John Duncan (1866–1945) was a Scottish painter closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Symbolism. His art was inspired by Arthurian legends, Celtic folklore, and other mythological subjects. Although Duncan shared the Pre-Raphaelite’s distaste for materialism and the ugliness of the industrialized world and was driven by the same spirituality and idealism, his graphical style sets his art apart from his contemporaries and likens it to Art Nouveau. Some of his peers claimed he was a madman, Duncan admitted to hearing ‘faerie music’ while he painted. Duncan’s account seems to imply he may have had a sense of the longing C.S. Lewis called “Joy”.
John Duncan ~ The Coming of Bride ~ 1917
John Duncan ~ Saint Bride ~ 1913John Duncan ~ Hymn to the Rose ~1907John Duncan ~ The Children of Lyr ~ 1914John Duncan ~ Happiness ~ 1900John Duncan ~ Yorinda and Yoringel in the Witche’s Wood ~1909John Duncan ~ Angus Og, God of Love and Courtesy ~ 1908John Duncan ~ Helene Schlapp Iona ~ 1908John Duncan ~ The Queen Of Sheba ~1923
Evelyn De Morgan (1855 – 1919), née Pickering, was an English artist whose work reflects a transition from Pre-Raphaelitism to Symbolism. Her paintings of women in allegorical themes were influenced by the Italian Renaissance and the Pre-Raphealite Edwards Burne-Jones. She was an active feminist and suffragette. Although she may have been regarded as “liberal” in her time, her activities as a feminist reflected humanism within the framework of the traditional religious and philosophical view of the world.
Evelyn De Morgan ~ The Worship of Mammon ~ 1909
The Gilded Cage, painted in the 1919, was the last work Morgan completed before her death. The painting is profound work of symbolism. To interpret the work, it will help to study The Worship of Mammon, which she painted in 1909. The painting refers to the passage in Matthew 6, in which Jesus states, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” In the painting, the woman holds desperately to the knee of the statue, looking into his face, which stares down at her remorselessly. The statue holds out a bag of gold, but the woman ignores the money. She has moved from the serving of wealth, to the love of Mammon himself and so has cut herself off from the love of God and has doomed herself.
Evelyn De Morgan ~The Gilded Cage ~ 1919
The concern of spiritual well-being independent of materialism is continued in the Gilded Cage. A richly dressed couple are shown in a luxurious room. A bird in the gilded cage hangs above the woman’s older husband, he seems to be lost in thought. The woman has tossed her broken jewelry to the floor as she outstretches her arms to the open window. She watches traveling group of dancers and musicians with yearning. A bird flies freely above the the dancers, the state of the free bird contrasts the bird in the gilded cage. This painting also evokes a passage in the book of Matthew, after Jesus condemns serving mammon, he refers to the state of well being of birds,”Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they.”The broken jewelry at feet of the woman reflects the wisdom of passage, the gathering of wealth is ultimately empty. The state of joyful contentment of the dancing figures outside the window is akin to the fowl Jesus described.
Stephanie Chatfield wrote an interpretation of the Gilded Cage, the article is written like most that I find which examine this period. Chatfield focused on the position Victorian women in the 19th century society from the standpoint of economy. Her comment near the end of the article,”Women in the U.S. still do not earn as much as men,” reflects an ignorance to the symbolism in the painting, the people who dance freely outside the window symbolize spiritual well-being of a simple life without material wealth. But unfortunately, the axiom that paid labor is freedom and dignity has been pounded in the female conscious. Contemporary authors are so caught in the mental framework of the industrial system they can not escape the cage of Mammon. Children are raised to be jobholders, the organization of the system perpetuates mass sickness. Erich Fromm wrote in The Revolution of Hope,” Must we produce sick people in order to have a healthy economy, or can we use our material resources, our inventions, our computers to serve the ends of man?”
