1930. After his return from New York, City Perspec- w (second version) of 1933 conveys the full emotional response to hi 5 visit there. The powerful verticle thrusts of skyscrapers and the Powerful influence of the corrmercial artist's air-gun, merge in a con- f1 uence of forms which pluralize their meaning without losing their ‘i "dividual integrity. '3 At one and the same time we are left with the impression that a yearning for transcendence is not the yearning for more money which is symbolized in the skyscrapers. Jonson was left Unaffected by the tinsel and the glamour, for his colors remained muted even though his rhythmic lines were comparable to the flare of bold symphonic compositions.'4 136 -I.-. '."i.'-' I- I .' .ll‘--- I a... V._, 3.“ ;~ . .4} d. .... . a .5... .p .. elm '. . NEW 1 l i I: . l. (I. P~ a. 2 l1 .6 Raymond Jonson. ion) (1933) (Second Vers City Perspectives Figure 66. 137 His spiritual illuminations would awaken another kind of "-i‘1 1IJmination"--the actual translucency of the painting medium. It seems to me that when a painter has accomplished quality 'through purity of inner vision, fulfillment and pleasure can result, both on the part of the painter and the audience. By (quality I mean that elusive and mysterious sort of film that t>inds the work together through integration of the color or 'tone with the shape or form, the line with the rhythm, etc., 'these in accord with the texture so that the work has a tactile lr’ form or force offer vibrations, evocations of emotional or mental Con c epts. constructively directed during the execution of a work until the art—1' st arrives at an equilibrium of spirit which becomes an example of order and happiness. exhibition where he met both Archipenko and Moholy-N39)“ In Chicago during late 1937, Jonson attended the Archipenko Jonson's 1etter to his wife noted the purity of form that was represented in tohese artists work: ‘ (they) . . . have gone so much farther . . . that my exhibit 'will probably look a little academic! But I do not quite agree with the geometrical agproach and feel confident that my own can go farther. . . .1 lBut, Rudhyar saw Jonson as a kind of "painter-engineer" and com- pared him to the technical excellence of the French Purist. Working in the non-objective realm, emotive vibrations are 138 "In Europe, Purists, like the great modern French architect Le Corbusier, represent preeminently this aspect of engineering skill in the immaculate application of subtle colors in smooth forms to flat surfaces."'7 It should be noted that as early as 1920, Jonson's lists absolute or favorable elements for paintings which include the follow- ing: atmosphere, luminosity, color, quality, richness, depth, juici- ness, rhythm, spontaneity and an interesting surface.'8 The 1937 exhibition provided Jonson, while he was in Chicago, with an opportunity to experience the work of those artists who formed the New Bauhaus. He was particularly interested in their airbrush technique. Jonson took the suggestion to use it from Harry 19 Holzman. Compare Raymond Jonson's Pictographic Composition #7 (1946) and Jacque Villon's Abstraction (1923) (Figures 67, 68). Of the latter, H. H. Arnason writes: . .a painting entitled simple Abstraction, a starkly painted perspective box with the window Opening on the infinity of the blue sky. The box turns itself inside out before the spectator, and is given a quality of fantasy, gy a whiplash line that swirls inexplicably in empty space. E30th of the paintings are simple in design. Jonson uses similar eeidbcts of line and shape and an economy of means. The hope has been to arrive at a state of pure feeling: . . .to create through the spirit rather than the physical; to deal with shapes, forms and colors in such a way that they appear to expose the spirit of man rather than his physical being: to go beyond the appearance of the world and its forms into a realm of idealistic condition of order and space that pertains tg structure as it can function in the plastic creative act. 1 139 3}; , . ‘8‘3‘§.:.§ Figure 68. Abstraction (1923), Jacques Villon. 140 ficawever, despite the similarity of the Villon and the Jonson paint- ‘il1gS, there was no direct relationship. On the Pictographic Series Jonson observes: They present little if any clue as to what they are based on. The title is the only clue and it may be misleading for it could be taken to mean a particular pictograph or petroglyph which is not the case. It is simply an emotional organiza- tion established in design terms upon thinking of pictographs and petroglyphs in general. The physical connection in the use of the inciagd line and admixture of sand with paint in certain shapes. 1'1 attempting to decifer these "clues," it might be best to iinnmdiately state that fine examples of ancient petroglyphs are scratched in the lava and boulders near an extinct volcano not far from Albuquerque. However, the incised line might also have been a matter of attention when Jonson studied Jay Hambidge's book Dynamic 23 gignnmetry and the Greek Vase in 1923. The book by virtue of its analytical format reveals the design value of the incised line. ‘Tlius, "thinking about pictographs and petroglyphs in general" con- ‘Fi rmed in Jonson's mind how easily simple lines can reveal the Spirit of man. Jonson stressed absolute simplicity of design and color. He Employed universal symbols that were inherent in natural phenomena iiricd would be the first to agree with Naum Gabo's statement that "the <2c>r1ception of reality is an ever changing result of the universal human, creative process. . . ."24 Just before the May 1938 formation of the Transcendental Painting Group of which he was the chairman, Jonson exhibited work at the Catherine Kuh Gallery, Chicago. This important show 141 was the beginning of a complete reevaluation of his own work and may riaive explained his willingness to form a larger matrix in which to (ieavelop. Theosophy, astrology, oriental aesthetics, Einsteinean physics, and Bauhaus design weighed heavily in the minds of the TPG as ominous storm clouds appeared over Europe on the brink of World War II. The year 1938 also marked the beginning of Jonson's use of the airbrush which would give him the transparent use of watercolor predominant in his later work. The TPG provided Jonson with a new matrix of ideas, a new 501; i darity of purpose, and a greater range of influence that would soon be discovered when the group exhibited seven canvases at the Guggen- heim in 1940. They had also planned to show at the 1940 Paris World Exposition but only one painting by Lumpkins made it there and it was lost due to the invasion by Germany. Watercolor #18, 1939, and iatercolor #17, 1940 (Figures 69, 72) by Jonson are untitled and thus Force the viewer to decide for himself what the compositions mean. From this period forward, Jonson would give only numbers to his work. M‘ $1 or #18 might contain a reference to a painting by Kandinsky, Grid Shaped of 1927 (Figure 71) though Jonson's "antennae" are on top of what Could be interpreted as a New Mexican mesa. This viewer was reminded of how artists are like antennae of the world or cosmos as they "receive" inspiration. In Watercolor #18 it appears that Hitler's Gestapo might be 5Wb01ized by tendrils or tenacles that stretch out to grab what Hitler dubbed "degenerate artists." Because of the persecution, thousands 142 Figure 69. Watercolor #18 (1939), Raymond Jonson. 143 Figure 70. Watercolor #21 (1939), Raymond Jonson. 144 Figure 71. Gridshaped (1927), Wassily Kandinsky. 145 Figure 72. Watercolor #17 (1940), Raymond Jonson. 145 crf artists whose "towering imaginations" became a political threat lizad to flee to the United States or elsewhere. Despotic power-elites <>t>viously realize the power of persuasion artists have with their images. Hitler's Third Reich could not be secure as long as artists vveere still around to reveal the shock, horror, and insanity which Fli’tler engendered. Similar war tensions can be felt in Watercolor #1 7. The iron-like lines (Blut and Eisen) suggest lines drawn on a vvaar‘map as the Blitzkrieg reigns; the loops might be the advanced armies that often roared forward, encircling and capturing whole armies or vast areas very much like the lines present. (Possibly the (:CJlor black in 1940 symbolized the black shirts of the Fascists.) 'rliough not necessarily inserting ideology in his work, Jonson gave lectures in Santa Fe as early as 1933 in which he warned his audience (If an impending disaster in Europe. Rudhyar in 1938 vocalized the following insights in the TPG manifesto: At a time when western civilization is dominated by the most extreme ideal of objectivity, concrete and economic material- ism, when mass psychology, mass propaganda and the theoretical show of dictatorships threaten the rights of individuals to live, feel, think, and create as individuals, it is indeed necessary for minorities of creative personalities to claim the historically fated task of embodying the polar attitude to life--thus acting as seeds or as leaven to condition the reversal of civilization's ideals which gs bound to come when the present tide is reached its limits.2 In Jonson's Watercolor #21, 1939, his "transparency" ‘technique is as evident as it is in his Cosmic Theme series (Figure 70).. He employs the airbrush to create a landscape which is "Stmatified" by utilizing here what appears to be a sponge roller. 147 Jonson's use of transparent strata and Pelton's color gradations paralleled Harris' own assimilation of Cubist or Bauhaus planarity: . .a quality particularly applicable to the development of facts of the inner life, and it ties up with ancient sym- bolism as to the nature of consciousness. It is very inter- esting to contrast this "stratism" with Agnes Pelton's tech- nique featuring infinite subtle color-gradation. In her canvases color merges into colors, somewhat as they do in Western skies during those particularly amazing desert sunsets; while with Jonson, the trend is toward giving to each strati- fication or plane a definite color, complexities and varia- tions (or blends) occurring through the apparent superimposi- tion of color-p1anes.26 As Chairman of the TPG, Jonson succeeded in obtaining exhi- bition space at the Golden State International Exposition, San Fran- cisco, at the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, and at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He also worked to maintain the American Foundation for Transcendental Painting which the TPG had incorporated in 1938. Nevertheless, it was never well-endowed financially and lasted only a few years. The Foundation was unable to afford to publish a portfolio of Stuart Walker's work when he died in 1940. This failure probably forced the question concerning the viability of the Foundation and its importance. The TPG also lost its cohesion in 1941 after the American entry into World War II, but Jonson and his wife continued to send out important information concerning these painters. Ed Garman best describes Jonson's later works as character- istic of a Promethean force which: . .seeks out the fresh, the various, the novel, the individual.... A characteristic diversity prevents evaluation of his art in terms of comparisons and trends and prevailing styles.... It is an 148 art and a beauty expressing the single rapture of the unique experience and delineation.27 This anti-stylistic approach became Jonson's means of achieving ex- pressive freedom while at the same time remaining verbally silent to a great extent about the nature or content of his works. This is an exceedingly strong position to be in by passing the burden of interpretation to that of the viewer and historian. I feel that there is a reason for this which cannot necessarily be similarly accounted for by the general insistence that these abstractions are ideas that verbally could not be expressed. Jonson has many hidden seemingly sexual allusions in his work which effectively escape the visual iconoclasm of the prudish bourgeoisie. This would in part explain a reluctance to speak about especially the more sensuous works and also permit private spiritual revelations to be communica- ted without dogma. Jonson's later work Polymer #24 of 1973, is a perfect example of the power and perfection which Jonson achieved with the simplicity that represents his unique style (Figure 73). The painting is an example of the eloquence of geometric conceptions of form, space, and color. In terms of the major shapes, one reads from the bottom to the top of the ascending triangle two rhomboid shapes containing two light purple or royal mauve lines that rise and parallel a royal purple line in the center; two lower forms and a large mass in the center combine visually to form a cone or vase-like mass 149 Figure 73. Polmr #24 (1973), Raymond Jonson. 150 with the interior line drawing the forms together. Surrounding these light areas is an orange triangle or pyramid which ascends.28 This abstraction releases a symbolic power that allows the observer to imagine the many possible interpretations. Personally, I see here the essential elements of the mystical human drama of love, marriage and transcendence from the human condition to that of the divine condition. Just as Jesus spoke of his life as a cup or vase, the major dominant line in the center is the cross, and the outer lines are essentially a vase-like form. Man has become co-creator of his "vase of life" so to speak. God need not direct us from without with signs and omens, portents and miracles, for in man him- self is the universe in the microcosm, made in the image of God. The two small lineal segments in the bottom piece are modeled by the cast shadows and form two figures, man and woman, joined in holy wedlock. The upper segments could be interpreted as the heavenly host; the upper triangle the triune of the godhead. The vase-like composition reminds one of the quote from Handel's Messiah, "We shall dash them to pieces" and here through the consecration of divine love shall survive even death: the pyramid of joy and plenty delivers us to the rest and peace of eternal life. Jonson's real world was a mental one, a world of pure creative- ness and imagination: a realm of shapes, colors, superimposed planes, contrasts, and--unconscious symbolism; that is to say, ~symbolism not deliberately thought out and intellectually con- ditioned by a definite philosophy or system, but instead arising freely and intuitively out of emotional intensity and acuteness of sensation unbound to objects.... 9 151 One of Raymond Jonson's most cosmic and at the same time, personal works is Polymer #39, 1970 (Figure 74). The planet sym- bol has been divided into two halves, possibly symbolizing the loss experienced when his wife Vera died in 1965. Here he may be 30 surviving relating himself to the new condition of his life, beyond the time of his karmic mate. He infers the galactic dimen- sion in a most admirable way in what appears in white as a starry arm of the galaxy, possibly the silhouette of a Victorian lady, who, having left the earthly domain, has taken on ever-greater galactic dimensions. These complex emotions and references are further abstracted and made more objective in our understanding although such an association has come from this observer and no other source. Jonson's Polymer series, and also his Zggjgg_series (dis- cussed in Chapter I) represent to this observer one of the finest collections of abstract paintings produced in this century--not only in terms of formal conception, purity, and integrity of design, but in the subtleties of color and the decisiveness of abstract clarity. Jonson has given the world a rich heritage of his deep spiritual awareness demanding compariSon with the work of any of the modern masters of abstraction. July 18th has been proclaimed Raymond Jonson Day in New Mexico, and this is but one of the many honors that he has received to recognize his prolific contributions to the world of art. In the Southwest he has used his energies to exhibit and aid many other 152 53. $35 L1. :3...“ . .wrmr 3%.»... . . . t z. . .L ! 1.1 kswae. M3,. RN.ML...X .. 8%I.XVW . 13.3? . . . . . ., 3r 4..., .15. .. ...... a... e... .. . a ,. r . . . ‘ ,. . .. ,. .. ,. at . S..- .. rm} 4%.... .. a... .. .. ... ., 1 .. . . . , , . .., .31...”an WAuy?%~ 35% ., o.@. 7‘9 r « ,mwlra. , 3‘ \ J: .....a sat + a . s. . . . . , . .3 . '6 a... . i . x . . . . , ... .. , .. . , .n J u... I 9,931.1. . . .. . . . . .. . Imam“ viz: Lbf'w ,, ... .1: r» ...nwkgfikhfip . ,. .. . : . . (1970), Raymond Jonson. Polymer #39 74 Figure 153 artists, and with his own art he has continued to contribute to the fOrmation of a purposeful definition of twentieth century abstraction. He sees the artist as one who helps others in their crises and who creates art objects by utilizing the finest qualities available to the human mind and spirit. In his life's work one can find an ex- planation for the personal vitalism that has been invigorating to so many. Jonson will always be respected as a "warrior to the light" who conquers with beauty. His work in the thirties will be especially prized. It can be truthfully stated that as a result of his search for the sublime, he wins a victory for humanity. Jonson's world is utopian,3' distinctly removed from the commonplace with cosmic ideals of beauty, purity, sincerity, and spiritual refinement, a pathway to a new stage of human evolution. His work developed an order and harmony, on varying levels of abstrac- tion, in which a universal significance is found. FOOTNOTES--CHAPTER II 1Sheldon Cheney, Story_of Modern Art (New York: Viking Press, 1941), p. 614. 2Dane Rudhyar, "Jonson, Pelton, Wells," Exhibition Catalogue, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Museum of New Mexico, September 1933, n.p., Introduction. 3Ed Garman, The Art of Raymond Jonson, Painter, Forward by Elaine deKooning (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976), p. 61. 4Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essay§_(Spring- field, Massachusetts: Andover Press, 1948), p. 46. Pelton source: her letter to Jonson, October 6, 1934. 5 Jonson, "Diary," (Jonson Gallery Archives, April 20, 1921). 6Rudhyar, Transcendental Movement in Paintihg_(Taos, 1938, unpublished). Copyrighted by the American Foundation for Trans- cendental Painting, Inc., 1939, p. 31. 7See Arthur Jonson's letter to his brother, October 30, 1937, Appendix B. 8Jonson, letter to Arthur Johnson, July 1940, Jonson Letter Archives. Jonson was acutely depressed about the outbreak of World War II, feeling "Humanity has failed me." 9Jonson quoted in Garman, p. 88. 10 11 12Jonson letter to his wife Vera, October 11, 1931. He also expressed in this letter that he didn't believe in fixed ideas, but took emotionally all things, selecting those which he felt to be most in tune with the cosmos, consciously or unconsciously. Garman, p. 118. Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in the Arts, p. 34. 'BGarman, p. 91 notes that this visit to New Mexico only reinforced his decision to return to New Mexico. ”Ibid., p. 98. 154 Arch” Etudle 155 'sRudhyar, p. 34. 16 Archives. 17 18 19 Jonson's letter to Vera, December 14, 1937, Jonson letter Rudhyar, p. 41. Garman, p. 42. Ibid., p. 120. 20H. H. Arnason, History of Modern Art (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 210. 2'Jonson in his speech to the Chili Club of Santa Fe, New Mexico August 29, 1949, Jonson Archives. 22Jonson letter to Reginald Fisher, March 10, 1956, in the Jonson Letter Collection. 23Jay Hambidge, Dynamic Smetry and the Greek Vase (New York: Yale University Press, 1931). 24Naum Gabo, Lecture at Yale University, March 19, 1938, published in "Three Lectures on Modern Art" (New York: Philosophical Library, 1949), p. 7. 25Dane Rudhyar, Manifesto Booklet of the Transcendental Painting Group, May 1938. 26Rudhyar, Transcendental Movement In The Arts, p. 32. 27Ed Garman, "Introduction," Raymond Jonson: A Retrospective (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1964). Editor, Van Deren Coke, p. 7. 28Kandinsky mentions that orange symbolizes joy and plenty, light green rest or peace in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p. 46. 29Rudhyar, p. 31. 30Vera was the subject of several of his early portraits and studies. ' 31 Garman, p. 166. CHAPTER III AGNES PELTON (1881-1961) Agnes Pelton began as a painter of landscapes, portraits, and flowers. She was drawn early into a deep, enduring love affair with abstraction. Her earliest claim to fame was having exhibited at the famous Armory Show in 1913 with the modern European masters. A few years later she showed her work at Arthur Stieglitz's 291 Gallery. These many exciting exhibitions preceded her association as senior member of the Transcendental Painting Group. Her painting is cosmic and spiritually alive, exhibiting flower-like qualities of symmetry, beauty, illumination. She matured as an artist in one of the most excit- periods of artistic experimentation. Though not a mystic, she was psychically gifted, seeking to reveal man's innate awareness of the order in the starry cosmos by unveiling man's aspiration toward the light. Her intensely luminous color gradations and the beauty and simplicity of her designs linked her work to that of Jonson, Harris, Bisttram, O'Keeffe. She was instrumental in arranging the TPG exhibition at the San Francisco Exposition in April 1939. With Lawren Harris, Pelton shared the interest in color symbolism and with Raymond Jonson the fascination for translucency. She was some- what emotionally attached to the expression itself and thus was the 156 157 antithesis to Emil Bisttram's zen-like detachment, yet both exem- plified intense clarity of vision. Agnes Pelton was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1881 to a prominent family that moved around Europe from time to time, as was the custom. She came to the United States about the turn of the cen- turn and received her first education in art at the famous Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where she was a student of Arthur W. Dow. Dow was one of the pioneers of the new interest in Oriental art, and he had been at Pont Aven with Gauguin and Emil Bernard. His interest in the decorative styles of Japanese art and in a non-naturalistic use of color, as exemplified by Gauguin and the Nabis, made him an enlightened and vital teacher.1 Theseirfifiuences could later be seen in her use of color in a symbolic manner. The kind of color ecstacy that had been achieved in the Nabis was closely akin to Pelton's color sense although her style could be considered decorative. She later developed a tech- nique of color gradation which revived the tradition of Vermeer and his fascination for light. Dow, like his contemporary Arthur G. Dove, encouraged the use of pure color and the balancing of light (Figure 75). Pelton always worked from her emotional, individual experience in organic, purely plastic terms that projected various kinds of symbols unconnegted to a particular school or philosophy. These expressions represent psychic impressions through which her inner development as a spiritual being progressed. Thus her sym- bols were deeply personal. This biographic approach forms a splendid example of the meaning of personal "spiritual evolution" in art. 158 Figure 75. Fog Horns (1929), Arthur Dove. Figure 76. Black Iris (1929), Georgia O'Keeffe. 159 Dow was strongly against storytellers and those who believed that close imitation of nature was the primary reason for a work of art. Dow taught the non-naturalistic use of color and brought Japanese prints into his class, teaching space relations and the proper balancing of light and dark masses-- in short, plastic design. He emphasized structure, spirit, imagination--creation. It is evident, in both her work and in Raymond Jonson's that they learned similarly to shun literary allusion as a basis for their work. Dow's students,3 Pelton, Georgia O'Keeffe and Max Weber each developed his/her own distinctive style, though it is notable that O'Keeffe inherited from Dow an aversion for "telling stories" or for revealing her motivations (Figure 76). Georgia O'Keeffe had little to do with the TPG or its aims. Marsden Hartley seems to have been the most notable artist to have been influenced by the work produced by the TPG. In the period 1913 to 1915, Pelton progressed from painting semi-abstract flowers, trees, landscapes to her first total abstrac- tions. Pelton exhibited with Dove at the Armory show, and though she did not know him personally, recalled five small works which she called “romantically abstract" in a letter written to Jonson on October 6, 1933. Jonson's reply mentioned that he first became interested in Dove's work at 291 while in New York in 1931. Like Arthur Dove, Pelton and O'Keeffe were pioneers of a form of abstrac- tion called "biomorphic" art. Dove was more akin to the TPG thanwas O'Keeffe. Pelton was generally misunderstood in the male-dominated avant-garde circles of New York City. Her gentle spiritual nature waged the battle from within, rather than from without. Like Georgia 160 O'Keeffe, who settled in Abiquiu, New Mexico, she loved the vitality and beauty of the Southwest. They both realized that it was foolish to believe that paintings should only be painted in New York, for there was great vitality to be found in the West: Art could be created anywhere, despite the lure of the mainstream. Pelton found her own kind of "Abiquiu" in Cathedral City, California, where she produced radiant and dynamic canvases that rate comparison with the best of Georgia O'Keeffe. Both she and Pelton worked intuitively, preferring psychological and spiritual awareness of symbols that revealed a natural world order and cosmic structure. In 1919 Pelton met patroness Mabel Dodge Luhan and spent the winter in Taos, New Mexico. This was her first introduction to the Southwest. Soon thereafter she moved to southern California. In 1924 she showed paintings in Honolulu that indicated a firm commitment to pure abstraction. On Star Gazer of 1929 she writes: "Cosmic Art should bring us something of what lies beyond the more personal mentally religious conceptions: Some intimations from outer space, as also from the depths of our inner lives"4 (Figure 77). By 1929 she firmly established herself in the realm of psychological symbblism, reflecting anthropormorphic illusions of a sacred drama in Beneficience, and revealing her involvement with theosophy and religion in works such as Incarnation (1928) and Awaken- ing-(1929). It is likely that her faith had undergone transformation from her Christian background into a belief that held more answers to cosmic inquiry. Pelton's art was intuitive and spontaneous, though Agnes Pelton. Star Gazer (1929) Figure 77. 