… or maybe not? The circle in shape of a vessel resembling a Moon Jar has shown up in several of my recent paintings Moon Jars were originally made during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). They are curvaceous, plain white porcelain jars resembling a full moon. They were made customarily to contain flowers or wine, but…
Tag: art as therapy
The studio
Despite (or maybe because of) everything happening in the big world, my small world has felt like a sanctuary this month – I’m currently working on a series of paintings on board and paper with the working title: “Spring Cannot be Cancelled”, a series of partly abstracted still life paintings of plants & flowers from…
enchantment
This post made me want to take a closer look at Rita Felski’s book Uses of Literature (2008). Felski’s intention is to bridge the gap between literary theory and common-sense beliefs about why we read literature. Uses of Literature deals with four key elements of the reading experience: recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock. These four recall, as she…
art & affect
continuing my research on the importance of art – RECAPITULATING (Oh, I know – some of you are more than sick and tired of this, if you are amongst the exhausted ones; please visit again later!) Here we go: I went to Alain de Botton, I read his book and visited his exhibition, and even went public…
art is not therapy
Last week I went to Amsterdam to see and review Alain de Botton and John Armstrong’s exhibition “Art is Therapy” at the Rijksmuseum. The immediate result of my trip was a review written and published in the Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet. (A weekly, national newspaper focused on culture, politics & arts). For 7 years I have…
pragmatism
It suddenly struck me that it would probably be interesting to let Art as Therapy meet Art as Experience – DO ANY OF YOU, my dear readers, HAVE EXPERTISE ON JOHN DEWEY’S AESTHETICS? The function of criticism is the reeducation of perception of works of art; it is an auxiliary in the process, a difficult…
What is art for?
Clarifying By now you all know about my grant (whether you are interested or not…). I was awarded this grant to make an outline for a book very much inspired by Alain de Botton & John Armstrong’s Art as Therapy. Actually my intention is to try to test some of their hypothesis in praxis – not as they do,…
art as propaganda –
– on behalf of the good: Art is a living resource for our heart. Mark Rothko: You’ve got sadness in you, I’ve got sadness in me – and my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad. Richard Long: highly irregular…
having a vision
apropos the didactic – once again … I have read a short piece by Frank Furedi today. Not necessarily an antidote to de Botton’s art-therapy-project. But definitively a problematization of governmental utility thinking. Here are some thoughts to share from one of Furedi’s texts: There was a time when, as the Oxford English Dictionary stated, vision meant…
– to muddy pure and sacred waters
Last week I wrote 4 art reviews. Which meant little or no time for reading. Hopefully this week will give me some time to catch up. As stated before, I am as a critic (by the definition Alain de Botton and many others operates with) a part of the art establishment. I agree with this…
sub rosa 