Evelyn De Morgan ~ Flora ~1894Evelyn-De-Morgan ~ DryadEvelyn-De-Morgan ~ Daughters of the Mist
I suppose many would dismiss this garden sculpture of a fairy holding a bunny as just sentimental kitsch but I believe it could be an expression of the highest art. Last night I could not fall asleep, so I thought sketching a peaceful picture help me sleep but instead it kept me up. I’ve been writing a story about a boy who meets a nymph to be illustrated as a book. I drew a nymph with a little bird on her shoulder around 2 a.m.which caused me think about the meaning of the figure. I intend the narrative to reflect the old view that the longing for beauty is due to a desire for the peace and love found in God. But to today such an understanding is sadly lacking. After I had drawn the figure, I looked through a catalog my mother had received in the mail. I notice the garden sculpture of a fairy holding a bunny, although the quality of the art was not great, what the piece expressed was. Thinking about how the expression of the simple sculpture was the antithesis to the trends in postmodern culture keep me up all night.
Kristen Visbal~ Fearless Girl ~ 2017
Early yesterday I saw the bronze sculpture Fearless Girl featured on Bing’s search page. The depiction a girl facing the Charging Bull is intended to encourage women to competitive in the modern industrial world. The relationship of the fairy to the bunny in the garden sculpture is very different than the bold girl to the bull. The fairy holding the rabbit is an expression of love while the relationship of the girl to the bull is one of antagonism. The culture encourages competition, the spirit of domination which the industrial world values. Godfrey Geggio said,”Nature itself is dead in terms in its relation to us as the host of life.” “To everything there is a season”, the industrial subversion has thrown that insight out the window. The culture goes against the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Girls are conditioned in the vexation of spirit. It may seem I’m over reacting to the Fearless Girl sculpture but the work reflects a dominate trend in mass media. For example, cancel culture is a symptom of the spirit of antagonism. The ostracism of “canceled people” comes from an inability to forgive, so there is lack of the virtue of compassion in society which is an attribute of the mothering character. Jacques Ellul recognized the great peril of such a social development, he wrote in 1981 “The worst error of women today is the desire to become men, to enter into the universe of labor, above all, of competition, of the spirit of domination, to act politically, to become captains of industry. If women become like men, it will effectively be the end of our civilization. But if they succeed in penetrating their particular way of understanding life everywhere, in transforming values through education, if they succeed in subverting society from inside, then salvation is possible”
Scott Affleck ~ The Nymph of the Useless Mushroom (sketch) 2022
Paul stated the high status of charity, a pure love, which excels and exceeds almost all else. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not a charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal,” 1 Corinthians 13. I began writing my symbolic story The Nymph of the Useless Mushroom to counter the trends in postmodern culture. Men and woman have lost touch with their nature. The old view that respects the need for love and beauty is desperately needed.
Alphonse Mucha (1860 – 1939) was an influential Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period. He is best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters. He created illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.
Alphonse Mucha ~ Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia ~ 1908
Since Mucha’s family had a very modest income, he was fortunate to have his studies in the arts funded by a local monastery. He became devoutly religious, and wrote later, “For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies.”
Alphonse Mucha ~ Le Arti, Litografia ~1898
Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he studied with the Academie painter Julien with the artist Jules Lefebvre who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings. Mucha’s illustrations began to give him a regular income. In1894 his career took a dramatic turn when he began to design theatrical posters for French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt. When his posters appeared on the streets of Paris they caused an immediate sensation.
Alphonse Mucha ~ Holy Mount Athos ~ 1926
When he turned 50, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world. He worked on the epic series between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Prague.
A friend mentioned a few years ago the idea that the best way to explain an idea is by communicating it as if you talking to a child. At first, this may seem impractical but I came to appreciate the insight in the suggestion. Very often people explain ideas with technical terms which hides the fact they really doesn’t understand the issue. This comes from the fact that much of the person’s understanding comes from reading in a class without insights from experience.
For a long time I have tried to understand why traditional figurative art is in such conflict with contemporary culture. I came to believe that the root of the crisis is due to one’s view of man in relation to organization. An insight that I believe could be understood by a child. Admittedly, the insight came to me when I was reading a passage on Thomas Hobbes in Lewis Mumford’s The Myth of the Machine, but the understand was informed by experience. Most philosophical interpretations of the dilemma of man begin with accounting for man’s relation to God or the cosmos but interpreting the perception of man in relation to world organization I believe is just as significant. Images I assembled illustrate contrasting views of how man is regarded in his relationship to organizational structures.