162 her creative control and disciplined hand were directed from a profound and meaningful experience of the inner life of meditation and spiritual harmony. Her technique was fluid, graceful, and elegant. Her abstract "impressions" were not post-impressionistic as were Harris' land- scapes, they seized a moment of ecstatic perfection of human emotions and feeling and made it accessible for the viewer who desires to par- ticipate. She selected her basic color scheme for a painting and then painted in such a way that the eye was never sent wandering from place to place as with Jonson's. A consistent peaceful quality was present in all her work, unique among all of the members of the TPG. She shargg a poetic reverence and awe of nature with Arthur Dove. Many of her works hay; the spontaneity and exuberant feeling of Dove's psycho- logical manifestations, graduated color intensities and internal symbolic explorations.5 The play of nonaggressive, rhythmic shape and the mood of mystic immanence of Dove's paintings struck a balance between the fantastic-symbolist modes of turn-of-the century art and the more vital flowing color bands of his contemporaries, the synchromists.6 Pelton deserves to be included when mentioning Dove and O'Keeffe in regard to the American assimilation of European biomorphism, though all three were not dependent on these sources. Similarly she emerged, as O'Keeffe, Dove, Weber and Marin had, under the guiding light of Alfred Steiglitz. However, Pelton was not always in good health and did not participate very often in social activity. Before settling in California, she lived alone for twelve years on the eastern end of Long Island in a renovated windmill. She loved the 163 quiet life and being close to nature; this added to her isolation thus hindering a prominence that may have otherwise been hers. Soli- tude tempered her faith allowing her to undergo a spiritual transfor- mation to a more inclusive, metaphysical belief. Rudhyar's Catholic upbringing forced him to turn away from established religion. Jonson's religious background may have facilitated a similar questioning. Harris' interest in theosophy and Bisttram's in Buddhism must have provided a truly pantheistic climate in the TPG. Pelton had remarkable success selling her new work in New York at the Montrose Gallery in 1929, at the Argent Gallery in 1930, and at the Brooklyn Museum in 1931. Jonson's one-man show at the Delphic Studios (New York) in 1931 motivated Pelton to express her feel- ings of kinship to him. Her mini-exhibition the previous year there fated their meeting. In 1933 she exhibited along with Jonson and Cady Wells at the New Mexico Museum, Santa Fe, thus sealing their friendship. The following works were exhibited by Pelton at that show: Equilibrium, Wells of Jade, Rose and Palm, Voyaging, White Fire, Ecstacy, Translation, Mother of Silence, Shell, Lookouts, Being, Mount of Flame, and Fire Sounds (Figure 78). Of White Fire, she wrote to Jonson: "White Fire is one of my most precious works-- one to leave after me. It is not in perfect condition, having been through vicissitudes, but it is no longer for sale; . . ."7 The painting is a deep marine blue with two columns of white flames that divide the rectangular frame into halves. In the flames are several mysterious, mythical eyes, looking back at the observer. 164 3E...“. ..«26 0.. .... . a In}: .11.- nVIuIRJwLx Vt. . . . _ .. n .1.- .x. a 7.. .?.i~..\£ .. «s . A .c 11!; it??? Sounds (1930), Agnes Pelton. Fire Figure 78. 165 They recall the significance eyes held for early religious artists in their icons and the iconoclasm present in most modern art works. . Characteristic of transcendental painting is technical pre- cision and sharpness of outline; yet this cannot be achieved without necessarily planning and organizing an approach that is effective in projecting interior forms, not merely an "inner necessity." Kandinsky, Kupka and Delaunay had all developed through a neoimpressionist phase. They all evolved toward abstraction by removing the traces of their brush stroke. This was also the case for Pelton and Harris. Rudhyar cited the difference between Kandinsky and Pelton: This synthesizing character characterizes, perhaps most essen- tially the work of these American Painters [in this Group} and their transcendental approach. Kandinsky, at times, had pro- duced such syntheses; but on one whole, his paintings tend toward the inchoate, the inorganic and subconscious, while in Agnes Pelton--the closest perhaps of all the painters of the . Group to the Kandinsky type of creative movement, there is never anything which is not fully organized and self-contained in form or color. Her works are the projections of fully in- tegrated experiences of an inner reality--not the results of inchoate, spiritual longings of an inorganic mysticism and confused "cosmic consciousness.8 Pelton employed universal symbols, stars, light, darkness, flowers to present her world view in paintings such as Fire, Rose and Palm, and A Lotus for Lidia. Paintings such as Prayer, Future, Faith, Peace, Sleep, and Incarnation all reveal the spiritual intent of her painting. Rudhyar saw Pelton as a guiding light of a great movement and praised Beneficience (Figure 79): The two complementary forces radiate from the one integrated whole which is a container of life (the mysterious urn whence rise a green and red beam of light) and of spirit. Nothing can be more simple; yet, how technically beautiful! And in this simplicity there is power--a power which is missing from so much of modern art. 166 Agnes Pelton.‘ Beneficence (1929) Figure 79. 167 some observers considered Future to be occult; Pelton disagreed (Figure 80): I do not indulge in occult practices, and so I do not know to what extent that might be true. Looking far ahead, a small conical mountain suggests hope or aspiration. Two columns or pylons of white stones are, perhaps, symbols of a tale that has been told. And the forms that bridge the pylons--I can't quite put it into words--indicate the forces or activities put into action by the tale in the past. As the pylons do not touch the ground, they are eventually imperma- nent. As with all my paintings, I am glad to have the sBec- tator resolve the meanings, each in his individual way.1 Rudhyar pointed out that her subjects were experienced forms, not mere intellectual concepts or aesthetic constructions but were notable for their simplicity, radiance, subtlety and embodiment of "the feeling of transcendent organcity. She ""1 Miss Pelton's works . . . constitute a constructive radiant promise of a new day. We refer, not only to paintings like Tomorrow, ng, Future, Prelude, Progression and Awakening. a y In practic alliher works, we Witness a victory o ight over death. They are psalms of integration sung to the Spirit in man. Often, in the lower foreground, dark powers move in murky colors; but insistently, the main shapes riis to skies that are brilliant or ecstatic, rich with stars. described her paintings and her aim in 1938: The aim of these paintings, over a period of years, has been to give life and vitality to the visual images which have come from time to time as fleeting but beautiful experiences; to sound their harmonies through the painter's hand and. express their potencies that others might see and experience, but as distillations, and seen at that moment, or on that plane which is neither past nor future--perhaps aspects of both--, where shadow may become soundé color is enhanced to living power and light to radiation.1 Day_presents the feeling upon waking of seeing a light- filled rectangle or square projected on the wall of one's room (Figure 81). When opening one's eyes, the superimposition for a 168 Figure 80. Future (1933-1941), Agnes Pelton. 169 moment of a dream-world's archetypal imagery merges together with the projected daylight. There, the vision's fluidic metamorphic nature combines with the more predominant rectilinear angles of the projected light from a window pane. The painting is both non-objective and semi-representational and like her other paintings readily suggests how important dreams were for Pelton. The painting was shown with 29 others at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1943. In Messengers a hovering presence or thought-form seems to harbinger new directions and to relay a message from higher realms (Figure 82). Sandstorm (1932), inspired by the desert environment, celebrates the awesome power that nature holds over man and the spec- tacular imagery created by the swirling sand (Figure 83). Oriental influences are discernible in a painting such as Beneficence and suggests an interest in sacred drama, meditation, ritual, and the desire to communicate beyond the normal limits of consciousness. Dow, Dove, Kandinsky, Jonson and Pelton all loved the spontaneous, evocative, emotional purposes to which their art gravi- tated. Her painting Wells of Jade reveals what it is like to see with an astral vision capable of dazzling the eyes. Wells of Jade was Jonson's choice when she offered him a painting to seal their friendship for which Jonson reciprocated with Abstraction in Yellow (1934). Jonson admired not only her vision but also her total grasp of the technical means of expressing the inexpressible. Miss Pelton's works are stunning!!! Really, I cannot tell how fine they are! Abstract, they are, but meat clear and pregnant with real feeling--life and sheer beauty. 170 0 ,— '0— O I In 5,. . (D: O cu a)!— ma.) mac §m Q) C CU? N< co (1) S. 3 U) 0!- LL 2 O .p v— d) O. U! (D C O) < O ,— 'l- O a «I D Figure 81. 171 Figure 83. Sandstorm (1932), Agnes Pelton. 172 Rudhyar saw her work as the flowering of a rich personality whose vibrant inner life was complemented by artistic virtuosity: Agnes Pelton began her career as a painter of landscapes, portraits and flowers. The latter seems to have offered her a natural transition to the realm of imagination forms and exquisitely shaded colors. Flowers are, as it were, the climax of the plant's efforts toward the sun. And works of art like those of Miss Pelton are very much like the flower- ing of an individual life and of a culture which strove toward the more spiritual realities of human civilizatio:..'5 Pelton was aware that previous cultures rested on solid metaphysical foundations, for art and life are an integrated whole. She felt, as have many great artists, the intense need to remind us of our spiritual hunger, our necessity for integration. Before the so- called Age of Enlightenment, all art, from simple carpentry to the Isenheim altarpiece, was "cosmic"; everything had meaning before utility. Though America has become known for its utilitarian way of life, there will always be individuals like Pelton who seek more universal and inwardly rewarding experiences in the finest tradi- tion of the New England transcendentalist poets. Her paintings re- call the words of C. P. Cranch: Thought is deeper than all speech Feeling deeper than all thought: Souls to souls can never teach What unto themselves was taught.16 This is consistent with her thoughts and feelings on color: Of all the arts, painting is the foremost in the use of color, having within its scope the possibility of the direct com- .munication of its vibratory life, an essential element in light. . .17 . . . Paint, the most sensitive material substance in use for creative expression, can convey the painter's most delicate ‘feeling anegcomplete intention insofar as he masters its t1se. . . 173 She thought that the personal choice of color was the life and vitality of painting. In abstract expression, color speaks directly as sound does in music. Just as music has a definite color and timbre to its structure, paint resounds with musical rhythms and song, characteristics, which might be called orphic qualities. According to Rudhyar Pelton was also an excellent piano player. Vowels possess a tone that is continuous and melodic, whereas consonants are "consonance" and stop the tone short, as form limits a color. Agnes Pelton has experienced such living symbols. Because of this, her paintings, reproduce with great technical skill, these facts of life, where colors are vowels and forms are consonants.19 In Pelton's later work, we find a complete color-symphonic alphabet. The TPG brought together nine creative forces that covered the cubist, abstract-geometric and expressionistic psychological- symbolic art. Pelton's work complements that of two of her con- temporaries, painters, Ruth Harwood and Faith Vilas in emphasis on the symbolic patterning of psychic awareness of other planes or dimensions. Vilas had emphasized a visionary aesthetic that abhored distortion and childish "naivete" as a valid means of expression. An organic whole usually has a center of organization from which radiation eminates. It is easy to see this organicity in Pelton's paintings, especially in Beneficence. This work gave her a new sense of focus that inspired her to continue painting. Like Rudhyar Pelton realized that a painting may picture "transition" resulting from the co-merging of different forms them- 174 selves which escape the limitations of the frame and thereby involve the entire space in their interrelationship, thus inferring that a form is merely "an event in a continuum" so to speak, the product of two forms that like two atoms, form a new molecule, a higher abstrac- tion and interaction. A painting can become a focus for the whole universe if it pictures such an organic event through the interpenetration of forms which, not limited by the frame, drawing the entire universe by implication to the center of the pictured event.2 To better understand Pelton's work it is essential to realize that the Transcendental Movement dealt necessarily to some extent with symbolism, both subjectively and objectively; secondly, that the Transcendental Movement did not deal with primarily aesthetic motives for the enjoyment of creation; thirdly, that Transcendental Art acts as a counterpoint to commercial and decorative art and design by opposing the concept of mass production of "wares" with unique works that stimulate an intense feeling of identification with the crea- tive process. Wares may satisfy collective physical desires but they often place material values and attributes on the art process which are generally not spiritually revelatory or generally enlight- ening. Pelton had a deep awareness of the force that moves all things and was never bound to formula or technique. To create transcendentally, is to create in a constant self- discovery and self-transformation. It negates all subservience .to standardized technique and stereotyped patterns of formulas. 'It is a projection, into forms of power through which the creator communicates his dynamic and dionysian spirit, of the will to metamorphosis which is the essence ef all Spirit, which is the core of the universal Life-process.2 175 In the painting Illumination, revelation of emotion becomes a projective experience (Figure 84): Take a painting like Illumination. Any imaginative person could probably see in this, a brilliant star, the shadowy outlines of a robed figure, and in the up-surging flames the elements of a symbolic drama. And well he or she may; for the symbolic factor is obviously an integral part of most of Agnes Pelton's works. But this is no conventional sym- bolism. Rather, it is the projection of a spontaneous inner experience which has become color and form in its exteriorization. Subjects of contemplation are reflected in the racial and collective consciousness, each producing symbols which express in an individual manner, universal meanings that are limited only by man's imagina- tion and intellect. The irony of man's quest for reality is that nature is stripped of its disguises . . . the evolving picture becomes ever more abstract and remote from experiences . . . paradoxically what the scientist and the philoso- pher call the world of appearances . . . is the world in which finite man is incarcerated by his essential nature. And what the scientist and philosopher call the world of reality--the colorless, soundless, impalpable cosmos which lies like an iceberg beneath the plane of ggn's percep- tions--is a skeleton structure of symbols. A comparison of Illumination (1930) by Agnes Pelton with Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930) by Lauren Harris and a later work, Polymer #21 (1961) by Raymond Jonson clearly distinguishes the styles of the three artists (Figures 84, 85, 86). Obviously there are similar formal elements, but Pelton's world is interior, intuitive and abstracted from an internal, dream-like place, whereas Harris' painting24 is of the external world of the arctic where he obviously has seen ice- bergs that revealed themselves to him possibly in a symbolic way. Pelton could be witnessing some kind of Kandinskyean spiritual pyramid, 176 Figure 84. Illumination (1930), Agnes Pelton. 177 Figure 85. Polmr #21 (1961), Raymond Jonson. 1 £14 '1' 1‘1; ’51; :~." ._ We," .- , Figure 86. ' . :4- . ' '1 ’51" c1114: - ‘ -k' u V ' *' Liz-‘3‘“: 178 Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930), Lawren Harris. 179 personally expressed, whereas Harris reveals the symbolic import of his discovery: a monumental reminder by nature of the dualism that‘ divides all experience and the underlying unity of opposites below the still waters of the subconscious where man and nature interact. Thus it can be understood that there is much affinity between these painters, a closeness shared with Raymond Jonson who may have been sub- consciously influenced to paint a similar form after receiv- ing news of Agnes Pelton's death in 1961. Pelton evolved her transcendental approach around 1925-26 at a time when Jonson was turning away from abstract representation. Curiously they both stayed “in orbit" around a mixture of abstraction and realism as did Rudhyar, Harris and Bisttram for many years. She dedicated a work to Jonson in 1933-34 called Orbits (Figure 87). Here is her tribute to the service rendered by the creative hand: . . All these delights or dramas of the mind are carried out by the sensitive hand. How shall this thing be expressed? Under the hand it comes--the creative hand we so take for granted because it serves us in every useful capacity through life. Through its touch, of freedom or control,--sustained, of course, by the instrument we really are--a really indi- vidual technique is created. It is not taught, though teaching may have preceded it, but when the use of paint is a really personal utterance, the colored surface gives forth a living quality-~a timbre is in the tone--which is not present until the instrument has acguired a voice and the hand has developed its expression.2 With a kind of strange intimacy, parts of the consciousness scrutinize others, as a process of familiarization with the elements of our total nature begins. In a letter to Jonson, Pelton notes the 180 Agnes Pelton. Orbits (1934) Figure 87. 181 sending of a painting called Pluto which in astrological terms is the planet of total transformation of the individual. I'm sending you "Pluto" today prepaid. It is of a special nature and is not useful for general exhibition. You shall be the judge. It is probably as far as I am likely to go in a certain direction--perhaps the climax of that line of vision. I saw it after reading one of Rudhyar's articles on Pluto. It has taken more out of me, I think, than any other, but when I was ill, it was my chief anxiety that it would not be finished. If it is destined for some special p1ace--time will reveal or it may, of course, have been a purely personal urge. It is not for sale. The luminosities are as high as I can, so far, produce.26 Soon thereafter she writes to the Jonsons again: Here is something interesting. I wrote you that I "saw" Pluto after reading Rudhyar's article. Well, I thought I would look up the article again and see if it was the same as in the recent book, New Mansions . . . I saw "Pluto" on January 1, 1937, and wrote down the date within the sketch and when I looked up the January, 1937 Astrology Magazine-- Rudhyar's article was on Uranus! My vision was not an illustration of his article! Imagine, it was very likely preview of some inner plane--or else from the same source as his article!27 Agnes Pelton most certainly had a vision of the ninth planet. The planet first appeared to human observers in this century and astrologically represents the ultimate challenge of the twentieth century: transformation of world civilization from within the individual spirit of man. 5 Unlike many abstract painters of her day, she was reluctant to portray merely the outer shell of nature. Her power- ful_psychic, intuitive abilities gave her a sacred glimpse into universal reality, into a realm of striking transcendental beauty and translucence, into a world of symbols generated for human spiritual evolution, for the spiritual reassurance they afforded to 182 those who understood her work with their mind's eye and with the per- ceptions of their hearts and souls. It stemmed from subtle intima- tions of a radiant, peaceful, ethereal plane which lent itself to her expressive force with utter simplicity through the distillations of experiences beyond time and place, where shadow becomes sound, color becomes music. Pelton's work celebrated the triumph of light over darkness, of spiritual awakening, of life ever triumphant over the powerful force of the grave. Her art rises out of the murky depths of the unknown, of the feared, to adorn the walls of our minds with the heavenly beneficence of star light to guide our path. Rudhyar writes: Only because her awakened spiritual faculties enable her to see glimpses of an inner nature that far transcends in beauty, luminosity and significance, spectacles which strike our concrete eyes, she feels that her real life work is to reproduce, as accurately and vividly as can possi- bly be done on canvas, these fleeting moments of transcend- ent awareness during which she apprehends universal symbols in a sea of light. In other words, the forms she paints are experienced forms, and not mere concepts or constructions generated by the intellect or even the so-called esthetic sense. They are distinguished, usually, by their simplicity and their radiancy, by the feeling of translucent organicity they convey. The technique is masterly, yet subtle and non-obtrusive; a technique of luminous color-gradations and delicate interpenetration of values between the main forms and the background. It is an art akin in spirit to some of the recent manifestations of Hindu paintings, yet completely western in its plastic and symbolic substance. The art of a woman of exquisite sensibility and awakened intuition, who unveils, through it, an inner life, rich in spiritual contents.28 Her public was generally unenlightened or uninitiated, thus usually skeptical though not totally unresponsive. Through most of Pelton's life, she met with two-fisted compliments, rebuffs, dis- 183 belief and rejection. She died in abject poverty in her beloved Cathedral City, California, in 1961 at the age of 80. A brilliant career, beginning in the fireworks of the Armory show, ended in the murky silence that could no longer be withheld. Today Pelton's oeuvre is tragically unrecognized and uncatalogued. Ed Garman how- ever has made efforts in this direction. He and Jonson attempted to set up a memorial collection for the University of New Mexico but due to lack of funds were unable to do so. Her paintings can be found in the Pasadena, Laguna Beach, and the San Diego Museum collections, as well as in the Los Angeles County Museum, the Santa Fe Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. Her paintings are also held in many distin- guished private collections in New York, California, and New Mexico. It is sincerely hoped that she shall eventually gain the recognition to which she is due by a renewed interest in her work as one of the great artists of twentieth-century America. FOOTNOTES--CHAPTER III 'Sam Hunter, Modern American Painting and Sculpture (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1957), p. 117. 2Alfred Werner, "Max Weber at Seventy-Seven," Arts Magazine, Vol. 2, (September 1958), 27. 3Art historian Sheldon Cheney, was one of the first to recognize the contributions to art by Pelton and Jonson: (A Primer of Modern Art, New York, Liveright, 1932, p. 667.) Agnes Pelton had exhibited abstractions at the Armory Show, alongside the European pioneers. Max Weber had passed through a phase of abstraction. For many years, Raymond Jonson, at his retreat in Santa Fe, achieving the first considerable body of effective American near-abstract inven- tions. Arthur B. Carles and Augustus Vincent Toek, experi- mented idealistically along divergent lines. In 1938, a group of painters in New Mexico banded together as the Transcendental Painting Group and proclaimed aims differing from those of both the common abstractionists and the non- objectivists. 4Raymond Piper, Cosmic Art, Ed. Ingo Swann, (New York: Hawthorn Press, 1975), p. 22. 5Sheldon Cheney, Story of Modern Art (New York: Viking Press, 1941), pp. 613-614. He notes, ". . . Arthur Dove pioneered at the time when radicalism meant obscurity and deprivation. His works were nearer to those of the Transcendental Group in the Southwest than to those of the New York groups deriving from geometrically minded experimenters of Europe. He provided, within American modernism, an example of individualistic creation in abso- lute or musical painting." 6Hunter, p. 122. 7Letter from Pelton to Raymond and Vera Jonson, April 5, 1939. The painting is now in the Jonson Collection at the University of New Mexico. 8Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 43. 184 185 9Dane Rudhyar, "Pelton, Jonson, Wells," Exhibition Catalogue, Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico, September 1933, n.p. l. 10 11 '2Rudhyar, "Agnes Pelton," Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Argent Galleries, February 1930, n.p. 1. 13 Piper, Cosmic Art, p. 32. Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 27. Dane Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 28. 14Letter to Bisttram from Jonson, dated September 15, 1933. 15Rudhyar, "Agnes Pelton," Exhibition Catalogue, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Fall 1943, n.p. l. 'GC. P. Cranch, "Gnosis" in Intro. to The American Trans- cendentalists (Garden City, New York: Anchor 1957). 17 18 Pelton in Cosmic Art, p. 27. Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 28. 19Rudhyar, "Agnes Pelton" Argent Galleries. 20 21 22Dane Rudhyar, "An Exhibit of Paintings by Agnes Pelton," Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1943, n.p. 23Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein (New York: William Sloan Associates, 1948), p. 109f. 24Pelton and Harris knew little of the others' work until April of 1939 after the Group was forming. Pelton requested photo- graphs of Harris' work and made comments to this effect in her letter to Jonson, April 5, 1939. For a discussion of Icebergs by Harris see p. 219. 25Pelton, quoted in Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 28. 26 Rudhyar, p. 54 Ibid., p. 57. Letter from Pelton to Raymond and Vera Jonson, June 14, 1939. 27 28 Letter from Pelton to the Jonsons, June 22, 1939. Rudhyar, Ibid., p. 27. CHAPTER IV EMIL BISTTRAM (1895-1976) Emil James Bisttram was born in a small village in Hungary, April 7, 1895, and came to America at age eleven. He became an American citizen at age twenty-one and, by that time, he was already the executive head of the largest art and advertising agency in New York City which in the early 1920s became the model for many other advertising firms. Emil Bisttram began his career as a painter in New York City as an abstract realist, portraitist and illustrator. After moving to New Mexico he mastered a variety of styles (Realism, Cubism, Futurism, non-objectivity) over a period of sixty years of painting (Figures 88 and 89). He considered the diversity of subjects and styles he chose to be one of his creative strengths. Both as a teacher of art and artist-shaman, Bisttram diligently guided many artists who came to him for artistic and spiritual inspiration or direction. Order, harmony, beauty, and rhythm were the essential attributes in art that he stressed. He acted as a strong force for technical ex- cellence in painting, while active in the TPG as well as in his capac- ity as teacher in the three art schools he established in Taos, Phoenix and Los Angeles. The four-year course at these respective schools stressed the "craft of painting." Craftsmanship and engineering 186 187 precision were emphasized by focusing on experimentation and prepa- ration of color, design and the "stirring of imagination" in an attempt to help the students see the world anew. Bisttram allowed them to paint what they envisioned but told them not to expect to achieve mastery long before age forty. His spontaneity and charisma added cohesion to the TPG which he co-founded with Raymond Jonson. Calling himself a "classic modern- ist," which was his way of noting his having worked from realism into abstraction and non-objective and cosmic art, he agreed with the Orphists that--painting, music, dance, poetry-~should have a working knowledge of the other, while admiring the Synchromists for their "Oriental" use of geometric color patterns. A year after the end of the First World War, Emil married and began to study' creative design under Howard Giles, a devoted friend and disciple of Jay Hambidge, a re-discoverer of "Dynamic Symmetry." He was soon to become a good friend of Hambidge, who had traced the lost science of design from its early Egyptian and Greek sources. It was a method that made available to the artist an amalgamation of linear constructs--lines drawn across the picture plane aiding the creative hand and eye to perfectly balance and attune the composition to a precision of weight, mass, and volume. It allowed the artist to create order out of chaos, resolving basic compositional conflicts by drawing a network of straight lines across the picture plane. 