Personal Blogs

What did Mr. Newman think he was doing..that holocaust(which also brings in The Shoah..scars take a long time too heal) cloud way back must have frightened the life out of everyone..and if you were Jewish or of an apocalyptic persuaion..it must have been terrifying(like the Christians were in the 10th Century)...

Mr.Newman's work owes much to Jewish mysticism especially the writings in the Zohar and the Midrash..legends and the power of numbers and words.

Painted in the same intense psychic style of Mondrian(Piet the Genius) with the cleverness and strange illusory world of the Cubists(Picasso and Braque) Newman's Abstract Expressionism is more intense and more focused(very focused..almost autistic..or was he hiding from a reality he was frightened of..the American's doubting the decency of their own inventions and certyainly in fear of them..as they are now..America is scared of itself(little bit of politics there).

Anyway 'Adam'...it is said that the female aspect of Gabriel was commanded by God to collect all the colours in the land....not meant to to denote the various colours of human beings...'..and the Spirit of God moved over the waters'...God created man out of the dust from the four corners of the Earth(' at the earths round imagined corners,trumpets blow'John Donne)..

The canvas is large..very large..massive in fact..it resembles the Frescoes of renaissance Europe in this way..it also calls to mind Grafitti art and billboards .in your face Art..A Spectacle..why its in a mausoleum that looks like something built by Nazis to kill Jews is beyond me(i really think the Tate Gallery looks like Dachau or Aushwitz..its a cold,cold place..but it does house some of the great art of the world..ever! Its got malevich's little but bigger than the world 'Dynamic Suprematism' in it..but an awful lot of Art that really should be elsewhere where people can see it..and pay more attention to it. Tate Gallery..a fucking cattleshed.

Painted in the colours of the earth..Newman appears to have created his own Golem..not out of desire but fear(are they the same thing?)..the 3 vertical stripes while being obviously phallic are also resonances..sound..vibrations..within the Jewish tradition the sound of the Shofar uses certain notes to express certain states of being..terror,mourning,wailing..they are:

Teviah-an unbroken long sound..this is the sound of creation..it reaches from the past to the the future bringing with it all the hopes and fears of millions upon millions of people..its effect is cumulative(thanks again Old friend)..

 Shevarim-3 unbroken notes(said to resemble sobbing)..'Adam' has three unbroken vertical lines..Adam born into a world that can only bring sorrow? These two examples of sound are not only heard but felt..soundwaves acting on the body haptically. 'The source of any sound is a vibrating object..Almost any object can vibrate'* Newmans work vibrates alright..sending out its birthpangs throughout the whole Tate..painted with so much intent it can hardly be contained (and to be honest I could hear it before I ever got to the Tate.)'...Standing waves are produced and the souce vibrates at its natural resonant frequencies'. The painting is singing..three notes  in unison becoming one long sustained note...a hum...the three lines resonating together causing a harmony...

I found out that a SHEM..is a mathematical equation not just letters on a piece of paper..maybe here we can connect Newman's 'Adam' to Einstein E=Mc squared-matter can be turned into energy and energy into matter..Newman's geometrical precisions borrowed from Mondrian and the Cubists...so Newman has painted a picture that to all intents and purposes is alive and working..it functions(even if I command thee to jump to the bottom of the sea and into fire*1)..it vibrates and sends out resonances...Within Jewish culture(specifically Hassidic) there is a contemplative mode called Tevunah..where the subject/object separation is said to disappear...this is what Abstract Expressionism wished from its viewers..this is its aesthetic.. this is what is wished by the author of this painting..this is what is desired by all tjhe religions of the world that they would know God. Newman created a Golem..using holy breath(Chayot..Hebel..)..the breath of his desire and fear..its this that makes the sound..(by the namina of the four..Aysch..Mayim..Ruach and Aphar..)..

The painting has no Eruv(border)..it is not framed and therefore is not contained..by the use of contemplation(tevunah) it expands with good intent for the highest possible good of everything is to make possible a better thing..The work has no frame therefore the gallery itself is its frame.but in the mind of the viewer,as I said,it expands..as love expands..with good intent..a desire fulfilled without economics(newman's Anarcho-leanings certainly fulfill this requirement)

Nietzche said..You have to destroy a world to make a world...Adam expands overwhelming the cities and towns,the oceans and land..it overwhelms this world to create another..a better world..this is the reason it was created..It has cultural embeddness through Newman's use of Jewish mysticism..it has expressive validity..over and over again..he painted it..over and over again..the work has a depth that cannot be fathomed..Like God..and Experiential depth..Newman was Jewish..the work was painted not long after the Shoah..the horror still fresh in his mind..coupled to that the new fear of Nuclear war as shown by the destruction of Japan by the nastiest weapon invented thus far..The End of all Things..The stripes represent words also as is said 'Do not read 'Charut' which means engraved,instead read 'Cheirut' 'Freedom'!

This painting takes in so much that it is almost impossible to put it in words..a wonderful achievement for Mr.Newman... the work is about presence..immanence..it is the multi-accentuality of the ideological sign.which always comes to the fore during moments of crisis(jewish law-all moments are holy)..Barnett Newman..a situationist..capitalism became the new Religion..one of money and  war..Newman's work creates a Spectacle which in turn creates a space that capitalism cannot enter..a space for the soul to breath in..it is bigger than the universe...the new war is the war of Space..Lefebvre said 'we hold onto Space like a fist around sand'(wow,I managed to crowbar some Sociology in..hugs to all the psychologists and sociologists out there) Newman's Art works..it is alive..

This can be equally said about Adams Apposite 'Eve'-Woman was created to be mans partner..his equal..so what goes for 'Adam' goes for 'Eve'....the colours of Eve..that vivid Red darker around the edges,lightening towards the centre..recalls so much through sign and symbol it is almost impossible to name them here..suffice to say Eve is the great mot..her..without whom..nothing.

I also think the man(men?0 who killed the Drummer are schizophrenic...mentally ill as oppose to real urban terrorists...from some of the things the man said before the judge cut his video link in the courtroom(so are people not allowed to speak freely?) he sounds mentally il and is confused(people who only study certain parts of religious books and not others...all religion is bunk)...

just saying.

hope all are well

Ant