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) had a very pessimistic view of human nature, he regarded people as wild and disorderly virtual machines. Rather than seeing the cosmos being moved by its love for God as the ancients did, Hobbes viewed the cosmos as a giant machine of parts interacting by impersonal cause and effect. When the cosmos began to be regarded as impersonal, nature began to be feared as a random force of cause and effect. Hobbes extended this view of the cosmos to man and assumed that independent men act in a struggle for the survival of the fittest. He is famous for his phrase, bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all). He assumed only a invincible rational government could maintain control a society of wild bio-chemical machines. So in the most simple terms, Hobbles saw a government as good and man as bad.
Fortunately, John Locke’s view of man was in complete contrast to Hobbes. Rather than seeing man as bad, Locke viewed governments and institutions as bad. It is accurate to say Locke was the architect of democracy in the Western world. The phrases in the Declaration of Independence,”All men are created equal” and “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” were almost directly taken by Thomas Jefferson from Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689). In a sense Locke’s work was a direct rebuttal against Hobbes idea of invincible government. Rather than seeing man’s nature as being dangerous, Locke was concerned with protecting man’s nature rights. Locke’s view was founded on the Biblical belief in creation from the theological doctrine of Imago Deli, man was created in the image of God. Although man was given rights, it is difficult to defend them in the state of nature. One can say “I have freedom, the right to the fruits of meaningful labor”. But in the state of nature someone can just take that away. So government was formed with the purpose of protecting the natural rights of people in nature. At the same time, Locke’s ideal government should be limited by law to protect the people from one branch attempt to hold too much authority. Furthermore, if the government did not preserve the natural rights, the people have the right to revolution. In the late 20th-century a swing towards Hobbes view of man began to find precedence in culture. Since modern people are raised as children in places under the control of bureaucratic methods there is an increased alienation from life for the individual. Erich Fromm wrote, “Life is structured growth, and by its very nature is not subject to strict control or prediction. In the realm of life others can be influenced only by the forces of, such as love, stimulation, example. Life can be experienced only in its individual manifestations, in the individual person as well as in a bird or a flower. There is no life of “the masses,” there is no life in abstraction. Our approach to life today becomes increasingly mechanical…The approach to men is intellectual-abstract. One is interested in people as objects, in their common properties, in the statistical rules of mass behavior, not in living individuals. All this goes together with the increasing role of bureaucratic methods.” In the process described by Fromm the institution becomes scared and the individual comes to be seen as bad. The individual is not guided by internal consciousness but by the prescribed roles and rules of rational organizations. The estrangement from spontaneity of life leads to a loss of joy for the beauty of creation. All of nature, including man, becomes a menace to be controlled. When people do not respect their nature as individuals they get caught up in mass movements like Fascism.
Theodore Roosevelt Equestrian Statue at the Museum of Natural History
The lack of respect for the individual man is reflected in the decision of New York city authorities to remove the Theodore Roosevelt equestrian statue from the Museum of Natural History’s steps. The authorities came to the decision because the statue was claimed to be racist depiction of a white male on a horse leading Native American and an African. One author commented that although the sculptor “portrayed them (the Indian and the black man) in a very dignified way, but their position of subservience remains.” Well, from that reasoning, next week they will ban Star Trek because Lieutenant Uhura, a black woman and Lieutenant Sulu, an Asian man were portrayed in a “position of subservience” to Captain Kirk, a white man. I feel it’s important to defend the sculpture of Roosevelt because I doubt many understand the spirit in which it was created. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the statue was the idea of the noble savage. Rousseau is often credited for coining the phrase the “noble savage” but the phrase never appeared in his writing. The idea of an indigenous person who had who had not been corrupted by Western civilization appeared as early as 1670 in John Dryden’s play The Conquest of Granada. The representation of being outside of one’s culture is referred to as the ‘Other’. It is typically of postmodern studies to presume images of being outside of Western culture to be derogatory. But such a view reflects the Enlightenment conviction to progress. In contrast to the idea of progress by institutions there was the idea of the universal man which I accounted for in my previous article, The Subversion of Macho. C.S. Lewis perceived the degrade view of man in educational system when he wrote is defense The Abolition of Man. The sculpture of the dignified rendering of three men of different races seems to manifest what C.S. Lewis referred to as the Tao. The universal belief in objective value that respects the incarnation of man having the unity of body and soul. Lewis wrote,”Those who know the Tao can hold that to call children delightful or old men venerable is not simply to record a psychological fact about our own parental or filial emotions at the moment, but to recognize a quality which demands a certain response from us whether we make it or not.”