1.88. Figure 88. Indian Ceremonial, Oil, Emil Bisttram. 189 Figure 89. New Mexico Wake (1932), Oil, Emil Bisttram. 190 Giles helped Bisttram to apply this knowledge to a viable painting technique. It is possible that if Cubism had not already been invented by Picasso and Braque, it would have been discovered due to the faceting occurring when these lines of dynamic symmetry were applied to a drawing. Also there were other precedents such as Rayonnism and the paintings of Lionel Feininger that similarly frac- tured the picture plane. Bisttram used Hambidge's method in his com- mercial art as well as in his own work, and was able to employ it subtly and non-obstrusively to heighten a feeling of correctness of space and line. In 1920-1922, Emil became assistant instructor of art under Giles, who continued to help him understand dynamic symmetry and apply it to his painting while teaching classes at the New York School of Fine Art. Eventually Emil was appointed as lecturer at the Roerich Institute. Realizing that art should command all his time, he gave up his profitable business and began to free-lance in the same offices he had managed for many years. Even though he continued to make a name for himself as commercial illustrator, designer, and color specialist for manufacturers, he still lost valuable momentum in his search for recognition as a painter. While at the Roerich Institute during the late 19205, Bisttram's philosophy of life matured and developed along occult and broad-theosophical lines. This was essentially the basis on which he adopted the life-model of a "teacher" who does good work. No one earlier would have guessed this course would be taken by 191 a welterweight champion boxer from the Bronx. Though Emil outgrew his adolescent pugilism he remained a virile man fighting the 'good fight.’ To him teaching meant transmitting truths and basic prin- ciples of proportion, symmetry, and cosmic evolution. He taught that basic elements of art (mass, color, etc.), "possess their own forces, independent of any association with the external aspect of the world and that their life and actions are self-conditioned psychological phenomena."2 Two examples of Bisttram's Indian Abstraction Series of 1933, works done after moving to Taos, New Mexico, display two different stylistic approaches, the former of Synthetic Cubism and the latter of Futurism. In Katchina Dance the symmetry is based on three "root 5" rectangles (Figure 90). The male Katchina dancer is the tribal "group therapist." As Shaman-medicine man he acts as a male fertility symbol and is portrayed confronting a young Indian maiden with rhythmic pelvic thrusts and a symbolic sexual initiation by means of the ritual dance. Here bold contrasting lines and geo- metrical shapes emphasize bright colors traditionally held sacred by the Pueblo Indians: white, rust red, ochre yellow, sienna brown and black, highlighted here with bright green and yellow. The painting thus relies as much on coloration as on formal rhythms for its impact. The Hummingbird Dance, 1933, uses an automatic writing line, captures the abstract nature of the Indians, and emphasizes the dancer's movement (Figure 91). The dancer portrays the ritualized movements of the sacred bird functioning here also as a fertility 192 AL» w n... r « ...» .m M39... 7. ..1 ..\ t. .. u . u NIP... ..m ... t v— .1 I. _ .. ttram. 'lS Emil B' Katchina Dance (1933) Figure 90 193 ttram. Hummin bird Dance (1933), Emil Bis Figure 91. 194 symbol. Bisttram presents a composite, simultaneous vision of this dance in serial, Cubistic fashion, and stresses the unity of painted subject and environment. The technique resembles the automatic writing used by the Surrealists though the hummingbird's movements have been fused to the diagramatic dance steps of the performer himself, so that we are still aware of the dancer and not merely of the illusion he creates. The Katchina dancer is dynami- cally posed in his moment of confrontation, whereas the Hummingbird dancer is in rhythmic motion. Bisttram avoided, however, all literalism as much as possible. The circular head of the hummingbird also is portrayed in four separate positions and thus adds a geometrical design quality to the whole. Similar features to the Hummingbird Dance can be found in Bisttram's Untitled work (Figure 92). Both dancers re- volve around a center point while in the latter work, the stripe- painted bodies create a fantastic abstract puzzle of lineal shapes and suggestive modes of integration. These figures are not "prisoners breaking out of jail," as one child who saw it, observed. They are the clowns. dancers licensed to provocative exhibition and humorous foolery. The work, however, remains controversial for its artistic license. Bisttram's painting is a clear example of the powerful dynamism obtainable in Cubo-realism best known in America in the paintings of Stuart Davis. Bisttram found an economy of means in commercial adver- tising which required blank spaces to be left for the advertisement, 195 thus this systematic structuring can serve a dual purpose. Though his use of formulas and systems provided strength and clarity for his work, it also had limitations. This contemplative and systema- tic approach removed any emotionalism, spontaneity or fortuitous accident from the work, elements which by themselves are dynamic. "3 For this reason his term "classic modern, an ambiguous phrase stressing simplicity of design and emotional sobriety, is appro- priate to describe his more geometrically constructed work. He rejected any looseness of form or instinctive, intuitive inspira- tion. These were the "absolutes" which Bisttram held sacrosanct, and he always used his system by: . opposing the ideal of engineering precision of form, outline and color- -spread to that derived from the natural- istic or impressionistic approach. The first technical concept has been particularly stressed by the French Purists, and in the Transcendental Painting Group by Raymond Jonson, Emil Bisttram and others. What it implies, is a kind of fundamentally virtuous sharpness of design and outline, a clear-cut formulation of planes and colored masses, an architect's or engineer's clarity and precision of lines of demarcation, a perfectly even, smooth and con- sistent spread of pigments, either by the ordinary brush or by the air-brush and related mechanisms. Because Jonson and Bisttram shared this characteristic approach to design, they were related to the Purists and American Precisionists, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer, Charles Demuth and Morton Shamberg.5 Bisttram's painting, Two Mexican Women was completed two years after Bisttram had returned from working on a mural for the National Palace in Mexico City in 193] with Diego Rivera on a Guggenheim scholarship grant (Figure 93). The woman facing the 196 .EugpumFm pwEu .Ammmpv nose: cmovxmz exp .mm «game; .Eaappmem F_Em .Ammmpv uppp_u== um «gnaw; 197 viewer could be a symbol for New Mexico, whereas the one facing away, old Mexico, articulated only by the phallic gesture of the left hand, which besides a possible reference to cross-fertilization of cultures might also be a symbolic reference to Mexico's political move to the left. Bisttram was keenly aware of the extreme com- munism of Siquieros versus the more moderate socialism of Rivera with whom he worked. Symbolism is very much an active element in Bisttram's work, dating from his years at the Roerich Institute. However, Rudhyar observed: This approach to art has been firmly held by Bisttram for many years, but it was only about a year or two ago (1936-37) that he left behind all vestiges of dependence upon such influences as Roerich's or the modern French and Mexican schools and sailed upon the great adventure which undoubtedly will establish definitely his reputation, already of a national scope. We speak here of two series of technically wonderful drawings, which depict, in geometrical symbolism rooted in ancient Pythagorean and modern occult wisdom, the evolution of the cosmos in an archetypal sense. He is also bringing out the same series in oil, so as to develop the color aspect of the symbolism. It is presumably the first time in modern art that such a thing has been attempted and the results are striking--even if only in terms of sheer technical crafts- manship. Though Rudhyar seems to forget Kandinsky in his enthusiasm about color symbolism, nevertheless it is valid to assume that in Two Mexican Women Bisttram used this figurative symbolism in the manner of Roerich and Rivera. At-One-Ment (1936) is clearly a geometric-symbolic work of which Rudhyar speaks (Figure 94). Bisttram felt the artist must be a philosopher, psychologist and student throughout life and this can be sensed in other drawings such as Oversoul (Fulfillmentland Time Cycle #1 (Figures 97, 98).7 At-One-Ment (1936), Emil Bisttram. 94 Figure 199 During the 19305, his extensive exhibition schedule included the Venice International, 1930, the Chicago Art Institute and the World's Fair, 1933-34, the San Diego World's Fair, 1935, the Texas Centennial, 1936, and one-man shows at the Ferargil Galleries, Delphic Studios and Grand Central Galleries of New York (where Harris also exhibited) as well as at the Roerich Museum and Corcoran Museum Gallery in Wash- ington. His work today is to be found in museum collections in Buffalo, New York, Houston, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and in private collections all over the southwestern United States. His last major retrospective exhibition was held in August-September 1970 at the Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico. His numerous exhibitions provided many thousands of art lovers with 'cosmicized' spaces in which to meditate on creation in a manner akin to the intent of the Navaho sand painter. Here Bisttram speaks of the meditation process: The meditation process has revealed, to me, a new world--of beauty, alive with spiritual rhythm, alive with order and meaning. This has been but a glimpse, so far. Ideas con- stantly present themselves through intuitions. Out of this experience has grown the conviction that the art of the present and the future, must transcend the physical world and act as a vital spiritualizing force, for the definite construction of a New Culture. Only that work from which the spiritual power radiates, causing expansion in the consciousness of the beholder, will enable man to better understand life and to master it, to live more fully, more extensively and more intently; ...will have any validity and reason for its existence.8 His practice of meditation provided spiritual and artistic stability in order to accommodate new means to fit the inspiration: "Once I admit I've made it, as they say, where can I go from there? . . . artists trap themselves in a style and never progress from that point."9 200 Overall analysis of Bisttram's oeuvre would show a vast variety of styles which he consciously selected to allow the appro- priation of content into suitable forms. He was more interested in what he had to express than merely how to do so. He was inter- ested in people, and as a teacher recognized unique individuals, each necessarily requiring individualized attention, rather than treating them as social types. However, when he said most people did not understand art, he should have qualified that by stressing that each person understands art in his own way. Thus, it becomes desirable to approach them in many different ways to serve various purposes, interests and kinds of artistic expression in order to reach out on many different levels (Figures 68, 89). Emil's pioneering efforts to promote Taos as a center for cultural life, led him to set up an art association in Taos where 10 artists could exhibit their work. He was freely sought after for his criticism by many artists in the region. Bisttram and Raymond Jonson were both possessed of a keen sense of design and technical perfection, both emphasized strict discipline in the artist's life and work.11 Rudhyar recorded statements from Emil in 1938: Art is a great teacher. The artist is the interpreter of the totality of life's experience; he is a seeker of truth, and strives to live that truth, creating and molding life anew. He is not temperamental or moonstruck, nor does he wait for “the creative mood. He is a priest, a magician. He is an artist by virtue of the power within him and that power is bestowed through scrupulous morality, the strictest discipline and deep meditation and contemglation, through the chosen mediator between God and man.1 201 His comments.make transparent his deep spiritual and moral commitment to his world and his work. As an artist he had a strong meditation for experimentation and for innovation: "All arts. . . are a way of experimenting with experiences of life to find the eternal laws."'3 He spoke also about the future of art: It is the destiny of man to overcome matter by form, matter and form by color, and now matter, form, and color by Spirit. The future art cannot be one of objects or scenes and people of this or that p1ace--but rather a synthesis, an essence and spirit of people, places and things.14 His words recall Plato in Timaeus, or that ancient, mystical, spiritual Greek mathematician, Pythagoras. If Plato and Pythagoras saw God as the eternal geometricizer, Aristotle saw God in nature, in immutable laws and principles. Genius of all centuries recog- nized that the part is similar to the whole and vice versa and it was evident that Bisttram believed that man in the microcosm re- flected man's universal nature, only differing in order of magnitude.'5 Bisttram's painting Creative Forces, done in the same year as At-One-Ment, presents a dark purple cosmic egg that contains a color spectrum of overlapping, transparent color bursts, fiery essences that flow like high level thought forms and possibly symbolize the creative forces that act on human consciousness (Figure 95). Creative Forces is one of a series, produced while meditating on creation--in general in particular. In this instance, .1 illustrate the cosmic egg fecundated by the seven major forces which received their sources out of the One, which is within the egg and yet outside of it, the One being sus- pended out of another still larger egg or infinity. How- ever, the drawing has infinite interpretations, depending 16 upon the level of consciousness possessed by the observer. Creative Forces, Emil Bisttram. Figure 95. 203 The egg is intersected above with a light blue oval. Where they overlap, a lavender sphere disperses the major force. A divine marriage of heaven and earth is indicated at the intersection of the two arcs. The arcs of the covenant, complemented by these forces, suggest the seven days of creation. It seems likely that Bisttram had seen the color-organ projections by the Danish-American (light) artist, Thomas Wilfred17 in the early 1920s on Long Island. They were emotionally charged bursts of color that danced and overlapped one another in shapes similar to those in Creative Forces (Figure 96). Emil is likely to have been inspired also by Rudhyar's Art as Release of Power and especially one of the essays, "New Sense of Space" in which Rudhyar, inspired by reading Pythagorean theories on the origin and unfolding of our universe, offers new insights into the artist's "sense of space" in view of the relationship to time and to geometrical and mathematical imperatives inherent in basic forms themselves. Another drawing of this period, The Oversoul (Figure 97): . . is one of a series of drawings produced while meditat- ing upon At-One-Ment, union or illumination. To me this drawing shows quite clearly the union of the lower and higher natures of man. The Oversoul was first entitled Fulfillment and included in the Transcendental Painting Foundation's booklet, edited by Alfred Morang in 1940. Theosophy popularized the concept that Atman, the individual soul, identical with Brahman, is the Oversoul. The soul was seen as a divine traveler on an infinite round of life, death, and rebirth, on the Wheel of Samsara, on which the lowest creatures would evolve past men and supermen ultimately to return to Brahman. 204 Figure 96. Clavilux Color Organ Projection, Thomas Wilfred. 205 Figure 97. Oversoul Fulfillment (l939), Emil Bisttram. 206 Rudolf Steiner and H. P. Blavatsky had interpreted Goethe's defini- tion of the true artist as a master over Nature insofar as he sub- jected things of this earth to his higher inventions, by means of conforming to the "secret laws" governing nature, enabling art to even surpass Nature in essential truth.'9 In The Oversoul, it is apparent that Bisttram has drawn a mandala. As a practicing Zen-Buddhist, Bisttram knew that the circle represents enlightenment and symbolizes human perfection. The circle stands for the self, expressing the totality of the psyche in all its aspects. Note the downward thrusting triangle from the mid-top point. ‘Guiseppi Tucci describes a similar configuration in another mandala: "In the middle is a point, the mysterious matrix. The downward one (triangle) symbolizes fulfillment; the others return."20 Thus, in Bisttram's drawing, we have the descent of fulfill- ment of Brahman into the individual soul, represented by the smaller circle on the surface of what appears to be the planet. This cosmic conception of the Universe finds its ultimate postulation in the Oriental philosophy of Transcendental (deep) meditation popularized in the west in the mid-19605. However, nature is the "great teacher," and here secret laws find total expression in time, space, light, and infinity. During the period, 1938-41, Bisttram produced radiant can- vases with translucent effects. He won countless awards and saw a new civilization in the making: 207 At a time when everything seems to be caught in the relent- less grip of change, when the old edifice of culture is crumb- ling and new forms and isms are pronounced at every turn, it is imperative that we question whether all this manifestation of the new and the strange has sufficient foundation for a new order. Can man accept these new forms and ideas, can he give meaning to them: In the worlds of science and art, transforma- tions have been most apparent; both have been forced to new conclusions by their discoveries. The Old World mechanistic and dualistic concepts have list ground continuously. In their place has arisen the idea of Universalism and the recognition of the essential Oneness of all things, in form as well as idea.2' Like Dane Rudhyar, Bisttram saw wider implications to his work than merely the language of form, design, and aesthetics permit. The influence of meditation experience was profound. Out of this experience [of meditation] has grown the conviction that the art of the present and the future must transcend the physical world and act as a vital spiritualizing force, for the definite construction of a new culture. Only that work from which the spiritual power radiates, causing expansion in the consciousness of the beholder, will enable man to better under- stand life and to master it, to live more fully, more exten- sively and more intently; will have any validity and reason for its existence. The overall design of Time Cycle #1 is that of the scythe of the "Grim Reaper" moving in space (Figure 98). The series entitled Time Cycle was the result of meditation on time and space, the two variables of all existential reality. The lines of force or energy permeating space, manifesting out of one source, passing through the various organizing centers of the body, take on the geometrical shapes of our world before matter condenses or crystallizes on them. At the same time, here is a suggestion of a pendulum in the Shape of a scythe, the reaper swinging in eternal space. Other drawings in this series Show the energy lines as matter condensed on them, creating the forms of the visible world.23 If the destiny of man is to overcome matter by form, matter and form by color, and matter, form and color by spirit, Bisttram implies 208 . ll... . u. , r... s, . , . . .. . . a . .. r. L . I . . ... I. . . V . . r . . .. _ . .. . . .. I. . ... c ... .... , 1 .... .. . ...: s . ., . 1“ .. .... .J y. t T . L .. . . u . . ,o . a . . . . u . .. .u. . , .. i. a . . u .. . .. ...a. \. o . ., I O. .. . . fl. ~p. .. . . e . . . z . o . . .0. .. . a .u .. . . .... . ... . . . . . . . . . . . ; . . . . .. .. . . .. \. .. o. . .Ir ....- . . ...! v Ca. . .. ‘4 a 0.... .. . . o . o . i. . . . a .. t. .. u .. ... 1. .. .. .. . . I . p. .. I . . . I. . . . . . J1 i .1. I. . \dwn .e ”......I: .19 ... . . a 3. .5., ~. I. I RAW. 3‘. ... s ...u. u . Lia . are.” . ‘l‘ .VL .... . a .H .. 5.. '5'» t c W. 4". . t . 4.... t. no..V..-... s'l‘ ‘nwea' lI-zanrt’" -'I0-..“|" ta .. .. Q A . m... . ...a... . or . I . . d . u .. . s .. ... . .. .... . l . ....l. o . u .. ' . _ .l. I . ImW' \- 1“ .1 r I .... : U H1: . .. .. . a . a“. .9— e I v .. . .. u . o. n. n.p.: affine 1...... uY..3uIML.w Aaé n . . . 4'. A‘“ I. . IA.— I' .. . .w Iv».o.. ...,F....-.n-.-Iv..- 0.: B...£.,. - i... ...; 1y . a. Time Cycle #1 (1940), Emil Bisttram. Figure 98. 209 that no artist can really create anything: "All he can hope to do is to reveal the hidden beauty and transcendent mystery which is the core of Nature."24 It iS interesting to note that Bisttram drew historical conclusions from the past, saw parallels such as the advent of Cubism and Einstein's theories both as major revolutions in their respective fields and actually made these ideas available to the eye without words. Time Cygle #1 could easily illustrate this approach for one is immediately reminded of both time and Space, of motion and dimension in such a way as to imagine the nuclear inter- actions of sub-atomic particles (Figure 98). The 19305 and early 19405 was an exciting time for nuclear physics and it is certain to have instilled in artists a new sense of the deceptive appearance of physical reality. This must have been highly provocative to their imaginations as well as challenging to the traditional religious and scientific assumptions they had made about the universe. In the two interviews with Dane Rudhyar and Bill Lumpkins, both referred to Bisttram as a "true mystic." According to Rudhyar: The true mystic is a man in whom the awareness of the Whole supercedes or transfigures the intellectual consciousness of his limited and separated selfhood. Mystics had a tendency to lose themselves into this raptuous realization of the Whole; or else they sought, painfully, to base their mental search for such a realization upon the great Oriental tradition or its European shadows. The true mystic of the 20th century, wherever he may be seen--and there are only a few to be seen!--is a man or woman who acts creatively as an agent of the Whole. He is a practical worker; a builder of seed. He is no longer "reach- ing up" toward cosmic consciousness; but bringing cosmic con- sciousness down to the earth--as the seed is brought down into the soil for the work of ever-renewed life brought down into the soil by the very death of the plant which bore it.25 210 Bisttram was a dynamic and courageous artist, a spiritual healer, a visionary and true mystic. Though he continually struggled for wide recognition of his work, fame ever eluded him during his prolific career. Nevertheless, his paintings are a living record of a splendid attempt to understand our world, our cosmos; they can be found in many major American museums and in American and European private collections. In his last years, Emil was President of the Taos Art Associa- tion, an organization that he helped found. In 1976, after over ten years of fighting cancer, Bisttram died in Taos at age eighty one. FO0TNOTES--CHAPTER IV 'He studied, as a young man, at the National Academy of Design, the Parson's School of Art and Design, as well as at the Art Students League of New York. "2Emil Bisttram, "The New Vision in Art," Tomorrow, September 1941, p. 36. 31bid., p. 37. 4Ibid., p. 37. 5Later Bisttram re-evaluated his purist-phase: My desire for creative expression has taken me through repre- sentational and documentary painting into non-representational painting. The latter, at the time, was conceived in the philoso- phy of “purism” created solely for esthetic values; form and color for their own sake and serving no other purpose. However successful they may have been as pattern and color harmonies, I remained unsatisfied. They seemed to me to be lacking in that vital significance I was convinced true art must have. 6 7 Rudhyar, The Transcendental Movement in Painting, p. 36. Emil Bisttram, "The New Vision in Art," p. 38. 8Ibid., p. 38. See page 37 for a description of his meditation practice: I sat as relaxed as possible and quietly meditated on the cause, the meaning and the eventual effect of the particular idea in- volved (time, Space, creation, at-one-ment). Having quieted my mind, a certain state of readiness or awareness ensued. There followed after a while a sense of momentary availability of the unconscious levels of the mind and intuitions. As the meditation process continued, answers to my problem-questions appeared vaguely, and then more clearly in the form of symbols, shapes, lines, masses and colors. These were sometimes in motion, some- times quiescent; often they appeared in unmistakably pure geo- metric figures. I can usually recall these at will. Modifica- tions also occurred by the association of ideas, in relation to the symbols or shapes appearing before my inner vision. My next step was selection and rejection. I made careful notes of what I had experienced through meditation. By elimination I determined what shapes, lines, colors or symbols had the greatest emotional 211 212 value and best expressed the original concept. But no matter what changes and additions were made the result must answer to the original idea meditated upon. 9Anne Hillerman, "Art is beyond the Understanding of Most People," The New Mexican, June 15, 1976, p. 23. She quotes Bisttram for her title. She writes: A look at the works which hang in the Bisttram home, stock his studio and are displayed in Taos and Santa Fe, makes the label "realist" seem an oversimplification. The variety of media, styles, color and technique in Bisttram's work is so great that, except for the quiet sincerity they share, it's hard to believe they have come from one man's imagination. . . . Order, harmony, beauty and rhythm are the essential ingredients in art, Bisttram said. These are limitations in which greatness in art may be achieved. "True art is not spontaneous," he emphasizes. "There's nothing 'free' about art. One has to set limitations. Otherwise, all is chaos in art and in life, as well. Art is one of the gread dis- ciplines. Once a person realizes this, within this discipline, he is free to paint as he will.“ . . . An artist has to be fearless. He has to let his inner nature be his guide, accepting and enjoying what he is and what he does. Criticism means very little. 'oEmil Bisttram was aided in these efforts by a friend, another pioneer of modern art, Andrew Dasburg, who had exhibited in the Armory Show and had preceded Emil's move to Taos. When Emil met Rudhyar, the two men found instant rapport. Bisttram favored the establishment of a Painter's group, which eventually assembled in Bisttram's studio in 1938 for the purpose of declaring common inten- tions to exhibit their work for others and to levy a 10 percent com- mission on sales to support their collective efforts. nEd Garman, in his book Raymond Jonson, n.p. p. 72, notes that Bisttram and Jonson attempted to find absolute design qualities in Nature and to project these in a work of art. . . . By virtue of its unity, in which color and line, Shape and rhythm are each independent upon and in a sense included in one another, the completed work was to manifest itself as an entity which by its very nature was the embodiment of deSlgn: It was not an objective in itself; but through design all things both physical and mental, that entered into the work of art could function, both in their individual characters and as the elements of a unity that transcended such characteristics, to fashion a new and, in each work into which design in this 213 sense entered, unique statement. Compact organization, exact execution, technical perfection--such things are in themselves evidences of an urge toward an ideal. 