The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)Various
General
The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
the use of a mathematical formula. He has evidently conceived the theory
that certain colors are equivalent to certain emotions and by adding or
subtracting color he can add or subtract an emotion to or from the
spectator. Thus yellow equals joy, but add red to the yellow and the
effect will be joy tinged with passion. In this way the fluid motion
actuating Kandinsky is bound to be subjected to theoretical treatment
instead of being left free to do its own work. The emotion of joy in
passing through the painter on its way to the spectator will be
subjected to mental checks, with the result that it will be deprived of
its greatest value in its original intensity.
The study of the aforementioned facts led me in turn to new views on
Art, (a) as to the origin and nature of Art, (b) as to the order,
intelligibility, and coherence that exist in the natural manifestations
of Art, (c) as to the law of growth and progression to be applied to art
forms, (d) as to the illumination of this law by a proper standard of
criticism. Accordingly I came to see that Art is a potential creative
movement in space. It first exists in the fluid motions of the universe
and ultimately in a work of art only as the inevitable and efficient
expression of itself through a specially adapted medium called the
artist. In a metaphysical sense, Art may be said to be a spiritual
experience capable of assuming visibility. But it becomes visible only
by a process of debasement. Apparently, as I have said, the fluid motion
in which Art expresses itself loses its intensity and becomes solid
motion in the process of conversion into a work of art, as applied by
all civilized artists (as far as we know) up to the present day. In
fact, it is only recent years that have witnessed the discovery by the
artist of the fluid motion potential in solid motion. Cezanne, Gauguin,
and Van Gogh were among the first of the moderns to arrive at the point
of realizing this potential character. All three were actively engaged
in the refining of solids and suggesting their potential ultimate
fluidity. What they actually did was this. They demonstrated that Art is
a fluid motion seeking to produce an ultimate creative effect upon the
spectator through efficient application, and that fluid motion can only
produce its creative effect as fluid motion. Now, largely owing to
blindness or wrong direction, artists, with rare exceptions, have
hitherto concerned themselves with converting fluid motion into various
forms of solid motion. They have in fact stopped at the expression of
representative forms of nature and human life, apparently unconscious
that in doing so they were not completing the expression of the art
flow, but were stopping at a half-way house, so to speak, where of
course the maximum creative effect could not be produced. Before this
effect can be produced it is necessary to complete the journey by
reconverting the solids into fluid motion. It cannot be said that either
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