Nazis Propaganda “Infectious Germs” ~ 1943
It is often claimed that the currents of postmodernism deny the Enlightenment faith in science and technology as instruments of progress. Although it’s true that currents in the 1960’s challenged the notions of the political neutrality and objective value of science, I believe much of contemporary currents are too rooted in the Enlightenment’s mechanistic world-view. For example, New York city authorities approached the Roosevelt monument not as an image of an individual persons but as an “intellectual-abstract,” objects classified as men of different races. Postmodernism is characterized bureaucratic methods, people are classified as groups by race and gender. It is claimed this is done for the liberation of “oppressed” groups, but as Fromm said,”There is no life of “the masses,” there is no life in abstraction.” Since individuals are disrespected as wild bio-chemical machines as Hobbes did, I fear many are marching to the drum of Leviathan. Gene Edward Veith, Jr wrote, “Postmodernists and fascist intellectual of the 1930’s both embrace a radicalism based not so much on economics but on culture. They both reject individual identity in favor of cultural determinism…American academics think of themselves as post-Marxists, but their desire for a government-controlled economy, their cultivated irrationalism, and their reduction of social issues to questions of culture and race are more similar to Mussolini than to Marx. If Marxism is modern, fascism is postmodern.”
Jake & Dinos Chapman ~ Minderwertigkinder ~ 2011We Are Selfish Machines a teenager’s bedroom
My account may have swayed from the intention of giving an explanation that would be understood by a child but I believe my account is not just cerebral stuff that only eggheads think about. I often see images in popular sub-culture that seem to reflect the mechanistic world-view that disrespects the nature of man. For example, I was doing research for an illustration I’m painting of a teenager’s room, I found this photograph of a young person’s room with stencil letters that read: We Are All Selfish Machines. I did a web search and found the band Pierce the Veil released an album called Selfish Machines. Disturbing imagery is sometimes used on labels of alcohol products. The label of 19 Crimes reminds me of images of “criminal types” in Nazi propaganda. I ask,”What is the state of mind of the person who would find this label appealing?” As an artist I mostly focus on imagery that brings me joy. I realize I must have a self-respect for my nature as man to paint beauty as I do. The second commandment of Jesus,”Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” begins with the premise that a person loves one’s self but what if a person hates their-self?
19 Crime Wine
I often reflect on how I came to be as Jacques Ellul would say “positively maladjusted” to the world. An experience I had when I was in high school that I forgot about until I found an old high school newspaper clipping may have influenced me subconsciously over the years. The newspaper clipping was a story about the Teen Arts Festival with an interview with me. A portrait I drew had been chosen to tour in the national exhibit but it was rejected because of a simple issue of a line not being filled on the entry form. I expressed my irritation with the indifference of the organization in the interview. I sensed no individual conscious appreciated the quality of my art, all that mattered to robotic administrators was that the line was not filed out. In addition, the reporter who interviewed me spelled my last name wrong in the interview. So the experience had the positive effect of seeing organizational structures as bad. Miguel A Fernandez refers to this process of active nihilism as Nigredo, a term taken from alchemy which refers to cooking alchemical ingredients extensively to a uniform black matter, a step to the philosopher’s stone. Unfortunately the burning in our society is aimed at man when it should be aimed at the urban-industrial structures which have fortified a vast separation between humanity and nature.
I had intended to write an article about how contemporary culture regards human nature in relation to institutions. But I happened to watch an episode of Johnny Carson with the actor Fernando Lamas. The interview with Lamas inspired me to account for perception of masculinity. An understanding of the misperception of masculinity will give a foundation for the next article on view of man in relation to institutions.
Fernando Lamas and Johnny Carson ~ September 23,1975
Lamas recognized that there is a horrible misconception in modern culture by thinking macho means as he put it, “to be the heavyweight champion of the world or to slap a woman around, all the wrong things.” He clarified the original meaning of the word by saying, “To be macho is to be a man, to be a man is to be able to laugh to cry to embrace an other man if you love him without any hand-ups about it, to cope with situations that are difficult, to protect your woman… a man could go to see a ballet today and a football game tomorrow.”