12 13 Rudhyar, p. 38. Hillerman, The New Mexican, p. 23. '4Rudhyar, p. 38. 15Bisttram, "New Visions," p. 35. Bisttram stated: Between this inner world of perception and the outer world of existing things there was no longer a substantial medium left in which space or time concepts could be depicted. The images of the external world, which served as a guide to an artist's orientation, lost their importance and were replaced by more significant problems, problems transcending the physical world, which arose from the exploration of the world of ideas. . . The two fundamental elements on which art is based are form and content. But the thought that form and content have a separate existence has no place in the new concept of art. Genius (which breaks all rules, defies all analysis, creates new for- mulas) produces an almost perfect balance of the two, but in the ordinary processes of creative expression, one or the other (form or content), will be emphasized. Emil Bisttram, "New Visions," n.p., p. 35. '6Ibid.. p. 37. '7lhomas Wilfred, a Danish-American artist, built a color organ, which he called the Clavilux, in a New York theatre at Hunting- ton, Long Island, in the early twenties. It presented abstract color forms and musical abstractions in an auditorium where the viewer could experience "this new art of visions come true." See Sheldon Cheney, The Story of Modern Art (New York: 1924 edition), pp. 177-88, for an explanation oflthe experiments of this obscure genius. l8Bisttram, "New Vision," p. 37. '9Ringbom, Sixten. "Art in the Epoch of the Great Spiritual-- Occult Elements in Early Theory of Abstract Painting." Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 4, 1968, p. 406. 20Tucci, Guiseppi. The Theory and Practice of the Mandala. London: Rider, 1961. 214 21 22 23 24 Bisttram, "New Vision," p. 35. Ibid., p. 37-38. Ibid., p. 38. Rudhyar, p. 38. 25Rudhyar, p. 67. CHAPTER V LANREN HARRIS (1885-1970) Lawren Harris, the Canadian painter who helped organize one of the most important painting groups in Canada, the Group of Seven,1 joined the TPG a few months after it was founded, though he was already corresponding with several members from its inception. He brought with him thirty years of experience as a painter of vivid, powerful landscapes and a clear conception of truly creative artis- tic discipline. He Shared a deep understanding of the evocative power of color with Agnes Pelton and a strong sense of design with Raymond Jonson and Emil Bisttram. His work from 1936-1941 shows an increased concern for geometry and non-objective subjects. In this chapter, as is appropriate, Harris speaks on the essential nature of his inspiration and understanding of art and in many ways speaks for the whole TPG. Lawren Harris was born at Brantford, Ontario, Canada, October 23, 1885, to Anne and Thomas Harris. He received high school and univer- sity training in Toronto, continuing his art schooling in Germany from 1903-1907. At age 21 he hiked through the Austrian Tyrol with his sketchbook. In 1909 he obtained employment with Harper's magazine 215 216 while illustrating a book by Norman Duncan and traveling by camel through Palestine. A year later he illustrated articles on Minnesota logging camps for Harper's and then settled in Toronto. These ventures only encouraged his already awakened "wanderlust" for he was to trav- el extensively during much of his life. From 1910 to 1920 he was to paint popularly demanded themes such as houses, corner stqHES with hurdy-gurdies, horses, people and back streets of Ontario's Hamilton, Unionville, Barrie, Grimsby and Toronto. These works Showed stylistic and impasto similarities to Van Gogh, Derain and Hodler, and the coloration of the Fauves to some extent. In January of 1913, Harris and painter J. E. H. MacDonald, amateur poet, philosopher and admirer of Thoreau and Walt Whitman, traveled to Buffalo, New York, to study at an exhibition of contem- porary Scandinavian painting. In several of his paintings of houses, particularly those of Alace Bay, Nova Scotia, there is evidence of his later develop- ment of the abstract and the psychic, reflections of the German and Scandinavian influences encountered during his student years. Before the time Canada entered World War I he was closely asso- ciated with a group of Canadian painters: Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, Fred Varley, Alex Jackson, Frank Carmichael, and J. E. H. MacDonald who formed the Group of Seven. Then, Harris left with the Canadian infantry to fight in Europe. He returned to Toronto after the war reaffirmed in his commitment to become one with 'The Spirit of the North' and to continue to paint in the group. 217 In 1919 the Group of Seven made a box-car expedition to the hills and wild streams of Algoma on the Algoma Central Railway which resulted in many exciting landscapes. The boxcar had a stove to keep them warm at night while they discussed Whitman, Mary Baker Eddy, Madame Blavatsky, Cezanne and Van Gogh.3 There were other expeditions to Halifax, Georgia, and Grace Bay, but it was on the northern shores of Lake Superior where Harris found his true inspiration to simplify his compositions rigidly and to begin abstracting only the essential pictorial elements while stress- ing color and form symbolism. First, we were led by the attraction of the North to copy nature. There was a strong devotion to her outward aspect until a thorough acquaintance with her facts of form and growth was achieved; an understanding of her streams, rivers, lakes, and many various places, and an assimilation of her many moods and a growing awareness of her presence through the endless diversity of her expression. This living in and wandering the North, and more or less literally copying a great variety of her motives, in- evitably developed in the artist a sense of design, of selection and arrangement in conformity to her aspect and moods, developed from the expressions of her life, a 4 knowledge of her rhythms, an understanding of her ways. They were to launch the first truly Canadian art movement, one in which Harris provided a major impulse. During the early 19205, Harris seems to have influenced MacDonald with his bold brush stroke, while he abandoned it to paint flatly. His interest in abstraction and split-reflective water effects was shared by Frank Carmichael, especially in paintings later in the 19205. By that time Harris' color sense had matured, developed and become more symbolic. In retrospect Harris seems to be best remembered for such 218 painting effects no doubt because of the extraordinary effects pro- duced by nature herself. In this, Harris excelled. He was awarded prizes and gold medals at the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial of 1926 and at the First Baltimore Pan American Exhibition of Contemporary Painting in 1931. By then his paintings were hanging in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Toronto, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and in many noteworthy private collections.5 Dane Rudhyar writes of Harris in 1938: In July 1934, Lawren Harris left Canada to take his permanent residence in the United States. This change of environment was synchronous with a change of subject-matter which came as a most logical development in the direction of pure abstrac- tion. His Canadian paintings, where landscapes occupy a prominent place, gradually had reached a condition of nearly complete abstraction; their strong, Simplified and luminous planes being already vital with an inherent structural quality definitely fore-shadowing that of his recent architectonic paintings in which lives an intense dramatic expression of inner life. Perhaps the most significant factor in Harris' work, besides his masterly handling of paint, is the combina- tion of cool lucent surfaces and masses full of dramatic vigor.6 Rudhyar and Harris met most likely for the first time in l938, Bisttram and Harris probably a few years earlier. Rudhyar and Harris, Bisttram and Lumpkins eagerly discussed theosophy and there seemed to be little doubt that the source of inspiration proclaimed by Kandinsky in his book, Concerninng e Spiritual in Art, was mutually savored. The mystical link between man and nature became a force driv- ing Harris to explore his deepest spiritual concepts creatively not only through painting but in poetry and essays. Theosophy was the consuming interest to the artist as with Mondrian and Kandinsky. The Russian Kandinsky's Concerning_the Spiritual in Art, deeply influenced Harris to adopt symbolic colour into facets of his work.7 219 From 1934 when he moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, until the time he joined the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938, Harris made notes which he intended to collect for a book. The following is from the introduction of that unpublished book containing several brilliant essays. Thus there is in art truth in terms of the physical, the sensual, the naturalistic and mechanistic, and truth in terms of emotional response, and truth in terms of the intellect, and truth in terms of the intuitive or spiritual perception and intelligence. There is also a realm of the spirit, just as there is a realism of the flesh and forms, and what we term inspiration may be no more than the dynamic bridge between these two, reaching out from the soil of earth and its reverberant life, unceasing matter and its uneasing forms, toward the life of the spirit that informs these and gives them meaning. . .any definite creative effort draws forth from within the individual something which begins to bridge the gap between himself and the Spirit in mankind. Harris reveals something of his philosophy and his awareness of the symbolic meaning of mountains and men: All creative activity in the arts is an interplay of opposites. It is the union of these in a work that gives it a vitality and meaning. If we view a great mountain soaring into the sky, it may excite us, evoke an uplifting feeling within us. There is an interplay of something we see outside of us with our inner response. The artist takes that response and its feelings and Shapes it on canvas with paint so that when finished it contains the experience. . . . Back of Jasper and Mt. Robson we were afraid of grizzlies. . . .9 There is little doubt that works such as Mt. Lefrgy(1930) and Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930) can be called masterpieces (Figures 99.-100). His symbolic colors have an iridescent splendor, akin to Agnes Pelton's brilliant palette. When he painted the latter work. he and A. Y. Jackson were guests of the Canadian Government on the 220 Figure 99. Mt. Lefroy (1927), Detail, Lawren Harris. 221 15. Davis Strait (1930), Lawren Harr Iceber s Figure 100. 222 icebreaker S. S. Beothic in the Arctic Ocean. Already by 1926 his unity with the spirit of the North prompted him to create life in form, color, rhythm and mood rather than "imitate life." It was an easy step from the bold simplification of the Arctic works to use a colour, form and light for their own intrinsic and symbolic value. In the abstractions up to 1950, his works were mainly variations on the basic geometric shapes of the triangle and the circle...10 He moved away from representation into the geometry to which it adhered. Harris stressed that the new art represented the ideas, emotions and the world of imagination, but without the intermediary of recognizable subject matter. With abstract and non-objective art, the interplay of color and form evoke emotional responses. By using these elements carefully, the artist can express eternal values of truth and beauty, while unburdening his instinctive drive towards transformation of these qualities into the human domain. It is precisely this free and creative approach to art that most propelled the artists who comprised the TPG. It allowed ex- pression of what was essentially there, directly, immediately per- ceivable before the artist's eyes and ears.'1 And these eyes had to be free: Art is a power at work in mankind and is most effective when creative endeavor is most free! The realm of art is the realm of creative interplay between man's outer life in the world and man's inner life of the spirit.12 Harris expressed dramatic, vigorous emotions and concepts that create a brotherhood of symbols in the language of art, a living example of life's beauty, wonder and richness. His work 223 reflects an intellectual, abstract detachment, though he was able to reveal nature's "emotions" as well as structure in intense, moving canvases that had absorbed him in contemplation. He learned early to avoid picturesque subjects and through this discipline he was inspirited with nature's secrets. The road he chose was diffi- cult because he attempted to record and preserve, for succeeding generations, a pristine view of a world unspoiled by man's "progress," while creating forms "never seen before." Critic Northrop Frye saw Harris as a missionary who wanted to Show the reality of his faith to others and noted that Harris was unable to describe his paintings in words. Northrop Frye explains why: . . he has some difficulty in saying in words what he says so eloquently in the pictures. One reason for this is that our language isnaturally Cartesian, based on a dualism in which the split between perceiving subject and perceived object is the primary facto of experience. For the artist, whatever may be true of the scientist, the real world is not objective. As Shelley, another Romantic, insisted, it is only out of laziness or cowardice that we take the objective world to be the real one. The attempt to produce a "realism" which is only an illusion of our ordinary objectifying sense leads to insincere painting, technique divorced from intelli- gence. But, says Harris, art is not caprice either. The artist, unlike the psychedelic, does not confuse the creative consciouness with the subjective or introverted consciousness. Fantasy-painting becomes insincere also whenever it evades the struggle with the material which is the painter's immediate task. The genuine artist, Harris is saying, finds reality in a point of identity between subject and object, a point at which the created werld and the world that is really there become the same thing. 3 After 1936, his paintings became increasingly non-objective: Abstract paintings are of two kinds. One kind is derived from the accumulated experience of nature over many years. In these the endeavor is to embody and concentrate this accumulated experience in organization oflines, mass, and colour in such a way that they express the motivating spirit 224 in nature. The purpose in this is different from landscape painting. It has to do with movements, processes and cycles in nature. One abstract painting of this kind thus may convey more than is possible in a representational paint- ing. The second kind of abstractions aim at statment of ideas and intimations of a philosophic kind in plastic, aesthetic, and emotive terms. For myself every abstraction I paint has its source in an idea. This idea, whatever it may be, cannot be put into words and at the beginning of the painting is rarely clear. It becomes clear and objective throughout the process or evolution of the painting. The result is an epitome of a long subjective experience which cannot be explained. It can only be experienced and then it should elucidate itself through the language or idiom of the painting.14 The aesthetic emotion is not a feeling about these kinds of sensations; they are the creative forces that employ the spirit to reside in the expression itself. The artist sublimely transforms the emotions evoked by the senses and expresses them in a direct way, abstracting thus only the essential spirit of the whole. In Sketching out nature's lines and in noting their effect, Harris felt comfortable with preparatory sketches in which to organize his thoughts and the means to employ them. Equations in Space (1936) is obviously a direct statement of vision, so much so, that the work seems contemporary with the Space Age, while Similarities to Riven Earth I can be felt (Figure 101). In Riven Earth I (1936) geometric forms replace objective forms such as mountains and trees (Figure 102). The painting shows a planet and universal forces acting on the planet. The blade that slices through the earth, cosmicizes a space, demarcating the northern third of the earth's sphere in which Harris lived. This was the first abstrac- tion he exhibited. .mwego: :mgzms a Fwo .__aooe Ammapv doe m cw m:o_uo: m Po F mesmwa 226 .mwggm: cusses .Ammmpv H zugom co>wx .Nop oc=m_a 227 Riven Earth II (1936) also shatters the three-dimensional picture frame not only in the arrangement of Shapes, or the flat areas of two-dimensional planes, but also in the major thrust of a cosmic blade that cuts open a massive earthen egg. now on its side (Figure 103).'5 Harris writes: Art at its highest is a non-sectarian search for the life of spiritual values--an adventure toward an illusive yet insistent reality. Art is one of the ways in which man endeavors to find himself in the universe--to place himself in harmony with the laws and motivating spirit of that life that functions through those laws. . . . Art, in its highest reaches, embodies or partially embodies the experience of the search for enduring values. Art contains experiences that cannot be possessed, dominated, or exclusively owned; nor can they be fashioned into dogmas, for that would squeeze out their essential life. . . . Art has as its function to embody the great range of experi- ences that exist for us between earth life and enduring life of the Spirit that at once informs our life and yet transcends it. This is a statement of Faith, not susceptible to proof.‘6 Riven Earth I contains the seed of vision, the urgency of responding to the promptings of a universal mind. Riven Earth II (1936) turns the world on its side and suggests possibly Harris' re- marriage two years before, or new areas to be explored. Suggestions of a rocky desert landscape in the foreground set off the "sky realm" or the place where earthly and spiritual realms meet. Harris has substituted a reverse perspective of a possi- ble view down from an airplane at land masses below including the egg which provides a startling effect. Here is a perfect example of how words do not suffice. 228 .mwggm: cusses «sac .Aoma_v HH soda“ eo>em .mo _ mesmwa 229 Much of what Harris ascribes to art finds poetic echo in the words of William Blake: You must leave Fathers and Mothers and Houses and lands if they stand in the way of Art. Prayer is the study of Art. Praise is the practice of Art. Fasting, etc., all relate to Art. The outward ceremony is antichrist, The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination, that is, God Himself The Divine Body Jesus: We are his members. It manifests itself in the werks of Art (In Eternity All is vision). 7 For Harris, as for Blake, all true visionaries realize art does more than paint a pretty picture or play a delightful game. The great cosmic rhythms of creation/destruction/creation are like the rise of great waves and their break and fall-- fulfillment and exhaustion, excessive and depleted concentra- tions and dispersions of energy. In art as in Nature, these surging bursts of energy are realized in particular patterns, forms, orders and structures.18 Let us now consider two non-objective abstractions of 1937, executed shortly before Harris went to New Mexico and then compare them to three compositions of 1938 and a fourth of 1940, all from the period in which he was a member of the TPG. The first abstract painting is a construction around an open center that radiates out- ward: an indication of a transformation process, the mandalic un- folding (Figure 104). Planets seem to revolve around the creative core, indications of new inspirations appearing out of the momentum of creative work. The radiating sun at the center recalls Harris' statement: 230 Abstraction (1937), Lawren Harris. Figure 104. 231 Abstraction (1937), Lawren Harris. 105. Figure 232 That ascent toward fullness of life, wherein a people or an individual participate in the life of universal order and finds release in a greater and more inelusive conscious- ness, is something that cannot be contrived because the motivating creative urge lies deeeer than intellect or reason, it is an inner unfolding. However, Harris instructs us to beware that the greatest art does not represent or interpret life, its moods, feelings, thoughts, things: . it iS life, created life, the expression and projection of life, the reduction of all life to a perfectly composed unnature--a microcosm. We may enjoy the superficialities in art: beauty of surface, choice of subject, technique, moods, joy, sorrow, melancholy, etc., but we must relate these quali- ties in art correctly, and in order and valuation, that our judgment may be broader and more profound. Apparently in the second abstract painting, Abstraction (1937), the acute-angled lines become planes and extend from the greater circle above to the microcosm of the smaller circle below (the artist?) (Figure 105). The commentary he includes next to Abstraction (1937) provocatively asks the question "What experience does it contain? [he then assertsz] Symbolism offers us a key to the meaning and pur- pose of life; art offers us awareness of spiritual levels in terms of 2' In participation and sharing--"The morning stars sang together." a sketch book of that year, next to a sketch (Figure 106) that seems to be at the crossroads of representation and abstraction he writes: Language, art, every shape and colour, every relationship of shapes and colours, line and volume has meaning, significance, but not a meaning which can be put into words. The same with music.22 It is obvious Harris has thoroughly sensed the transcendental metaverbal nature both of great modern painting and music in general. 233 Figure 106. Sketch (1937), Lawren Harris. Art critic Sidney Key writes of Harris' work: The expression of an ever-widening conception of cosmic order with the force of revelation is a constant artistic problem. Simple definitive shapes like Spheres and pyramids, vertical and horizontal lines and semi-circles, all of immaculate pre- cision, are used more and more frequently, emerging in the tops of mountains in sharp points as if the essential structure of the mass would free itself of all encumbrances. . . lines, colors, shapes and textures are made free to devote the whole of their electrical energies to the direct statement of visions.23 234 He was by this time truly in need of association with the painters in the TPG if he was to progress with abstraction, for they Shared his transcendental world view. Though Harris was only in the TPG for two years, he was able to make a complete break with representation and allow his philosophical views to surface despite severe criti- cisms of these works by his Canadian colleagues. The paintings are similar in color, form and subject matter to Pelton's and Jonson's work, though remaining in strict progression from work done beginning in 1936. In Abstract Painting #16 and Abstract Painting #18, we might find a reply to Kandinsky's ques- tion (Figures 107, 108): Which artist would not wish to dwell at the central organ of motion in space-time (be it the brain or the heart of creation) from which all functions derive their life? In the womb of nature, in the primal ground of creation, where the secret key to all things lies hidden? Our beatgag heart drives us down- ward, far down to the primal ground. Abstract Painting #16 symbolically portrays, possibly, the human brain whose mighty pyramid (wisdom) or triangle is the narrow- ing stream of consciousness. Behind it is the Huxlean "gates of perception," of heaven and hell, of the light and the dark on the ground of creation. In the right corner there is a dynamically advancing triangle that also reminds one of Kandinsky. In Abstract Painting #18, the heart finds mystic revelation. Harris, and all truly creative artists are driven by a power- ful inner necessity. As Harris says: . . perhaps from a faint glimpse into the possibility of creating a brotherhood of man as diverse in its parts as are the elements in a work of art--diverse, yet all functioning and each contributing to the harmony of the whole.25 235 Abstract Painting #16 (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris. Figure 107. 236 Ans... fortiti I. . (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris. Abstract Painting #18 Figure 108 237 He, like other artists faces a difficult question--one that has plagued all thinking men for many centuries: what is the "secret" of the pgyer of art? Jose ArgOelles cites Blake who asserts that it is money that has corrupted man's capacity for art which ghgglg_reside in all of us.26 Thus art seems to hold some magic for those moved by spiritual considerations. Just as the Transcendental painters had to transform their own individual visions to meet the urges they received from their "inner-cosmos," they were equally driven together by their need for spiritual support and for the pooling of resources and ideas. Harris emphasized that you could not separate an artist from his philosophy because one did not agree with it. Abstraction of 1938 stands, it seems, at the heart of Transcendental Art (Figure 109). As a balanced non-objective com- position, its rhythms and color harmonies, its exhaltation in lineal arrangement, its use of light as a direct force apart from light as color, is the epitome of transcendence in painting, capturing the spiritual elements of Christ's ascension, the awe-inspiring majesty and verticality of a tree rising high in the Sky, and the rhythmic expression of the Sangre de Cristo mountains near his home in Santa Fe that rise over 10,000 feet above sea level. Here, Harris is remind- ing us that "Christ has risen," that we are God's children, deeply moved by an "inner necessity" to change, to develop, to live each day as the first. It was probably no coincidence that Agnes Pelton painted a work entitled Ascension during this period as well! Abstraction (1938), Oil, Lawren Harris. Figure 109. 239 Composition #1 (1940), epitomizes the artistic sensibility when referring to "inspiration and momentum" in art (Figure llO).27‘ From illustrating Duncan's book, Going Down From Jerusalem, to the transcendental Christian thrusts of his mountains and trees, Harris points to higher Spiritual realms with ancient symbols that have found new formulation (Figure 111). The older works are not incon- sistent with the newer, for these abstractions nevertheless express the motivating spirit found in nature and give "statements of ideas and intimations of a philosophic kind in plastic, aesthetic and emotive terms."28 Harris with his wife, Bess, moved back to Canada a year after war broke out in Europe and settled for a number of years in Vancouver where he continued to work abstractly toward what one would late call Abstract Expressionism, though never abandoning nature entirely and reverting to using titles such as Migratory Flight (1950) (Figure 112). In 1977 when questioned about Harris' nature, Jonson observed: "He was like a child, gentle, open, warm and friendly."29 The follow- ing statement by Harris seems best to describe the man, the artist, the mission: In the inner place where true artists create, there exists a pure child. To recognize this is to recognize beauty as a living, abiding presence completely untouchable by all the devices of man, such as moral codes, creeds, intellectual analysis, games and cliches, the acquistive instinct, or wish .for anything whatsoever. The real inner work of art is a pure world, my friends, and all manifestations of life seen from this world look ugly or beautiful--beautifu1 is simple and true, ugly if devious, weak, mean or little. 