Further notes on The best american poetics Mark Strand says: I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes. Form it should be remembered is a word that has several meanings, some which are near opposites. form has to…
Tag: aesthetic theory
The best american poetics
In his introduction to The Best American Poetry 1991, Mark Strand, my favorite guide in the sphere of aesthetics these days, uses his own personal background (which I guess will be recognizable for many of us) to illuminate the difference between poetry and prose. Here is my attempt to summarize some his arguments: My parents…
If it is true, as Stendhal famously remarked, that beauty is the promise of happiness; what then is ugliness the promise of?
What is ugly? Who is ugly? – cont. According to Umberto Eco: Beauty is, in some ways, boring. Even if its concept changes throughout the ages, nevertheless a beautiful object must always follow certain rules. … Ugliness is unpredictable and offers an infinite range of possibilities. Beauty is finite. Ugliness is infinite, like God….
Notes on Art and Politics
My review of Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts focuses on Ai as a political artist. It is an obvious thing to do – Ai Weiwei is an activist artist. Not an activist or an artist, but both. For me it is important to underline this point because many theorists, and also…
The sound of the language is where it all begins
It’s Monday, it’s the beginning of a new week in pursuit of the gorgeous sound of language. I’ll be starting my day by reading a few pages in Ursula K. Le Guin’s excellent book Steering the Craft This is how it starts: The sound of the language is where it all begins. The test of a sentence…
Theory has nothing to do with it –
In the early 1960s, Agnes Martin’s geometric compositions evolved into what would later be seen as her signature style: the square grid. Referring to these paintings, the critic Lucy Lippard described them as ‘legendary examples of an unrepetitive use of a repetitive medium’. More and more I excluded from my paintings all curved lines, until finally my…
There is no halfway with art
history lesson Agnes Martin’s notes for “On the Perfection Underlying Life” lecture originally given at the ICA on February 14, 1973 on the occasion of the exhibition, “Agnes Martin” Some say she is rather esoteric in her writing, but I’m not sure I agree – just go with the flow and see what happens. In line…
Happiness is being on the beam with life – to feel the pull of life
I write and underline in every interesting book I read. Making notes in beautiful art-books is obviously rather foolish, but if I’m to engage with what I read, I need to have a pen in hand, to scribble. This is also why I much prefer paper to digital books. The text above is an excerpt…
art and “experience”
new ideas for my personal aesthetics – as always; snitched … “Insofar as I was interested in the arts I was interested in the disconnect between my experience of actual artworks and the claims made on their behalf,” Ben Lerner: Leaving the Atocha Station (2011) Descent from the Cross – Detail Mary Magdalene In Leaving the Atocha Station, the…
Existence itself is nothing if not an amazement
I’m reading Ten Windows by Jane Hirshfield. It’s a great book, a book to read slowly, to partake in. And it is a text very relevant to my ongoing investigation in the uses of art – listen to this: Poïesis as making A work of art is not a piece of fruit lifted from a branch:…
sub rosa 