240 Every genuine artist protects this child, his real self, from all possible impingements. He may resort to any form of anarchy, even wildness, to do so because of the great con- trast of strain he is in, for the world as men generally know it with its mechanisms and defenses, protections and hypocrisies, social regimentation and codes is as nothing in his Sight. Only beauty of soul has for him any meaning. And this is impersonal, though its recognition does thrill through the personality and transforms it. The child, the real self of the artist, is impersonal. This may sound strange, but it is so. His heart is simple joy, but it is surrounded by sadness--sadness at the clutter of meaningless- ness both in himself and his fellow man. The child is pure perception without encumbrances, without sophistication, without any of the warping little values that clutter the life of man. And to understand art, which is to say the experience of art in its inner abiding reality, you must become that child of wonder. That child is not only humble and exalted, gentle and severe, but a balance of all these in pure unified being.3 Lawren HarrisB' died on January 29, 1970, at the age of 85. 241 'IS. on #1 (1940), Oil, Lawren Harr M igure 110. F . ~ . 3 ‘3 stair " x «as «..a Figure 111. Lake Superior (1924), Oil, Lawren Harris. 243 Figure 112. Migratory Flight (1950), Lawren Harris. FO0TNOTES--CHAPTER V 1Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1970), passim. 2Jeanne L. Pattison, "The Group Seven and Tom Thompson," Exhibition Catalogue, Toronto, The McMichael Canadian Collection, 1978, p. 6. 3A. Y. Jackson, "A Biographical Sketch," Exhibition Catalogue, Art Gallery of Toronto, October 1948, p. 30. 4Bess Harris and R. G. P. Colgrove, Eds. Lawren Harris. Introduction by Northrop Frye, (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969), p. 38. 5His works were exhibited among other places, at the Museum de Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1927; the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, 1925; Queens Park Art Gallery, Manchester, 1926; The Los Angeles Pan American Exposition, 1925, and at exhibitions in New York City at the Grand Central Gallery and Rockefeller Center; the Boston Museum; the Buffalo Albright Art Gallery, 1928; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1930; and at a retrospective exhibition of the Group of Seven Paintings in the National Gallery, Ottawa, 1932. 6Dane Rudhyar, Transcendental Movement in Painting, 1938 (unpublished), pp. 29-30. 7Pattison, p. 25. 8Harris and Colgrove, PP. 111-115. 9Ibid. , p. 76. 10 1'In the more non-objective works one senses the validity of their statement due to the momentum gained in confronting the objective realm with an inner vision. Harris writes in his "Essay on Abstract Painting,“ Mellen, p. 217: Mellen, p. 218. It is becoming an art as pure as music and with the same power and subtlety of meaning, and this new kind of painting intro- duces us into an inexhaustible realm of new experiences. 244 245 'ZRudhyar, p. 30 13Frye and Harris, Lawren Harris. PP. IX and X. '4Sidney Key, "The Paintings," in Lawren Harris, A Retro- spective, Exhibition Catalogue, Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada, October 1948, p. 32. 'sThere are various interpretations that are called to mind. In having been true to external nature in his art, he has been gifted with a true understanding of the inherent geometry and symmetry; nature's design. Like the Poet mentioned by Emerson, who steps from mountain top to mountain top, Harris has a poetic view of the world. The pointing blade (the "cosmic creating force?") points to where he would live and move in time and place. Harris is revealing a stark contrast of the temporal world and the realm of "enduring and incorruptible ideation." (Harris). 16 Harris and Colgrove, Lawren Harris, pp. 108-109. He lists other "intimations of the truth" that must be accepted in Faith: 1. Like the universe, art exhibits order, embodies law; expresses justice; in speaking of art we refer to these essentials as rightness, proportion, appropriateness, a just relationship of parts, a diversity in unity. 2. Like the universe, every work of art is at once a func- tioning mechanism of diverse factors in unity and a spirit that informs the whole and gives life and meaning to it; an organism--a body containing and expressing an inner life; the structure and relationship of its parts are analyzable, but the spirit is intangible and can only be participated in, or experienced. So we cannot discover the spirit of a work of art by dissecting it, any more than an anatomist can find life or consciousness by dissecting the body. 3. The universe is motivated by a power which seems to exhibit intelligence--there seems to be a universal mind inherent in the laws and orderly processes; a work of art embodies intelligence in all its processes just as it embodies an informing spirit. This intelligence manifests itself as the fashioning faculty, the active creative prin- ciple in work--that power which creates the form appropriate to its perception and expressive of its informing life. 246 4. The universe seems to be all alive with one life manifesting itself in an infinite variety of ways and forms. Man seems to be inherently a Spiritual solidarity within that one life. Of all the manifestations of man, art seems to exhibit the inner unity of man, his inner identity, the articulation and relationship and harmonious interplay and accommodation of all the parts in a functioning unity (p. 109). 17William Blake, "The Laocoon," The Complete Writings of William Blake, ed.: Geoffrey Keynes (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 776. 18 Eli Bornstein, The Structuralist (New York: 1967, p. 13. 19Harris and Colgrove, Lawren Harris, p. 21. 20 21 Ibid., p. 30. Harris and Colgrove, Lawren Harris, p. 131, 22Ibid., p. 126. We are reminded of St. Paul's remark that "the Spirit gives life, the letter kills." Harris' abstractions subjected him to strong criticism from supporters and former members of The Group of Seven. They accused him of having sold out to "modernism" and refused to take his later work seriously despite Harris' claims that they were more important than work he did while a member of the Group of Seven. Public reaction, too, was unfavor- able and Canadian galleries abstained from buying them until shortly before his death (see Mellen, p. 218). 23 24W. Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (New York: Wittenborn Publishers, 1947), pp. 262-63. 25 26Jose Argfielles, (The Transformative Vision; Boulder, Shambahla Press, 1976, p. 92) observes: Sidney Key, p. 32. Rudhyar, p. 30. In proclaiming "no secrecy in art," Blake struck a paranoid nerve in technocratic society. According to Blake, the most shifting and repressive influence on Art is the belief in the primacy of money. Whereas true art affinns and furthers the life-force, man's greed for money, which in time literally becomes a form of bondage, inhibits and represses it. By its very nature a repressive and inhibiting power cannot function openly. With the triumph of money and its coproducts, indus- trialism and the belief in unlimited material progress, true 247 art, the work of the eternal imagination, has literally been driven underground; it has become a secret. This art, whose purpose is to penetrate and reveal the workings of nature and thereby to further her processes in the human realm, combines what we commonly call art and science. However, the art and science we know today remain separate from each other, driven apart by the insatiable imperatives of money. Fortunately Harris had a trust fund which allowed him freedom to work. 27Harris, in a beautiful, moving statement from his essay "Momentum," cited in Harris and Colgrove, n.p., pp. 20-21: . .Now, every civilization has a pace, a momentum, an ascent, as it were, toward its expressive peak where it achieves this peak it experiences a fullness of life equal to its capacity-- a momentary equilibrium wherein it reflects and participates in universal order, and life is lived in terms of that order. All creative life in man anticipates that order. All great and real works of art embody it. - 28Sidney Key, n.p. p. 29. 29Raymond Jonson, Jonson interview, August, 1977. 30Harris and Colgrove, p. 133. 3'Jean Rene Ostigury, research curator at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) has done extensive research on Harris, especially concerning his two major retrospectives in 1948 at the Art Gallery of Toronto and the 1963 retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery, Ottawa and the Vancouver Art Gallery. An extensive bibliography will be found in "Canadian Biographies, Artists and Authors," published by the Canadian Library Association, Ottawa 1948. For more references see my selected bibliography. CHAPTER VI BILL LUMPKINS AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP For one reason or another, the remaining members of the TPG cannot be adequately discussed, though I shall do a brief sketch of the work of Bill Lumpkins who is soon to publish a book on his painting. Stuart Walker (1904-1940) painted brilliant, luminous abstractions but he died in 1940 and left only a small number of paintings and drawings many of which are now in part of the Jonson Collection of the University of New Mexico.' Horace 1. Pierce (1914- 1958) was a talented painter and illustrator but was unable to com- 2 Robert Gribbroek (1907- pletely pursue his art for various reasons. 1970) excelled in the field of film animation, a subject beyond the scope of this thesis.3 Equally demanding further attention are the relief Sculptures of Florence Miller Pierce, youngest member of the group who went on to create what she terms "Lycomorphs," or "light forms." Her work of 1965 entitled Abstraction, is a work which is carved in balsa wood and contains the essential spirit of the Copernican Solar model, also reminiscent of the aforementioned abstract film on the solar system by her late husband, Horace (Figure 113).4 Ed Garman of San Diego, California, joined the TPG after Lawren Harris left for Canada. The young painter soon became fast 248 249 Abstraction (1965), Florence M. Pierce. Figure 113. 250 friends with Raymond and Vera Jonson. He wrote numerous articles on Jonson's work, introductions to some of his exhibition catalogs‘ as well as a comprehensive book on Jonson in 1976. His own work is close in temperatment to Jonson's.5 Bill Lumpkins was gifted early with a zen-like detachment to the expression resulting in work somewhat like Japanese water- colors. The validity of gesture had been recognized in 1930 in Rudhyar's book Art As the Release of Power in his essay, "The Art of Gesture, Art of Pattern." It was also practiced by Lumpkins' friend, Cady Wells, who had considerable knowledge of Japanese painting. Lumpkins' bold watercolor techniques sought non-objective release through free experimentation. He admits to having been in- fluenced by Kandinsky's On the Spiritual In Art and his ceramic sculpture Shows influences of the Pre-Columbian and Central American Indian. They are magical in overtone and effect, often open in the center. William Lumpkins was born in Marlow, Arizona, on April 8, 1909. He grew up punching cattle on a ranch in Arizona and later attended school in Roswell, New Mexico, where he studied painting under Peter Hurd. In 1930 he moved to Albuquerque to study architec- ture and sculpture at the University of New Mexico under Sewell, Parsons, and Douglas. He met Stuart Walker there and they were invited by Ramond Jonson to join the TPG in 1938 after he and Walker had graduated and moved to Santa Fe. 251 Lumpkins became connected in various ways with institu- tional and industrial projects and did innovative work in voca- tional education in New Mexico. In his capacity as an architect,6 he earned his living, designing numerous blueprints for houses in California and throughout the Southwest, pioneering in active and passive solar design. Realizing that abstraction held many exciting possibilities for evocative expression, he worked (from 1933 onward) toward purely non-representational color organizations in his watercolors, though occasionally returning to natural forms to confront plastic problems with new understanding. Though he preferred polymer acrylics, as did Jonson, he was not attracted to the airbrush like Jonson. He con- tinued to paint in oil paint and used a free-form manner reminiscent 7 While in the TPG he created subtle of Paul Klee and John Marin. color-relationships with a spontaneous brushstroke, later permitting movement of liquids to blend and interact with other fluid pigments which created splendid effects. Before joining the TPG, he was a participant in the American Show, Corcoran Galleries (1934) in Washington, D.C. As a member of a group that called themselves the Rio Grande Painters he exhibited at the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe. He also participated in the 1932 Chicago International Watercolor Show, and at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. In 1933 his watercolors were exhibited at the National Watercolor Exhibition, at the Denver Art Museum and in various Shows in New Mexico. His first solo Show at the New Mexico 252 Art Museum, Santa Fe in April, 1934, offered a variety of abstract and non-objective works. "From 1935 to 1937 I carried on rather intensive experiments in experimental painting. While in the Transcendental Painting Group I was deeply impressed by Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual Art."8 In our interview, he made the follow- ing statements on his work: My paintings are not very architectural; they are rather paint- erly, informal. I begin with a brush and some paper or canvas and see what happens as I proceed. You have to rid yourself first of all attachments in order to use color by itself. The Impressionists were extremely aware of the importance of recog- nizing the value of color itself, and how it affected surround- ing colors. The Transcendental Painting Group was not a school, like Impressionism, for we each had our own approaches to our work. I am very much influenced by Zgg_practice which teaches the following: "Avoid attachments to this or that painting; approach each painting with a seeing-eye and void. Attach yourself to nothing and seek the original source of vision. Truth in painting is devoid of all objectivity. An image is painted because there are no words that describe its essence. Allow the creative image to flow without any expectation. Be not content with the image that is intellectual. Lucidity of the moment is the only real creation." This sums up the essence of my approach, and possibly of many of the members of the Group. In searching for the painter's Mind's Eye, the approach is more important than the painting itself, for the domains beyond experience reveal the truly creative image. This might explain why when I saw my first John Marin Show I thought, "He's copying me!," and then realized that we both had had similar ventures into the realm beyond the physical one! Around 1932 I first began to paint totally abstract things, but not with certainty. My first show was with the Rio Grande Painters, all of whom painted the strictly "southwest" genre, and later I met Raymond Jonson, Emil Bisttram and Dane Rudhyar. The Transcendental Painting Group only lasted three years due to the War and in 1941 I was called into active service and left New Mexico.9 During our interview he read some quotes that he includes with illustrations of his work in a book soon to be published. He ex- pressed an admiration for Jean Miro, Paul Klee, Helen Frankenthaler 253 and particularly Clifford Still. Art historian, Paul Fechner, defines expressionism in a way similar to Lumpkins: The concentrated, integrated expression of a feeling. Decorative considerations must become secondary; heightened human and spiritual considerations must become the essential purpose which everything else is to serve. . . . The artist's task . . . is the development of his image of things, feasible only in some kind of intuitive release.) I asked him about Stuart Walker and his recollections of the Transcendental Painting Group: Stuart Walker had died a year earlier of wounds he received in World War I--I knew him quite well, even before Raymond Jonson-- Walker painted very beautiful abstracts, in a style uniquely his own. The Group had exhibitions at the University of New Mexico, at the Santa Fe Art Museum and the San Francisco Exposition. We also were sending paintings to the Paris World's Fair but only one abstract of mine was sent, never to return again, of course, because war broke out. There was an exhibi- tion at the Modern Museum of Art in New York of ten paintings by the members, but I was gone by then and Lawren Harris and family were called back to Canada. I remember Horace Pierce's film was shown-~it was really great, a real breakthrough! He and Gibbroek, along with composer Leopold Stowkowski who became interested in it and doing the score on a suggestion from Rudhyar who had originally planned to do the music for Pierce's film. They took it to Disney afterward and several of the tech- niques were used in the film "Fantasia"; Gribbroek went to work for Disney until a dispute they had forced him to leave, so he went on to do great things in "alternative" cartoons: Sylvester & Tweety, Cayote & Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, etc. After the war I eagerly returned to New Mexico though it was a general con— sensus then (and still is) that New Mexico is non-mainstream and therefore unimportant for an artist. They were wrong. . . .11 Jackson Pollock's action painting created a new cosmos for Lumpkins to explore, for the painting technique he mastered allowed an intensely informal abstract expression to evolve under the guiding hand of the creative mind. Lumpkins' work entitled Abstraction, 1965, is an intense, brilliantly colorful expression of this cosmic space, (Figure 114). Forms have a tendency, according to Hans Hofmann, to 254 acrylic, William Lumpkins. Abstraction (1965), Figure 114. 255 exert a "push and pull" on the eye and thus suggest many possible, never static interpretations. Whereas Lawren Harris' later work exhibited similar expressionistic interests, lines tended to pre- dominate, amidst brilliant color to create the natural rhythmic movements. In Lumpkin's painting, line is eliminated for a more direct and informal approach which utilizes the acrylic water- colorist fluidity and transparency as well as intuitive, spontan- eous "form-gestaltung" of the lucid moment. Already in the late 19305, Bill Lumpkins' work was a forerunner of Abstract Expressionism that was dominant in the 19605. Abstract Expressionism extended early expressionism, drawing heavily on new sources of inspiration that have come to impress the fertile imagi- nation of artists (experienced from air flight and television ex- perimentation with new materials and technical innovations such as Max Ernst's frottage and decoupage.) This new freedom of expression also allows a more rapid produdtion of work and this factor possibly explains the vast number of works which Lumpkins has produced (6000- 8000).'2 However as long as feeling and imagination predominate in a work, the speed of execution is unimportant. What matters is illumination. At 70 years of age, Lumpkins is about to go into retire- ment from his architectural firm and devote himself entirely to his painting. FOOTNOTES--CHAPTER VI 1Stuart Walker was born in Lancaster, Kentucky and attended high school in Indiana after which he went into the Navy where his health was broken through overstrain. After studying art in the East, he went to New Mexico in 1925. Abstracting from landscape, Walker moved toward purely non-objective painting which showed a fresh, in- spired attitude toward rhythm color and design. Upon his death in 1940, Raymond Jonson and the Art League of New Mexico arranged an exhibition of works in various media at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, consisting mainly of later work, one of which, Ascend- ing Rhythms, was shown with paintings by the TPG at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939. According to Jonson his later works were concerned primarily with design as it pertains to "the essence of order." 2Horace Pierce had to work in order to support his family and could only devote himself in his free time to painting. He was inter- ested in graphic design and was an excellent draftsman. Both he and his wife, Florence Miller, were students of Emil Bisttram before join- ing the TPG. He shared with Robert Gribbroek an interest in film animation. 3Robert Gribbroek was born in Rochester, New York and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later at the Universities of Syracuse, Rochester and New Mexico. Like Bisttram, Gribbroek worked in commercial advertising and directed a well-known art agency in Rochester where he was also staff artist for the museum there from 1934-35. After moving to Taos, New Mexico in June 1936, he worked for several summers under the artistic guidance of Emil Bisttram. Also a remarkable draftsman, Gribbroek was to use his vivid imagination after leaving the TPG with Disney Studios and as a co-founder of Looney Tunes at Warner Brothers in Hollywood. According to Bill Lumpkins, he led a tortured life in which he found release in the cartoons he created, though he was never recognized for his painting, much of which has dis- appeared from view. Just before the end of his life, he returned to Taos, where according to friends, he finally found his long-sought peace of mind. 4Both Florence and Horace Pierce painted non-objectively while connected with the TPG. Horace's film was a short animated film that was the precursor of a whole genre of abstract art films today, and it was shown at the Modern Museum of Art in 1941 about the time the TPG disbanded. The film could be described as a mystical revelation of the birth of our solar system. 256 257 5Also distinct similarities to Kandinsky's work can be found in work completed between 1938 and 1942. 6He has published two books on Spanish-Pueblo architecture of the Southwest. 7Interview 22 May 1979. 8Dane Rudhyar, Transcendental Movement in Painting (Taos, New Mexico: 1938) (unpuBlished), pp. 40-41. RUdhyar alSo states that Lumpkins' approach was a scientific one. 9Ibid. 'OPaul Fechner, Der Expressionismus (Munich: Piper & Co., 1914), p. 22. 11 12This enormous number of works were due to his preference for watercolor which demands a rapid technique. His openness to experi- mentation and fondness for fluid, gestural compositions, resulted in a large number of beautiful, evocative transparented watercolors, works done in the late thirties and forties foreshowing much of the Abstract Expressionism of the Fifties in the United States. Interview 22 May 1979. CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION In 1938 a group of painters (TPG) were convinced that abstract art was not a decadent foreign movement. While emphasizing experimenta- tion with abstract and non-objective forms, they fostered Spiritual principles and created new symbols from which a planetary and cosmic world view could evolve. These objectives are of great artistic and historical Significance for creative artists and for anyone on the transcendental path of self-discovery. The TPG defined "the Spiritual in art" not as a particular system or school of thought, but rather as a vital human experience of transformation and dynamic re-integra- tion of consciousness, of reason and intuition grounded in the moral recognition of the preciousness and purposefulness of life. The paintings of Raymond Jonson, Emil Bisttram, Agnes Pelton, Lawren Harris and the other members of the TPG are works of this spirit of activity, created in a climate of general ignor- ance of these transcendental aims. Though seeking technical excellence, their work transcended mere virtuosity of technique. The skillful use of design, color, symmetry, evoked in the be- holder an unformulatable essence, a "presence," an inherent guality "1 which Teilhardt de Chardin called, "the cosmos within. To evoke this quality is also to reveal the way the divine creator of 258 259 our universe moves us in the direction of continuous dynamic growth and change (the only absolute). Thus we see our innermost selves by means of abstractions that transcend verbal explanation and stimulate our aesthetic, cognitive and affective faculties, transfiguring and transforming our consciousness. This is the "cosmic mission" of the artist, to be an intermediary and antenna of concrete as well as "transintellectual or transrational lan- guage" (Rudhyar), that transmits vital information on the wider issues and deeper concerns of human destiny and of moral and spiritual evolu- tion. The language of art, like all languages, is symbolic. The transcendentalist recognizes that everything in nature can be a symbol, a Sign, and emblem or analogue of a spiritual or intellectual truth that extends beyond the limits of the ordinary experience. It becomes comprehensible to the cosmic or "transcendental" artist who is acutely aware that the sense-experience of the "physical world" ultimately must be reflected by the mirror of one's inner perception of reality in order to express the connectedness felt between man and cosmos truthfully. Some of the TPG painters understood immedi- ately how to express their vision of depth-reality and others did only after a long process of experimentation with evocative means to call forth from experiences, dreams, intuitions and feelings many of the archetypal images and symbols that would otherwise have re- mained forever unrecorded by the conscious mind. To the cosmic artist, just as much as to the sacred artist of past ages, 260 the establishment of transpersonal communication that aids indi- vidual unfoldment of a mature and vibrant personality, becomes an elemental goal for the seeker of truth in order to transmit the quality of his being through the given means of creative expression. Much of what can be transmitted must inevitably remain obscure or unconscious in the minds of the receivers until it some- how surfaces in conscious awareness perhaps triggered by the edu- cation of the individual's symbolic faculty. Nevertheless, it is the very nature of non-objective and abstract art to "veil again“ what has motivated its creation, allowing a space for ourselves to open the image anew to imagination. Much of what transcendental artists create, may not be con- sciously conceived due to the informal Openness with which the artist proceeds. In creating the work he requires of the viewer an active process of becoming involved as co-participant. As a receiver of divine impulses from within the soul, the artist is obligated to discipline a variety of expressive means and to invest hard work to enhance and release this inspiration. It becomes increasingly dif- ficult for the creative individual to survive (intellectually or spiritually) in a vacuum surrounded by those who take the easy path or are spiritually dead. For the sake of spiritual and intellectual comradery, the painters of the TPG banned together. Kandinsky's Qfl_Ifl§_ Spiritual in Art spoke to them of a forward moving "triangle of humanity" lead by artists and creative individuals. The artist's 261 willingness to be open, imaginative and free, is to be equally vul- nerable to the entrenched sterility and mental-moral depravity so concentrated in the general environment. The artist's major re- sponsibility apart from truth to his convictions is to tread the path of greatest resistence unflinchingly. All "negative" ultimately seeks redemption in the positive, all darkness in the light. Rudhyar and the members of the TPG were front runners in Kandinsky's triangle; they dared to revivify the term "transcendental" after Emanuel Kant had malappropriated the useful philosophical term in his Critique of Pure Reason. He used it to denote a sphere above and beyond that of normal human experience. Yet transcendental experience is an integral part of the growth and transformation phase of life; the assimilated base of experience makes "a new person" ever possible. The realization that art and life are filled with meaningful symbols and images, lead these painters to readily use them as the elemental material of their work. In his most insightful essay "Art as Evocation" Rudhyar defines the crucial role of the artist today: The function of the Artist is to make his less-aware fellow men-—too busy with their struggle for survival or their own egocentric preoccupations--aware of the meaning of this language that is life. The true Artist, consciously or not, strives to develop in the collective mind of the people of his culture--and eventually of the whole of mankind--an effectual and transformative consciousness of what seeks ' expression through the forms and processes of life. He accomplishes this by producing forms that essentially are symbols, because being translucent, they reveal the light of meaning which all life seeks to manifest in a perpetual poem of existence. Art, if true to its essential function, is a revelation; it "veils again" what the artist has experienced, or what the deeper aspect of his being is able to transmit 262 through either totally quiescent or intensely vibrating mind. These new "veils"--the artistic forms, colors, rhythms, --are not as opaque as natural objects or events of our every- day existence are for most people. They should transmit or transduce the radiatign of a ”presence" that is both trans- cendent and immanent. Aesthetician Iredell Jenkins, offers some observations on the art process which Sheds much light on the work of the TPG: All vital processes, from the moment that need calls them into being, find available the organs to support them, the operations to release them, and the objects to sustain them.... All human functions, from the moment of their inauguration, are complete in the sense that they move from beginning to end, from impulse to release, from need to satisfaction. From here on, their development is synthetic rather than analytic: it is by the expansion of processes that are already present, not by the addition of new ones; by the division of labor, not the in- vention of tasks; by the disgovery of more available means, not the multiplication of goals. The painters and writers associated with the TPG were acutely aware of a great need to carry on the great precepts of modern art; they organized a group in order to respond effectively to the challenges they faced in order to instill a deep sense of at-one-ment with a world that on the surface had ventured into the blind alley of world war and the chaos of genocide. The holocaust that lay before them was as real to them as was their response to it--not with esoteric formulas about the way the world should be, but clear statements about the underlying, creative forces that offered hOpe in place of despair, offered unity instead of division, offered clarity where there was confusion and discord. They set a fine example for the artist who asks himself, "what can I do to change the world?" for they unflinch- ingly discovered available means to work in spite of the vacuum and 263 lack of recognition for their efforts. They collectively presented a wave of solidarity with abstract and transcendental values dis- pelling fears that the artist is fated to the role of Nero. They envisioned a new civilization rising out of the ruins of the Holocaust, and as a collective force of creative willpower, laid a firm foundation on which the creative individual would stand. Their goals were consistent with time honored humanistic values, truth to self, to nature, to one's commitment to positive engagement in building a new and honorable society of man. Even though today these goals still seem to remain only ideals, it must be remembered that each of us is fixed to a star. Along this path we find our co-ordinates and our sense of order and direction. It was this idea that was stressed in the knowledge that transcendental art releases a force akin to that of the seed-thrust in spring. The TPG knew that what they had begun, had begun long before them, and nevertheless would be the new begin- nings for others on their paths towards fulfillment. From the earliest times art was a means to clarify one vision of the world and of oneself. Myth, magic, ritual artifact were components of the transcending process that release one from the ennui, the uncertainty and the cosmic problems that threaten the creative and the inventive. Thus in the functional disguise of magic and metaphysics, art made meaningful, practical and logical pursuits. It encouraged debate and experimentation with the very definition of reality we set for ourselves. By stressing a wider and deeper sphere of interaction 264 with the cosmos, the work of the TPG offered new ways of understand- ing the ever-expanding universe of galaxies and ideas. In the par-0 ticulars of meditations on mountains, rivers and stars they offered symbols that nourished the hungry eye. In the spaces of pure geometry and illuminating color fields they offered spaces in which to sustain meditation until the viewer is empowered with the joy and ecstasy of cosmic unity and harmony through re-integration of oppo- sites. They achieved this with a firm sense of dynamic symmetry that they sensed permeating the entire universe. The artistic standards to which they adhered (simplicity of design, luminosity and purity of colors and virtuosity of technical application) were realized in their own individual approachs to the objective world. But since their experience of objects revealed underlying truths, so too the means of expressing and abstracting from these objects changed. Thus by being true to their vision, they distorted the objects until they went beyond objects themselves into a realm of idea and archetype. Just as we perceive medieval paintings in a dramatically different way than did the public of the 13th century, the modern observer may someday come to truly experi- ence for himself the reality that lies inside these abstract and non-objective forms. It has been my intention to aid the unfoldment of transcendental art for the observer in the only means available for this task, in words, comparisons and meditations. It is my sincere hope that I have been equal to this difficult pursuit, and 265 it is with humility that I close this thesis with the words Rudhyar chose to conclude the book which proved so inspiring. And while the City of Light abides beyond time and change, yet, because men weary of the old and become confused by the accretions which cling to once pure Images, as barnacles to a ship, it is needful indeed that new names be revealed--new streams gushing forth from the immortal Rock of Significance, a new feast of symbols for hungry souls, new mansions for new men. FOOTNOTES--CHAPTER VII 'Pierre Teilhardt de Chardin, The Divine Milieu, (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), passim. 2Dane Rudhyar "Art as Evocation," Exhibition Catalogue University of Minnesota February 1976, n.p.l. 3Iredell Jenkins, Art and the Human Enterprise, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1958), p. 81. 4Dane Rudhyar, New Mansions, n.p., p. 273. 266 APPENDICES APPENDIX A The Mandala and the Art of the TPG by Robert C. Hay APPENDIX A The Mandala and the Art of the TPG by Robert C. Hay In order to differentiate the Buddhist (Tibetan, Chinese or Japanese) and Hindu mandala from the luminous, abstract works of the Transcendental Painting Group (The TPG) which produced numerous works with qualitative similarities to the Oriental art of the mandala,1 it should be necessary to first define the characteristics of mandala painting and then compare the same to the objectives of the TPG. The art of the mandala is highly complex and for westerners presents prob- lems of new terminology, philosophical-psychological concepts and percepts and differing metaphysical biases. Nevertheless, the mandala can be understood as a visual vehicle for a new means of reintegrating human consciousness ("psyche“ or "mind"), employing it for this pur- pose as an adjunct to transcendental meditation. The mandala is called forth in response to a deep, interior impulse for transfor- mation of the negative constituents of the mind or consciousness. The forms and symbols thus constructed are evocative and fixative in terms of concentration or focalization on inner organic and psychic processes. Giuseppe Tucci, famous Italian art historian of Oriental Art, noted that most mandalas, though varying in their con- 267 268 tent and formal arrangement, generally are variations of one funda- mental idea. He states: The representation of the divine cycles in the form of a mandala is not the result of arbitrary construction, but the reflection in appropriate paradigms of personal intuitions. By an almost innate power the human spirit translates into visual terms the eternal contrast between the essential luminosity of its consciousness and the forces which obscure it. From this process cognition is acquired.2 The transcendental painter does not approach his work after any given formula, procedure or objective, though it can be easily admitted that many of the works produced, achieve a similar personal, intui- tive evocation of new means with which to deal with the problems of awareness and perception of the world, the self, or the nature of life in a manner which sheds new light, on the dark corners of the soul previously obscured or hidden from awareness. Similarly the trans- cendentalist stresses "luminosity" in the painting medium itself, and transparent planes that reveal deeper realities that pre- viously were unavailable to the conscious intellect. The art of the mandala has a deep doctrinal basis whereas the mandala-like works of modern abstract-geometric artists are intui- tive and constructed after a personal vision while possibly includes universal symbols that aid the artist. Such symbols as the cross, the star, the square, the circle, the triangle, the lotus, the flower, the diamond, shafts of light, contain a certain universality which transcends mere multi-cultural relevance, for they symbolize known virtues such as the goodness of life, the beauty of life, the inter- connectedness of formal relationships, release, physical dimensions, 269 purity and many other things. Mandalas were traditionally drawn upon the ground on a prepared surface that was to be consecrated for cer- tain religious or spiritual rites, a process which is also basic to the Navaho sandpainter who lived in close proximity to the TPG and may have provided additional interest in the idea of cosmically con- secrating a space wherein the soul of the artist or initiate could be revealed. Just as the diamond symbolically came to represent supreme cognition, illumination, perfection and eternal essence, so too in many mandalas the seat of the holy Buddha was placed in a diamond Shape or otherwise called the "diamond seat." In this way we can supply symbols in context to the uses to which they were put. Many Oriental mandalas contained vast areas of geometric shapes that usually contained realistic images of objects which were carefully prescribed by the monks or priests who advised in their construction in the greatest detail. Herein lies a great difference to symbolic works by the painters of the TPG, for they could pick and choose either from their own intuitions or from those of the body of symbols with which they consciously identified. Still, due to the group's declared aim to work non-objectively, they generally avoided the literary aspects associated with objects as symbols, while neverthe- less employing geometric forms as symbols, as well as colors and transparent planes while remaining somewhat ambiguous about their meaning. Most of these paintings were untitled. Since Dane Rudhyar was not actually a member of the TPG, it can be stated that without exception these painters were not actually painting mandalas 270 of any sort, though Rudhyar's drawing, Mandala For New Men dates from the time in which he associated with them. It is not known to what extent the group knew of the Tibetan or Hindu mandala or thanka. Rudhyar differentiated the differences between mandalas and other symbolic systems such as Tarot cards by noting that paintings whose validity is derived from literary interpretations of symbols con- stituted "commented significance."3 The TPG was clearly set on embody- ing direct significance into their paintings, abstracting directly from nature and their imaginations the forms and symbols they held significant. In asking how Tibetan Buddhist mandalas, Hindu paint- ings, French Gothic cathedrals and rose-windows, and other examples of gnostic and esoteric symbols differed from the symbols used in modern art, Rudhyar noted: ...while the Tarot card's symbolism is not an integral part of the psychic nature of the modern artist who paints them, the Tibetan, Hindu or Medieval works above-mentioned took form out of the deepest faith within the psyches of man for whom their symbols were intensely alive. They were not so much the creation of self-conscious individuals as the projection, through persons hardly emerged from the collective Mind of the "soul" of this collectivity-~a soul moulded by the great archetypes of their religions.4 Teilhardt de Chardin, a modern Christian mystic, spoke of a “noosphere” that was a glowing, pulsating aura of the collective psyche of mankind that surrounded our planet like the circle of the mandala is meant to surround the individual meditating on it. Not only is the mandala a symbol of individualization of the artist's consciousness, it stands for an attempt at re-integration of self with the greater whole of the culture or race. This is the act of separation of the One from 271 the Many and then the merging of the One into the Many with a renewed sense of purpose, place and direction. Through this act, a deeper sense of underlying structure (both personal and cosmic) is won, as well as a new sense of equilibrium with the forces of nature. Therefore: The great cosmic rhythms of Creation/Destruction/Creation are like the rise of great waves and their break and fall--fu1fi11- ment and exhaustion, excessive and depleted concentrations and dispersions of energy. In art as in Nature, these Singing bursts of energy are realized in particular patterns, forms and structure. If beauty represents a harmony, a dynamic equilibrium, the ugliness can be seen as dis-equilibrium, an excess of de- ficiency of measure or essence. This balance is a fragile. pre- carious one--like health and disease--and it is easy for any kind of expression to turn into one or the other. The forces of destruction are inherent to change, yet if unchecked can result in distortions and negations of the creative force. Only by continual awareness of the process in Art and Nature, can we guard against complete destruction and discover genuine renewal. Only by increased insight into the total process, can we hope to mitigate or control destruction and encourage and guide creation.5 This could be understood also as an apt description of the motivations of the TPG in pursuing such themes in their work, without necessarily relying upon the sacred formulas derived from established religious traditions. The Eastern approach pays great attention to the inner attitudes and processes that precede the creative act. The mandala is regarded as a "cosmic crossroads" of sorts, where the physical and spiritual planes intersect. It requires the process of contemplative meditation to focus in on the matrix of the mandala, guarded from evil influences from without, in order to behold the vision of one's self through the mind's eye which may produce the nirvanic feeling of self-realization, and the healing force of under- 272 standing complex cosmic processes: the aim is to internalize the mandala with closed eyes. At this point we can see basic differ- ences between transcendental art and that of the mandala. Michael Seuphor writes of Mondrian's work: "When one does "5 Though not represent things, a place remains for the divine.... the mandala is used to this end, it still "represents." The TPG, in order to find the divine life, successively threw off the weight of symbols and imperfections by seeking loftier spheres in which to abide. Since, as Rudhyar pointed out, mandalas in most cases have little evocative power because they are descriptive of certain in- scriptions though they represent materials for meditation as cruci- fixes, Buddhas, and portraits of saints do. The paintings of the TPG evoke unformulatable essences or "presences" that simultaneously inhere within the forms and colors of the paintings themselves, yet are not present as far as our senses can perceive. Both approaches, if successfully executed, provide vehicles for the "Yugen" or vibratio, consonance of the vitalizing spirit and movement of life: a cosmic spiritual force imparting life, character, and significance to material forms, linking the individual artist with cosmic forces.7 FOOTNOTES--APPENDIX A 1Jose ArgOelles, Mandala (Boulder, Colorado: Shambahla Press, 1972). 2Guiseppi Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, Trans. A. H. Brodrick, (New York: Samuel WeiSer, 1970), p. 36. 3Dane Rudhyar, "Art as a Mode of Revelation Through Symbols and Jacques La Maya's "Significant Painting," World Magazine, (August 1965) passim. 41bid., p. 1. 5Eli Bornstein, The Structuralist, Ed. Gyorgy Kepes (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1967) p. 13. 6Michael Seuphor, "Piet Mondrian," Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, Vol. 4 (1945), p. 18. 7Oswald Siren, The Chinese on the Art of Painting, (Peiping: Vetch, 1936), p. 19. 273 APPENDIX B Four Letters From Arthur Johnson to ngmond Jonson Explanatory Note by Robert C. Hay 'I APPENDIX 8 Four Letters From Arthur Johnson to Raymond Jonson Explanatory Note by Robert C. Hay Arthur Johnson (1899-1981), brother of painter Raymond Jonson, himself a musician and writer, has been to his brother what Theo Van Gogh was to Vincent, a staunch supporter and avid critic. The first letter deals with the questions raised about Jonson's work immediately preceding the formation of the Transcendental Painting Group. The others deal with literary and musical problems associated with transcendental art. Rudhyar was known primarily at the time, as a composer and writer not as a painter. Arthur, via composer Robert Sheldon, ques- tioned the use of music terms in painting. Later Arthur admitted to a greater cross-pollination of music and painting and their descrip- tive terminology. His letter of November 15th, 1938 clearly poses the problem the term "transcendental" has with the average art lover, uneducated in philosophy. 274 Exerpt From Letter Dated October 30, 1937 Dear Raymond: ....In regard to the Morang introduction, I guess I'll have to let my comment go until later. What he says is good, I suppose, but it is devilish hard to express one's reactions in a way that any reader will understand. So far as I am personally concerned, my reactions to painting Seem to be of a sort that permit of very little dissection. Feelings cannot be put into words. I suppose I've written to this effect before--but the fact is that words are objective in almost every case whereas feelings are non-objective. I use those two words some— what the way they're used in painting. But the difficulty for me is that almost all words-nouns-are the names of things, adjectives are thing-describers, verbs generally refer to the actions of things. Even the so-called abstract painting-terms frequently get back to a material origin. And there's that word "abstract." How differently it can be used. So many paintings are called "abstract" that another definition of the word is being employed. Morang, like anyone, can express his reactions only in the terms of correlation, but that is always the case unless one is going to get down to a bare, scientific, dissection-something like my long expose of Earth Rhythms No. 4. I should say that Morang's introduction will serve its purpose well indeed. At the same time you were painting your Composition series (1929) you felt somewhat at a loss and painted the Abstract series of 275 276 numbers and dancers. This series I feel as something of a stopgap between the Earth Rhythms and Compositions and the new Variations on a Rhythm series. I feel that there is a definite subject matter in these constructions. Not a definite time or place but a definite subject nonetheless. The "Variations" seem to me to be further reaches into the meaning of structure in earth forms and rhythms. But in them, the forms, insofar as particular scenes or places or structures are concerned, have been rather generalized and usually completely abstracted. It is as though you recognized that form is a cosmic, not a mere world entity. Isolated in the midst of the period is the Time Cycle. In these paintings earth-forms are concepts of time or space. To do what I dislike, namely make a comparison in another art, the apparent subject matter or rather materials, are Similar to the iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme of the sonnet, merely the "form" which makes possible the expression of something else. Just as the verses of a sonnet are not the sonnet, so the clouds, trees, suns or moons or whatnots of the Time Cycle are not the painting. So I feel that these three canvasses were of large importance in your movement along the line of your development. I wish that I had photographs of more of those Universe pictures of 1935. I think that they must be highly important--cer- tainly the ideology of them appeals to me. All through your late work, I think this business of the wider, the universal implications of form would seem to move. In such things as the Southwest Con- structions where a specific locale is indicated, though not some 277 particular spot, I feel, on the basis of one photograph that there. has been a widening of the point of view found in the Earth Rhythms, and very much that of the Cloud Forms and Mesa or the Cliff Dwellings. If the photograph that I have is fairly representative of the entire series, I see that, although labelled "Southwest Constructions," the cosmic touch is there. These are more than broad generalizations. In fact they aren't generalizations at all but rather particulari- zations of the meaning of structure, rhythm and color (no doubt, though I've seen no color Since all I have is the photograph). In fact in them, I feel, an application of the cosmologist's observa- tions to the terrestrial exemplification of the cosmos--for after all the earth is a part, and probably a typical part of the cosmos. Now this is the precise opposite of discovering the cosmos via a dis- covery of the earth; rather you discover the earth via the cosmos-- it is like a hypothesis to the effect that since the cosmos is thus and so, the earth, being part of the whole, must be thus and so, which you are proving by means of the evidence accumulated in your pictures. Arthur Letter Dated August 2, 1938 Dear Raymond, I have received the Transcendentalist Manifesto. You ask what I think of the designation. I perceive that you expect a certain amount of criticism and even fun-poking on that score. The point is that the word transcendental, like so many words, has become debased. To the generality of mankind its meaning is apt to be restricted to such synonyms as these (from Roget): "unintelligibility, incompre- hensibility, imperspicuity, vagueness, mystifications, etc...etc.." This is, in fact, the least of its meanings and it does not make it a poor word even so, for a great many things are unintelligible. I don't know why art Should be expected to achieve popular comprehensi- bility when it is not demanded of other things. Mathematics goes on its way and is itself, however incapable of understanding it the general public may be. The theory of relativity is not attacked on the score that the man in the street can't understand it. Even the Bible says of God, "who has known the mind of the Lord?“ In other words, God cannot be understood by the human mind. The sooner our hypocrits of the churches admit this fact the sooner they'll stop cutting one another's throats. By definition God is incomprehensible. As soon as he becomes comprehensible he is no longer God. But when a man sets out to paint a picture he must not transcend the under- standing of the man in the street! What nonsense. I incline to 278 279 think that painting is like religion. Just as a concept of God which does not transcend popular understanding is godless, so an art which does not transcend popular understanding is not art! All that I really mean is that facile comprehensibility doesn't con- stitute any standard of art though more people think it does than do not think 50. People ought to be forced to think or feel or experi- ence something vital when they look at painting. Most of the art of the world requires nothing except the mechanical act of looking and the minimum mental act of memory. This really is the one thing that is wrong with Van Gogh--he's too easily understood, or rather, too easily liked, for he can be liked and not understood, just as God can be loved and not understood. Frankly, I don't like Art instead of art in the announcement of something like thi5--I never quite see the necessity of the capi- tal A. AS soon as you're ready to make public announcement of this thing why don't you try to get the local A.P. man to send it out-- that's the sort of "publicity" that counts. And of course you'll send it to all the art papers agg_museums--the latter is very impor- tant, I think. And to such groups as you can, among them the S.R. Guggenheim Foundation, Carnegie Hall, N. Y. That's supposed to be a nonfobjective painting group and ought to be interested. AS you know, I'm just a bit suspicious of that whole thing of Hilda Rebay, Bauer and Guggenheim. 280 However, I've been tempted to write to the Foundation about you-—and mentioned it in a recent letter to you, but you didn't make any response. I've hesitated because I don't know whether other efforts in that direction are being made. It's perfectly ridiculous that there should be an actual Foundation devoted to non-objective art and that it should not be buying your work. (Of course thig Guggenheim Foundation is different from the other Guggenheim Founda- tion.) So once again, I ask: so far as you know, has anything ever been done to interest the S.R. Guggenheim Foundation in your work? Is anything being done now? What do you think of my trying to do something? You may not agree with all this. You may feel that I am de- scribing a scientist, a sort of geologist-physicist, rather than an artist. And this brings up an interesting question: what is the difference between a scientist and an artist? In the case of the naturalistic painter there is very little difference, depending solely upon his powers of observation and reproduction. Painting what he "sees," he is making a record of facts or what seem to be facts, which is what the scientist does. In this category belong many of our current painters who are making documents of our civili- zation - they are archeologists of the present. The scientist dis- covers the cosmos, or the particular part of the cosmos in which he specializes, through the activity of the intellect. The artist dis- covers the cosmos through the activity of the emotions which implies that he is a person whose intuitions guide him to the truth. There 281 are things that the artist knows without knowing how he knows them - this is the product of intuition. Sometimes a naked thrust of in- spiration leads him to this knowledge. (You see, perhaps, why I get rather impatient with classifications which say that intuition belongs to one type of artist, inspiration to another.) Intuition and inspiration thus overlap, interplay, at times become practically synonymous. The difficulty for every person who arrives at the semblances of truth via intuition is to make known to others what he has discovered. In the case of the scientist the process is simpler. He can expose his program step by step. Understanding of what he has done and the conclusions at which he has arrived is dependent solely upon the state of intelligence of those who are trying to understand what he has done. But the artist cannot lay out a series of equations or a laboratory note book. He cannot justify his conclusions by means of graphs and assemblages of concurrent "facts." Consequently he is apt to find the reactions to his "truth" to consist more of mis- understanding than of understanding. Whenever an art is pure, it requires of the person who tries to understand it either that he should have experienced or be capable of experiencing emotions identical with or similar to those of the artist. This applies to all art forms and explains the great difficulties connected with most expressions in the modern world. The "Old Masters" dealt with a relatively naturalistic technique. The beholder who sees anything beyond the surface realism of the paintings is extremely rare. That 282 frequently there was a reaching out to express the universal order is a circumstance that is lost in the ease with which the paintings as pictures of some particular object are recognized. The same thing to a much lesser extent is true of much of your painting. This, incidentally, is one reason why I have always felt that any exhibi- tions of your work should run the gamut of your various "periods" or phases, so that a person capable of perception might see how far back go the tendencies which have resulted in your more recent expressions. By seeing how period fits into period, such a person may realize that the latest expression is the product of a development as orderly in its way as is the primal order that you try to express--thus your work as a whole is symbolical of the very thing it seeks to explain.... Arthur Exerpt of a Letter Dated November 2, 1938 Dear Raymond: (Note: Arthur quotes composer, Robert Sheldon, who has written to Arthur regarding Rudhyar's article in the New Mexico Examiner August 21, 1938.) "The non-objective painter creates forms which are in them- selves objectS--they have weight, color, form, intensity and all the other attributes of objects except that they are not recognizable as well-known objects." (Sheldon) If any meaning is conveyed by a painting, it is conveyed by forms, colors, etc. which are recognizable. 0n the other hand the great objective painters have never painted objects as such, rather as incidentals. The forms, the truly aesthetic attributes of the pictures, looked through the transparent objectiveness of the object. "Mr. Rudhyar's synopsis of music history is brief and bril- liant but again not, entirely true of my way of thinking. He states near the beginning that music has always been non-objective and then makes objective matter of established forms and procedures. Suppose a scale can be likened to an object in painting, it is still not the same thing. A scale or a tonality could be likened to the prevail- ing color of a painting. Music is made up of organized sounds." (Sheldon) 283 284 Let me mention that Sheldon believes that all sounds are apart of music including the many that are often dismissed as "mere noise." They can all be plotted on a scale but not necessarily our diatonic scale. "Scales of some sort are going to have to exist. The major scale was a natural and Spontaneous outgrowth of people, not music- fans. It was not used in the modal church music to any extent. It came out of folk song and secular music which rose in spite of the learned brethren. It is a very definite part of our racial growth, along with the pentatonic scale. It was, therefore, no arbitrary thing. If it was misused, it was not the fault of the scale but the limitations of the composers who used it, for the great masters succeeded in creating sublime things from it and have continued to do so until the present time....So with methods of unifying materials which are essential in works of art. No doubt the simple repetitional forms were abused as was the sonata and the fugue, and made to fit all manner of ill-assorted music ideas, but the great master works were written in clear and apparent designs. Scriabin never "transcended" sonata-form--in fact he used it much more strictly than others of his era--and his "transcendentalism" doesn't seem to be affected one way or another by it." "Perhaps Mr. Rudhyar is writing great music but if so it will be because he has the great creative spirit in the use of music mate- rials not because he belongs or adheres to any group or its ideas. 285 To my mind, there have been only a few musicians who have "tran- scended" this world. I shall name them in their approximate order. of transcendence: 1) Beethoven; 2) Sibelius; 3) Scriabin; 4) Bach; 5) Mozart; 6) Schubert; 7) Bruckner; 8) Mahler; 9) Brahms; 10) Moussorgsky, perhaps Smetana or Prokovieff--and perhaps others,-- forgot Schbnberg who ranks fairly near the front. All the rest express the sublime in terms of this earth entirely. Beethoven's is the only transcendentalism that appeals endlessly to me. It is fathomless in its simplicity. This crops out only in the third period works and a few works in the second period--Waldstein Sonata, Violin Concerto, Sonata Op. 90, Archduke trio, Seventh Symphony, and there is an inkling of it in the early Sonata #l0.0p/C major." "Sibelius comes next. In both these men, as in Mozart and Schubert and in a way, Bach, BrOckner and Brahms, the transcendent sensation is one of Simplicity and purity. In Scriabin it became voluptuous and sensual and oriental, too definately a Sign of a dis- eased and fanatical mind intent on experiencing this nirvana-~1ike musical opiate. Brfickner,.Mah1er and Franck (in a couple of the "Beatitudes") strike the right note occasionally, but Brfickner was too obviously drinking at the Wagner spring, Mahler is too deriva- tive and complex, Frank too obviously religious." "A great deal of the world's best music has pursued other ideals and it is futile to say that musical art has been moving in that direction. It is an individual matter and has nothing what- ever to do with the musical formulae of composition." 286 "Mr. Rudhyar does not, evidently, consider Beethoven as worth mentioning. But, with you, for the life of me I cannot see what Cowell has to do with transcendentalism-~or Varese either." I had remarked that every bit of music by Cowell that I have heard is of the sort called "program music" and has consisted entirely of imitations of material-objective-sounds and movements without, so far as I am capable of hearing, any comment or overtone of a transcen- dental sort. I know nothing of the music of Varese. [Sheldon continues in his criticism:] "Music is music, good or bad, and most of it is bad, and transcendentalism is only one measuring stick of its goodness. So far as my main criticism of Mr. Rudhyar is concerned, it is of his putting artistic movements in relationships with political movements. Transcendentalism is no more associated with the ideals of Communism or Democracy than with Czarism or Hitlerism. Perhaps Neoclassicism is a reactionary movement. That makes no difference if great music comes out of it and we're too close to tell much about that. I know this, however, that no music worth a tinker's dam has ever been com- posed that hadn't a logical structure and a unified as well as varied form. Nor has any music achieved the palm of greatness that didn't stir some emotion on the part of the hearers who could comprehend the work." "Music, by very nature, is non-objective and its response in the listener is as varied as the individual. It is good or bad by aesthetic standards alone. Its chief trouble has been its uncanny 287 ability to amalgamate with other artistic expressions and forms, and in such connection it must be judged on partially different standards which is material for another essay at least." “The real difficulty lies in this: artists of whatever kind tend to evaluate works of art by clique standards - always literary ones. Look back at Gluck, at Berlioz, at Wagner and all those others who championed the verities. They were right, not by reason but by genius. Who cares a rap about their hair-pullings today? Their wearisome discussions rouse very little sympathy, for on the other side were generally men of equal genius writing equally masterly work according to different literary standards." [end of quote] Well, there's another expression of viewpoint for you. The important thing always remains the same thing-~that as soon as we begin to discuss any art we become literary. Particularly in music and painting the results are confusion and misunderstanding. Pre- cisely when a non-objective painting is described, it begins to be misunderstood; and when it is verbally analyzed it begins to lose its identity as a work of art (painting) and becomes instead an illustration for a bit of literary exercise. Apparently the only way it can ever be "understood" is through being seen. If it repro- duces in the "soul" of the beholder the design of form and design of color (etc.!) which the artist has presented, then it is understood even--and perhaps particularly--if the said beholder cannot find a Single word to express that grasp of design. As you know from 288 previous letters, my own attitude toward painting is that it most closely approaches a valid art-form precisely when it is least capable of reaction into words. What literature, words, cannot express may be very well expressed by painting. I certainly know that I am capable of gaining from painting reactions that cannot be confined in the straitjacket of words. It is as bad in music. Consider, or if you are not acquainted with it, Mr. Rudhyar could certainly consider the god-awful tripe that has been written concerning such a work as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. This is a work that produces in the listener the liveliest reactions. I am incapable of imagining any person--however sophisti- cated or however ignorant-~who wouldn't respond to this work if he came to it simply and listened to it as a piece of music which incites to such response. Instead it is apt to be only the musically and music-literature ignorant who really can enjoy that symphony! The rest are burdened down with a whole literature of explanation, all about fate and the soul's struggle and a lot of other accretions (as though the work were Liszt's "Les Preludes“), few of which, if he has any independence of feeling or any sensitiveness of emotion, can possibly have anything to do with an honest reaction. But because those are the things the listener has been taught to believe are intended in the work, he spends his time not in hearing, but in trying to discover those recondite "messages," "stories," "intentions." To me it all makes a meaningless gibberish--the words have definitions 289 in the dictionary, but no hearable application, for me, to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. You may wonder what the hell all this has to do with tran- scendentalism in painting. It is just this: words are the material objectS--as solid as houses, horses or “Daughters of the Revolution." When an attempt is made in this objective medium to explain a non- objective expression, the result is apt to be a lot of high-flown lingo that produces only confusion. So the best part of your aim is that of holding exhibitions-~they will always be your best "propa- ganda,“ for if the expression is there it will gain a reaction from those who aren't merely of the brain cells or the nerve cells. But the whole process is hidden from us. We can neither see it nor, in any true sense, comprehend just what has happened. So we see it as something at a remove from the materialistic physical, sensory field of observation. Very well, we can call it metaphysical and we see that it has nothing to do with floating ectoplasm or Yogi breathing exercises (a purely physical exercise, by the way). And the whole essence of listening to music comprehendingly is to relax the brain cells, or whatever organ it is that is involved, in such a way that the patterns which resulted in the writing of the music shall be re- created, or reflected, in us. This too, is metaphysical in the nar- row confines of the word as I have been using it in relation to creative effort. Such relaxation is extremely difficult to achieve which is why there is so little true understanding of appreciation of the 290 arts. This difficulty explains Monet's (or whoever it was) state- ment that the people capable of understanding art are as rare as the people capable of...producing it, or Whitman's equally disheartening statement, that for great poets to appear, there must be great lis- teners. Most music appreciation is entirely physical. It consists of what is nauseatingly termed "musicology." The appreciation is for the physical, sensory patterns of ink on paper--the important "meta-physical" patterns of creation and receptivity are largely, indeed practically entirely, ignored. People who look at painting almost invariably refuse to re- lax their wills, egos, preconceptions, likings, education. They do not make themselves into a "receiving station" so to Speak. In- stead they look for houses, trees and men. They must have things, other than paint and canvas to look at. As a consequence people who are very righteous in their denunciation of "materialism" are them- selves crass materialists when they look at paintings. The popular- ity of the various genre schools of painting including our current "American scene" painters is simply that in such painting it is easy to see and define things. To the average "art-lover" there is no real art except romantic art or descriptive art--design, as such, has no real mean- ing, composition is a bit of trade jargon and to Speak of non- objective art is to be silly. To them art is the object. If there are overtones, as in social-document painting, those overtones are not considered (and indeed, what have they to do with art anyway?). 291 But if the consciously applied overtones of transcendent quality, is thus avoided, for a painting of a lynching which intends something I more than its depiction of a scene, does have a sort of transcendent quality, it is not surprising if paintings in which the transcendent quality IS the picture, Should be completely not understood. There is a growing number of people who are learning to stop the willful imposition of their own preconceptions on painting, people who are prepared to relax their organs of reception so that the creative-patterns can become the appreciation-patterns. The fact that these people are growing in number should be heartening to you and you have every right, and even the duty to help increase the number. To such people the essential falsity of social document painting as art . . . soon becomes apparent. Always my devotion and admiration, Arthur Exerpt of Letter Dated November 15, 1938 Dear Raymond, I don't know whether I should have returned th copy of the By-Laws of the Foundation. If it isn't necessary, I'll put it into my file on R.J. Danz wrote me a very nice 1etter...he said he is acquainted with Agnes Pelton's work and knows Rudhyar well. I have taken the liberty of sending him copies of Rudhyar's and Morang's articles from the "Examiner." I really think it is a good idea to spread the news as widely as possible. The chief thing that I feel about your "circular" is that it Should be expressed with all possible clarity and with the very mini- mum of fancy language. Unfortunately, most people, including those people who ought not to be that way, are horribly confused by anything over three syllables long. And when one gets into the higher reaches of interpretative comment, the average person-~"art lovers," museum officials, critics--are simply lost. Thus when Rudhyar says of Skryabin that his chords "have deep philosophical foundations," with no explanations of what such a phrase is meant to include; or when he says of his own music that it brings "down into manifesta- tion a transcendent power, shattering at time's old shells, yet releasing new vital energies;“ or of Varese's, "It releases telluric energies and is thus transcendent in an elemental-cosmic sense, 292 293 rather than in a spiritual-mystic one;" when, I say, such expressions are employed, the average normal reader is simply lost. He Shouldn't be, but he is. The trouble, as I've said times without number, is that people can't know the meanings of words and that words have so many meanings that it becomes a matter of choice as to what meaning is to be accepted. If I were making up your "circular" I would include on the very first page a simple and direct definition--possibly Rudhyar's succinct definition embodied in the first paragraph of his "Examiner" article--of precisely what is meant, in this case, by "transcend" or "transcendental." You see, whenever one begins to transcend the known world cognized by the five senses, one is getting into the realm of meta- physics. Now there is a perfectly good word that has become the unfortunate inheritor of a mass of meanings and interpretations that makes it almost impossible for a rational person to employ it. Any- thing beyond or merely additional to the physical "facts" is meta- physical--but we can't use the word without conjuring the mumbo- jumbo of spiritualism, astrology, theosophy, and a whole shadowy universe of other so-called metaphysical systems. In art--and let me use music since I am most familiar with it and the application to other arts is easy to make--the "meta- phySical" is almost as important, if not more so, as the physical. And yet, in the purest sense, art is entirely physical. Printed or written music is entirely a material phenomenon, as are the 294 instruments involved, as are the sound waves (disturbances of the unseen but none the less material substance of the atmosphere). But when one begins to speak of motives, say, or "inspiration," or "genius," or "the creative impulse," it is difficult to see anything physical involved.... Arthur APPENDIX C DEFINITION OF RHYTHM by W. W. Charters from Psychology of Musical Talent pp. 115-117 APPENDIX C DEFINITION OF RHYTHM by W. W. Charters from Psychology of Musical Talent pp. 115-117 The perception of rhythm and the rhythmic action itself. There are other intimate factors such as emotional type or temper- ament, logical span, or creative imagination interwoven into the primary factors of time, intensity, auditory imagery, meter imagery, the capacity for reliving vividly in representative terms, the auditory experience and major attitudes and attribute respectively. A. Rhythm favors perception by grouping 1. One can grasp in listening to a series of notes nearly as many measures, if they are heard rhythmically, as one could grasp individual sounds, if they were not heard rhythmically. In poetry and music, we play with rhythm, as it were, and thereby develop it in expanded and artistic ways. . 2. Rhythm adjusts the strain of attention. 3. Gives us a feeling of balance. 4. Emphasizes feeling, freedom, luxury and expanse or power. 295 296 Stimulates and lulls. Rhythm is instinctive, intuitive, finding resonance in the whole organism. Rhythm arouses sustained and enriching association. APPENDIX D RUDHYAR INTERVIEW SEPTEMBER 22, 1977 APPENDIX D Rudhyar Interview September 22, 1977 (These are exerpts from a lengthy interview conducted in the home of Dane Rudhyar and his wife, Leyla, in Palo Alto, California.) Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Leyla: When you painted, you didn't think about things like "curvilinearity or Steinerean" theory did you? Not really, no my artistic expression is very unintellec- tual in some way, I mean, it's not at all deliberate, either in painting or in music, it's a very spontaneous, rhythmic expression, not in any sense formal. I am the most informalistic person there is, either in music or painting, and that is the reason why "they" think it is not "profes- sional" sometimes, because it doesn't follow the formalism of a professional approach which is according to certain rules and principles, whether scholastic principles or occult, etc. If things are there, it is because I feel it should be there... Afterall, what is art? In Minneapolis at Rudhyar's exhibition at the University Gallery in 1976 ”they"-- or certain vocal individualS--didn't think Rudhyar's work was art! In particular--this one painting, War News disturbed them--funny for a city where they have a museum-- 297 Rudhyar: Ley1a: 298 the Walker Museum, where they...have broken umbrellas with cobwebs hanging from a tuxedo hanging from the ceiling...and this is "great" art! But, all these pe0ple started asking "what is art" and they were very upset be- cause they didn't feel that Rudhyar's work was art! In the case of War News (1939) I inquired when confronted in the Gallery by this view, what about that--that paint- ing isn't art! Well, you see there is this....over here, and there's only this small little thing over here... to balance it: its very disturbing, don't you think? "Well, you can guess what I said, the painting iS entitled Wgr. Neyge-doesn't it kind of look like war news? There's this tremendously disturbing blast and very little to balance it! She said, "Oh well I never thought of that!" So I said the painting has done in a sense what it was designed to do...It disturbed you... It was the day the Radio was announcing the invasion of Poland by Germany. This is the principle of Japanese and Chinese art, which is not balanced at all, it has a little twig or something in the corner, you know... America is still to a large extent still prone to this kind of formalism, to the classical approach to Art.... Rudhyar is saying art doesn't have to be that limiting, as the rules of proportional balance and harmony of classical, academic art. From his point of view, Art can be non-formalistic and still be a release of power. Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Robert Hay: Rudhyar: 299 And if the impulse comes from the subconscious mind to just let it go through with as little change as possible? Yes, but it doesn't need to come from the subconscious--it may come from the sphere of consciousness, from the re- sponse to life of what you are as a person, for example, the novel I wrote, Ranig,...the first chapter deals with Indian land (near Taos) but there are three parts, and each one is very different, composed almost like a sym- phony in three movements, and at the time when it was written in 1929, it was rather Shocking and entirely and unexpected thing for people, though I thought I'd done something else, and some pe0ple thought the first part was wonderful because I described exactly the situation that existed in Hollywood at that time. Others thought it was awful, but the last chapter they thought was very beautiful and Spiritual, then others thought that it was boring. I could psychologize my friends and critics by seeing which part they liked best. You can do that to certain things. When did you first read Carl Jung's work? Were you aware of him by the late thirties? Yes, I think the first time I read of Jung was his intro- duction to The Secret of the Golden Flower by Richard Wilhelm, and his commentary on it, in 1932. In 1933... when I was a guest of Mrs. Garwin on a ranch near Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Robert Hay: 300 Espanola, she had all the books of Jung that were published at that time, and She gave them to me to read. I took them with me to New York after reading them and that was what started me really to work on astrology; I had the feeling that astrology, which I had studied before--and which I wasn't too violently interested in before!--(I used it a little but I didn't practice it much.) I then realized it could be integrated with, made parallel with or comple- mentary to depth psychology of the Jungian type because many of its concepts could be re-interpreted into each other, and so I started writing on astrology which began my involvement with it. I'm looking at this book of drawings of astrological signs. (Zodiacal Signatures) Do you feel there is any parallel to psychology detectable here? No. All I tried to do there was to (they were one of the first things I did when I started drawing or painting) I was at the time writing a lot about astrology and I got amused with the idea of taking the ordinary hieroglyph-- you know--the signs and developing them and making them more fancy. And I showed them to some people. After I did a black and white drawing for a quite sundary book of poetry that was published at that time. (White Thunder). You didn't stick to the convential zodiac imagery--for example--the scales of Libra...or balance...? Rudhyar: Robert Hay Rudhyar: Robert Hay: Rudhyar: 301 The scales is the instrument to measure the value of things-- it has nothing to do with balance. All that you have there is simply the design of the sign of Libra. Sagitarius is my favorite...! Aquarius is quite good too, but the printers or draftsman made it much too dark in this version of my Sketch; it should be very light. ' I am especially interested in that period of your life, 1938-48. Yes, that iS a period when I did practically all my art work. Most of my musical work was done before 1930, now I have been revising some of it and have done some new things lately, but most of my music was before 1930... then with the depression, and I was married. I went to New Mexico...I felt it was very valuable for me to start painting, being in New Mexico with painters, marrying the daughter of Nicholai Fechin, the famous impressionist from Russia who lived most of his life in Taos, and being in Colorado Springs with Eya, I had a good place where I could paint without any trouble. It was the logical thing to do, then, when that period ended, it became very dif- ficult for me to paint, I was divorced (1953) from Eya, and then I went to Europe for most of three years, all my work then was my writing...In 1938, I lived three months Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Robert Hay: Rudhyar: Robert Hay 302 in New Mexico, when we started the Foundation for Trans- cendental Painting. The Group began in June, I think it was, and though not a member, I was Vice President of the Foundation that was incorporated in October, 1938. Did you ever have the idea that you were painting your music? Well, it's like a "snapshot" on the idea of a process, you know, and this idea in the sense of making explicit what is essentially implicit, not in the cognitive sense, in a creative rhythm. When you have a string of violins playing and the violin is attached to a metal plate where the sound vibrates, as the note changes, the form will change, so that in the note itself, in the vibration, in the creative impulse there is implicit or inherent, a form. An inner design or necessity? Yes, you could call it that. A birdsong has a kind of inner design doesn't it? Yes, but then it isn't form in the plastic sense, in the sense of rhythm or melody. What you can say is that it expresses a certain type of character, energy or tone. I spoke about this in Culture, Crisis and Creativity. I read a lot about rhythms in Ed Garman's book on Raymond Jonson, do you see Rhythm as a bridge between music and the plastic arts? Rudhyar: Robert Hay: Rudhyar: 303 Music is rhythm in terms of impulses, and vibration and a form is an immobile, static kind of rhythm, as I said, a snapshot on the idea of process, and my works are these frozen rhythms, archetypes, the decending power of those triangles (pointing to his watercolor, Creative Man) and all that; there is that whirling thing! If you have a mind which has. .its existence in dealing with symbols, and all that, then in a certain sense, everything that is created is symbolic, even if you are not thinking about it at the time; it is not a deliberate conscious kind of thing which sets out by itself to do something. It is not decorative art, it is really expressionistic, if anything. It is a trans-expressionistic art. In a certain sense, this was to some extent the idea of the Transcendental Painting Group, that they wanted to have some term which wouldn't be technical in some way, which dealt purely with technique, but which also implied a spiritual dimmension. How can one imply the spiritual dimmension? How can one with forms imply a spiritual realm? It depends what you mean by the spiritual realm of course, then it is not the spiritual realm if you mean by spirit a primordial energy. In that sense it is a source of creative energy, yet that source, when it manifests, obeys certain structural principles or archetypes are, in this Robert Hay: Rudhyar: 304 sense that we call symbols. They are expressions of those archetypes, or as philosophers call them, "the nummenas"-- that is what the Greeks had access to when they spoke of the world of formation. It is the Mind which has these symbolic ideas . . . But, what baffles me is the ability of a viewer to ver- balize anything other than--let's say--in reference to non-objective art, . . . a feeling or a rhythm . . . some- thing of this sort, . . . but isn't it impossible for an art historian, for example, to add anything to what the artist has already done without some problem bringing his own views into it? Well yes! Of course, to a large extent . . . . except that you can make suggestions which help the evocation of certain things which the person may not necessarily see at first glance. Some peOple see it, and some will not see it. To present this painting (War News)without the title would probably not mean the same thing. It might mean something, but it wouldn't be quite as con- crete and what you might call, anecdotal. It still would have the contrast between that little isolated circle there (pointing to it) and all those chaotic masses of color. So that in a certain sense, the aes- thetic balance is there, so that a small thing is bal- ancing as it were, and standing up to that tremendous 305 mass. Except you may say that those masses are moving they might completely engulf it. So that there is there, 2 you might say, a problem of balance rather than a lack of it, and a person Should try to feel the abstraction of that thing . . . well,there is that one thing alone in dark space, pitted against in some way the heavy mass of things coming at it from the other direction. So that thing is there--you interpret it in terms of the news of war, in terms of the individual facing the mass power of society, you could interpret it in this way: A single Man standing for an ideal when the rest of his society has no conception whatsoever of what this ideal is. Thus, the individual against the collective, in some way. APPENDIX E William Lumpkins Resume APPENDIX E William Lumpkins Resume Born April 8, 1909, Marlow, Oklahoma; today lives in Santa Fe. New Mexico. Studied architecture and anthropology at University of New Mexico and University of Southern California. Extensive experience in architecture--from institutional and in- dustrial projects to numerous private residences in California and throughout the Southwest. Has also published two books on Spanish-Pueblo Architecture of the Southwest. Art Exhibits: First Annual New Mexico Art League, 1932, Albuquerque, N.M. Rio Grande Painters, Art Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico International Watercolor Show, 1933. Chicago, Illinois. Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1933, San Francisco, California. Denver Art Museum, 1934, Denver, Colorado. Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1934, Washington D. C. Golden Gate Exhibition, The Transcendential Painting Group, 1938-40, San Francisco, California. World's Fair, American Group, 1940, Paris, France. Museum of Fine Arts, 1943, Dallas, Texas. Museum of Fine Arts, 1944, Memphis. Tennessee. First All-Media Exhibition, The Art Center, 1958, La Jolla, California. William James Gallery, 1959, La Jolla, California Retrospective, The Art Center, 1959, La Jolla, California. Pacific Coast--South--Uncommon Denominator, The Art Center, 1959, La Jolla, California. California South, San Diego Art Guild, 1961, San Diego, California. I. F. A. Gallery, 1961, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 306 307 The Barn Gallery, 1961, Santa Fe, New Mexico La Jolla Art Exhibit, One-town Exhibit, 1961, La Jolla, California. 55 Guest Painters, California Western University, 1962, San Diego, California. La Jolla Art Exhibit, Two-town Exhibit, 1962, La Jolla, California, First Purchase Prize. Museum of Art, University of Oregon, 1962. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1962. Paul Sargent Gallery, 1963, East Illinois University Cornell University, 1963, Ithaca, New York. Art of Southern California Colleges, Los Angeles County Museum, 1964. This exhibit travelled from 1961 through 1964 and was shown by most major museums from coast to coast. 25 Years of Art in San Diego, 1966, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California. Painters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1968, 1969, 1970. Collections: Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico. University Collection, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California. Walter Pomroy Collection, San Diego, California. Many private collections. 1971: Archive of the Arts, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. APPENDIX F Manifesto Booklet of Transcendental Painting Gropp TRANSCENDENTAL PAINTING GROUP 308 The Transcendental Painting Group is composed of artists who are concerned with the development and presentation of various types of non-representational painting; painting that finds its source in the creative imagination and does not depend upon the objective approach. The word Transcendental has been chosen as a name for the group because it best expresses its aim, which is to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and Spiritual. The work does not concern itself with political, economic or other social problems. Methods may vary. Some approach their plastic problems by a scientific balancing of the elements involved; others rely upon the initial emotion produced by the creative urge itself; still others are impelled by a metaphysical motivation. Doubtless as the group grows other methods will appear. The Transcendental Painting Group is no coterie, no acciden- tal group of friends. The members are convinced that focal points in terms of group activity are necessary in order to present an art transcending the objective and expressing the cultural development of our time. The main activity of the Group will be toward arranging ex- hibitions of work. The goal is to make known the nature of transcendental painting which, developed in its various phas- es, will serve to widen the horizon of art. RAYMOND JONSON. Chairmen Sante Fe. New Mexico BILL LUMPKINS. Secretery-Tmesurer Sante Fe. New Mexico EMIL BISTI’RAM Taos. New Mexico ROBERT GRIBBROEK Teas. New Mexico LAWREN HARRIS Sante Fe. New Mexico FLORENCE MILLER Teas. New Mexico AGNES PELTON cathedral City. Califomie H. TOWNER PIERGE Taos. New Mexico STUART WALKER Albuquerque. New Mexico 309 "The life force in the universe takes many forms. That art, generally looked upon as one expression of that life force, should be limited to the world of external objects is as ridicu- lous as that literature should confine itself to one phase of human society. The desire of the Transcendental Painting Group is to push on toward new horizons, to carry the Ameri- can spirit of the pioneer into the regions of mental and emo- tional experience, and to translate its discoveries to living people." ALFRED MORANG “At a time when western civilization is dominated by the most extreme ideals of objectivity, concrete and economic materialism; when mass psychology, mass propaganda and the theatrical show of dictatorships threaten the rights of individuals to live, feel, think and create as individuals, it is indeed necessary for minorities of creative personalities to claim the historically fated task of embodying the polar at- titude to life—thus acting as seeds, or as leaven to condition the reversal of civilization’s ideals which is bound to come when the present tide has reached its limits. — — ln saying this I do not take side with any particular group-effort away from economic or philosophical materialism and the absolute domination of sensorial objectivity. l merely point out the historical necessity of our times, and the counterpoint of cul- tural trends already clearly emerging on the world stage. — In the contemporary arts the movement toward subjectivism, abstraction and psychological or esoteric motivation is ob- vious. The term transcendental is used because it seems to express best the more positive and constructively idealistic side of such a movement. The transcendental pointing ideal is closely related to similar ones operating in the fields of the new music, the dance and architecture, as well as in philosophy and even science. Whether one likes it or not, one should acknowledge it as a historical necessity. Great art always emerges out of such a historical necessity—and in no other way." DANE RUDHYAR TRANSCENDENTAL PAINTING GROUP 609 Camino Atalaya — Santa Fe — New Mexico ..-. , Mr" "1""‘“"‘" :DANSCENDENTAL oAlNT NC ALFRED MORANG - v - .... n.--,- fl' 9‘59 ,:—— . -—-r~'~ ‘- -‘ " " ‘8‘- “II-‘- . APPENDIX G Monograph #l of the Transcendental Painting Group by Alfred Morang (Published by Rydal Press, Santa Fe, 1940) 3H Transcendental Painting “'hat is Transcendental Painting? Is it a move- ment somewhat like Cubism. Futurism and Dadaiszn, all. of which though differing in their fundamental ap— proaches possessed one point in common: that their practitioners did not concern themselves with painting copies of nature? The answer will require several pages. because Transcendental Pai ting is the flowering of all the various tendencies that have gone to make up abstract and non-representational painting. Thus we must retrace our steps. but first it will be well to point out that throughout the history of paint- ing there have been two distinct types of painters. In the collective mind of mankind there are two major tendencies that dominate individual lives. and to a great extent the mass movements resulting in the lives of nations: One is the tendency to follow the herd, to hold back from venturing into the unexplored regions of either the physical world or the more cornplex world of the mind. It is a tendency to follow the road of least resistance. a road well expressed by the contemporary cinema and the banalities of popular fiction. A painter following such a course, if possessed of sufficient talent will succeed in achieving a certain de- gree of success. He may paint the portraits of those in high places. or by using the discoveries of creative artists and subduing them to public taste. even be accredited with a measure of creative ability. But time will efface his name, and he will recedc into that pathetic group of talented men whose skill has only served to embellish the decaying social structure of their time. ' It is almost needless to say that by far the largest body of practicing painters belongs within this classifi- cation. The business of selling paintings has exerted a pernicious influence over artists. and more than one talent has fallen a victim to the lure of the dealers. 312 But there are a few painters who are possessed of the fire of creation to such an extent that they will of- fer no compromise. They are the second group: the group that numbers within its circle the creative artists of all time. the men who in spite of official disapproval and public inertia have carried on the tradition of art. They belong to the aesthetically developed in all of the arts. to the Mozarts and the Gorkis and the El Grecos who have pioneered even though the far horizons have been obscured by the smoke screen of public misunderstand- ing. The art of the old masters is too well known to need any technical or aesthetic analysis. It is sufficient to say that within the period of the Renaissance there were creative painters and painters who catered to popular ap- proval. The impulse that has changed the face of contempo rary art began with Paul Cezanne. He was born in 1839 and lived during a time when the art world was under- going changes that paralleled the changes within the so- cial and economic structure of the period. For a time Cezanne worked in the Impressionist manner. but his logical mind refused to be seduced by Monet's preoccupation with the rendering of objects un- der the light existing at certain hours of the day. Cezanne believed that the Impressionists had dis- covered a great many things in regard to color. but he also believed that art. while employing these discoveries. .hould make use of the solid forms employed by the classic painters such as. Poussin. But while working on this problem he stumbled upon the thing that was to change the entire direction of creative painting. He found that the shape of an object and the color of the object fascinated him more than the object in its Iunctional capacity as a house or a tree. 313 This was the beginning of abstraction. To Cezanne the wall of a house took on a form-color significance wholly aside from its value as a utilitarian object. In the later pictures of Cezanne there is little reliance upon nature as seen by the eye of the ordinary person. He used forms and colors as a springboard from which to leap into a new world of sensations that while paral- leling nature had little dependence upon her. Cezanne was only partly aware of the importance oi his discovery. He died in 1906 after a belated success among people interested in the advance guard of art. and his remark that he wa» the primitive of the way he had discovered will stand forever as a statement of a man who had unlocked the door to the future. While Cezanne lived there were other artists work- ing out the problems of form and color. Paul Gauguin found the impetus furnished by the primitive people of the South Sea Islands served to free him from the fet- ters imposed by civilization, and Vincent Van Gogh dis- covered the emotional torce inherent in color when used to express a highly individual reaction to nature. But of all the painters of that period so rici. in artistic advance- ment. Cezanne stands alone as the one man possessed of a mind akin to that of the creative scientist intent upon uniting past, present and future. Around 1906 a group of young painters headed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque took Cezanne’s dis- covery and developed it. These painters were the Cubists. the first artists to use the elements of still life. figure and landscape in an abstract composition. -\t a time when Cubism was forming into a definite force. negro sculpture began to exert an influence upon the art of the period. It taught the Cubists the value of form ex- pressn'e of an idea rather than form derived from nature, and it also influenced the Fauves, another group of paint- ers who though disgusted with Impressionism still clung to recognizable shapes while using those shapes as an excuse for highly personalized pictures. 314' During the years that Cubism flourished. other schools were born from the impetus furnished by Cub- ism. But aside from acting as stimulants to experiment. little was accomplished that Cubism had not already achieved. In orher words. nature still remained the starting point, and in spite of many highly original theories and not a few sensational manifestos nothing occurred to open a new door to future development.— until the advent of non-objective painting. In 1906 Vasily Kandinsky. a Russian painter. was living near Paris. Possessed of a restless mind intent upon pushing into new plastic fields. be grasped the sig- nificance of the Cubisrs and the Fauves. .-\t that time Kandinsky was experimenting with painting that made use of broad color planes and certain deformations of form to gain emotional intensity By 1912 he had settled in Munich and organized the Blue Rider Group with Franz Marc and Paul Klee. Kandinsky was the only one of the group to discard nature. He carried on C ezamze's discovery, that had been developed to some extent by the C'ubists. Forms were painted for their own sakes. forms that did not have a source in nature. and color was used for its plastic value with no attention to the color schemes of recognizable objects. Since that first attempt to paint non-objectively. many painters have experimented along the same lines. and the technical development of the movement has par~ alleled the progress of more d‘ojective schools in boatl- ening the collective plastic knowle'lge. The Transcendental Painting Group was founded at Taos. New Mexico in the summer of 1938. It is a logi- cal continuation of non-obiectivism. and in a short time has taken a place of national importance. The work of rts members covers a wide range that extends from the metaphysical to the materialist approaches. 315 Beneath the surface of American life are manv tendencies not apparent to the same degree in other countries. Many of these tendencies cannot i:e expressel through an objective approach. They are dependem upon an emotional response paralleling themselves. and upon future expansion rather than present perfection. One of the group may feel that within the borders imposed by material science lies enough to keep him busy creatively for a lifetime. The universe to a certain extent has yielded to mathematics. and we know that the mind is capable of setting up extreme chemical changes within the human body. Thus under certain conditions the painter may become aware of blends of conscious and subconscious thought forms significant of both racial and national evolution. To the painter interested in the materialistic approach the geometry imposed upon the human brain by the machine nught prove to he the framework upon which to erect a well controlled pat- tern of the brain's response to a mechanized culture. To another painter the drama of a people reaching toward the unknown in an effort to place itself in the cosmic whole might well serve as an endless source of creativc ideas. The study of .1 metaphysical approach to the rid- dle of human existence is certainly as logical as a pre— occupation with dialectic materialism. and viewed in the light of constantly advancing science opens new channels to the painter capable of assimilatingr this conception or the ageless new. Transcendental Painting offers an endless oppor. tunity for plastic and ideological exploration. It may by solidifying racial memories use them as a springboard from which to leap into the unknown future. or it may by reverting to the earliest impulses of mankind to re- cord its experiences through line and color. achieve a unity with the basic art consciousness within the social structure. In Transcendental Painting the painter is left free to adventure beyond the limitations imposed by nature. He 316 ' has freedom to catch the rhythm of planetary bodies or to record the movemem of the life force within the earth. In Transcendental Painting the space between geometry and improvisation is bridged by a collective approach that is not dependent upon any theory as a part of its working equipment. To quote from the manifesto of the group: ”The word transcendental has been chosen as a name for the group because it best expresses its aim. which is to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world. through new concepts of space. color. light and design. to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual. The work does not concern itself with political. economic or other social problems. Methods may vary. Some approach their plastic problems by a scientific balancing of the elements in- volved: others rely upon the initial emotion produced by the creative urge itself. still others are impelled by a metaphysical motivation. Doubtless as the group grows other methods will appear.” Transcendental Painting is a logical development of the tradition of creative painting. It is no startlingly new phase. Rather it is the inevitable culmination of the spirit that actuated the Old Masters. and of the spirit that prompted such modern masters as Picasso and Kan- dinsky to venture beyond the grasp of the dictatorial hand of Nature—venture and return with a conception of art that is never fostered by the unthinking masses of men. 317 CAPRICORN Meditation on power. The human earth, level after level rises to Himalayan intensity. A divine Presence overshadows the mediator. as the garnet sun sinks into the abyss. It merges with the quest. It is yogic power taking form as the embodied ideal, the vision made sub- stance. Capricorn is a song of incarnation. God descends into man. The Universal acquires "form and name" according to the longing of particular beings seeking to insure the perma- nency of ideals. In China, the Emperor stood as Mediator between the celestial order and the inborn chaos of human nature - the central point of reference for all social drives. In In- dia. the image of the Divine King, the Chakravartin, toolt form. borh servant and ruler. Around him. the wheel of existence inexorably whirled. In the Christian world, Christ is King. but act of "this" world. His is the Kingdom of Heaven . from which divine Grace flows. bles« sing the pure in heart, whose translucent ego glows with compassionate power and effulgent love. In Capricorn. tight proclaims and demonstrates its might. What puny men oppose as mor- al contrast, the great Capricornians unify in the might of right. the power of Truth. They embody Truth, as they dispense justice as agents of the Law before which gods and men are but ripples on the surface of the infinite Ocean of uncontainable Space and inexhaustible pos- sibilities. And the world is at peace. for everything is what it is. norhing but what it is. Free- dom is necessitv: the Golden Age. an Eternal Now. 318 AQUARIUS Power of the lightning! Matter summons antismatter to celebrate nuptials of Fire; and in their self-annihilating embrace a new star is born. a chant of new possibility. The electric Waters of Space pour with Uranian glee upon those who. pillars of assimilating and rejoicing strength. stand as ligntning rods to convey to the yet-unborn the manttam of galaciac being. The Individual rowers over the slow-breathing masses in parturition of tomorrows. Will their inchoateness accept the flowing words of the transpersonal Heroes through whom God speaks of the future? Alas. too often tomorrow but mirrors exhausted yesterdays. The Hero's voice is lost in the multitudeof undifferentiated moans oozing out from the snow and mud of Karmic avalanches. Power of the lightning! Sheets of fire spiral down upon the dedicated Soul. A fervor of self-renewing invades the titubating mind. in ecstasy of severance from the past. Circles be. come spirals. The lost equilibrium surf-boards from crest to crest. \Y'iil the traveler on the waves of time rlounder upon sandy shores. crash upon ragged rocks. or gloriously grow wings to meet the Yet-unknown on mountain peaks where a new god awaits? Alas. how. few the meetings on Sinais of human experience! Aquarian babbling and so- cializing hide the impotent! of effecrive rebirth. When will silence offer its golden space as womb for unclassified tomorrows? 319 . ...»... ... :35... ...... ... 9.5.2... 39.—...... .... ...-...? .....5 .55....) o... ...... .95... ...... 5.9.3.55 .... o... .. 4.51.5. ...... ......— ...... 3...... .... ...: 5.... .. 4...... ......5....:... ... 55.... a 6...... .... 2:... a a. 3...... as”... $5.55.. ...... 5.... ... ....5... o... .... .5535... as... ... ....5... o... ......x... 5.... .5522. ....u .5... .... =8 5...... ...-.... .... 5:2... .....s... .< 55.5.5.8. 5.5.55. .... “...... a .... =3 .....5 ......a................. ...as: 25:534.... .... 56 ...... .....5 ....r ...... 75...... .... .... .5552... ...... 5.55... .....s... ...... 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The soil filled with seed opens up to the dechnt of solar power, to the kiss of light. The one seed becomes the dualism of rant and stem. And the stem itself branches out, that in the innermost place where Power is born the divine splen- dor of the fecundant Self may dwell — an inverted spark of the triune fire of the Creator whose countenance men adore and reflecr in their puny procreations. The ideal of the ”I am" sym- bolized in ancient Greece by the Doric column, freezes into the materiality of a personalized ego the mystic dance of union in which the spirit of Heaven rhythmically could touch the bent and expectant human soul. The "i" could be the mediator. Through "l" the universal forever seeks to bless the particular; in an antiphony of desire. the only-man aspires to be more-than- man in moments of appeased lucidity - rare as these may be. Aries is passion of life. At the vernal equinox, death and birth meet in the symbolical Easter. In this meeting there is power. joy - incomprehension also. In Aries the nasCent indi- vidual is lived by life: his mind may be wide open to the gift of the divine Hosr - the ever fecundant compassion of God, cyclically generating tirne to otl'er to the unfaifilled past a new opportunity to experience in organic selfhood the Harmony of the eternal \\" hole. But the pas- sion of life is strong. unrelenting. Who will find in self the power to transcend its rhythmic urges, and ram with ensteeled mind-strength the walls life built to secure its redundance and proliferations? 321 TAURUS Out of the cubic Stone of matter, difierentiated into a myriad of crystalline structures, the flowing curves of living bodies talte form. They open themselves to the power of light. carry- ing within its compassionate song the promise of individual existence. Venus, builder of mag- netic fields that capture the elecrrical impulses of the creative spirit, brings to a focus the prom- ise of wholeness, of fulfillment in love - a love that forever sings of the overcoming of pain and crucifixion. At the mystic Hymen the power of tomorrow overcomes the inertia of yesterday. "Now" is the eteer battlefield where life's arrows pierce the resistance of matter. There Arjuna hears Krishna's exhortations. and the frightened ego is tuned up by the Supreme Will transcending vicrory as well as defeat - always at peace with itself, ever serene. all-encompassing. pure be- yond all concepts of defilement. There the Buddha renounces the illusory freedom of Nirvana to bind himself to Man in a conjugal rhythm of yearly overcoming and repolarization. There Life is celebrated in the minor mode of the sexual dance and the ecstasy of self-forgetting rises from the antiphony of polarized bodiessThere bondage and freedom can be seen intertwined in the rope of becoming. Some may dance with it. Others it may strangle in death's illusory fr - dom. To be able to choose is Man's tragic glory. 322 *4 GEMINI 9* When thinking of the Gemini symbol, most people visualize two pillars supporting a roof shutting from the sky a house of matter where the ego weaves its mind-patterns. as a spider its web. Our civilization is enamoured of walls and flat roofs, of pompous columns standing proudly to support only their own pride and self-glorification. But pillars may become flames; the space they define. an ardent field of cosmic vision, roofless and tonitruanr. The exuberant. yet culture-bound mind at last may discover a galacric center from which to receive. inexhaustible inspiration. The consciousness of Man may rise in spirallic ecstasy of transcen- dence from Earthoenvironment to ever vaster realms in which to participate in the birth of ever more inclusive ideas. Yet, Man remains the definer and classifier of a reality whose pregnancy of self-transcen- dence he so often stubbornly refuses to recognize. lest the seemingly quake-proof structures of his normality should shatter under the irresistable impacr of the solidarity of light. Fear- some and insecure, the ego-mind resists the impredictability of cosmic rhythms that, self-com- pensated though they be. always include for man the freedom of choice, and for GOd the great Play of unconstrained imaginings and humorous alternatives beyond human ratiocina- tions. 323 9...... 2...... 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