In Spanish and Latin American cultures machismo was a moral ideal for males, involving the characteristics of honor, responsibility, perseverance and courage. Lamas describes a macho man as a person who not only has virtue but also who is comfortable in his skin, comfortable in being human. His description comes close to Francis Schaeffer’s idea of the manniness of man. The unfortunate fact is such character is not nurtured by the modern organization of society.
American mass culture has created a gross macho-man stereotype. When I did a web for this article the most common definition of macho was: a man who is virile and sexually active promiscuous, showing aggressive pride in one’s masculinity. The social patterned defect has estranged men from the wholeness of their nature. The alienation is reflected often in transgressions of contemporary music. Shakespeare’s characterization of the alienated man,”The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music,” is accepted as a norm. The degraded view of man as a predatorial creature has subverted Christianity into a nihilistic mystical form. Man is is no longer respected to do any good. The preservation of the dignity of man which was the hallmark of the Christian influence on the American Revolution is forfeited for a life boat ethic of saving souls. Such men would never wrestle an angel as Jacob did for the blessing of Israel.
Scott Affleck ~ All Dressed Up but Nowhere to Go ~ 2016
In the modern world men have lost respect for their nature. They have lost sight of the fact that in a well balance nature, what C.S. Lewis called the Chest-Maganimity-Sentiment, one is able to discern much of what is good and bad. The debunking of masculinity has lead to a schizoid culture split between cold sterilization and transgressive vulgarity. Today it is difficult to find men who have the whole sense of being macho, but one I know is the author Miguel A. Fernandez. In a sense the aim of my art has been macho, painting images that protect females to be feminine, preserving beauty to be beautiful.
Depictions of the Muses were a popular subject in Western art from the time of the Renaissance. In Greek mythology, the Muses were originally nymphs who presided over springs that had the power to give inspiration. There were nine Muses which influence different forms of the arts. The arts they claimed to influence were all performing arts, music, poetry, dance and comedy but not painting and sculpture.
Julio Romero de Torres ~ Genius and Inspiration ~1905
At the beginning of the 20th century depictions of the Muses became less common, yet, I have noticed that the Muses of that period often give direction to a young boy or a Muse is represented as a young girl. I believe works like Julio Romero de Torres’ painting Genius and Inspiration may have been created as a reaction to the school conditioning they received as youth. John Taylor Gatto accounted for the psychological effects of the Prussian Model educational system which developed during the 19th century. Industrialists developed the system to condition the public to be passive efficient functionaries within the industrial machine. The gloomy agenda was put forth by William Torrey Harris who was the U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1889 to 1906 in The Philosophy of Education (1893):
“The great purpose of school can be realized better in dark, airless, ugly places…. It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world.”
Gatto recognized that self-alienation was the secret for conditioning society to function within the industrial machine. To tolerate working at a computer for hours requires one to be able to withdrawn from life. But his conditioning had a devastating effect on the perception of human nature and art. The Muses were originally beautiful nymphs who lived in the springs. The Muses’ connection with nature reflects ancient belief that inspiration and the discernment of the Good can come by physical nature. But Harris’ presumptions of the “inborn savagery” of youth was in complete conflict with the ancient view (not only in conflict with Western tradition but with the Eastern Taoist philosophy of the flow state). His prescription for education which marginalized the value of physical being lead to reductionist view of beauty. Beauty was no longer seen as a reflection of the Good or divine creation, rather, it was claimed to be “just” the sensate reaction from brain chemistry.
Rudolf Witzel ~
Deutsche Kunst_und Dekoration ~ 1898Mark Ryden ~ Meat Boy ~ 2000
The reductionist view of human nature is apparent in contemporary art. For example, Mark Ryden’s Meat Boy depicts a young boy kneeing with a slab of beef. Ryden is apparently playing with irony, the cynic suggests that the little boy isn’t really innocent, he’s like a wild animal with savage hunger. C.S. Lewis foresaw the the danger of such ignorance;
“Men (and, still more, boys) like to call themselves disillusioned because the very form of the words suggests that they have had the illusions and emerged from them—have tried both worlds. The claim, however, is false in nine cases out of ten. The world is full of imposters who claim to he disenchanted and are really unenchanted: mere “natural” men who have never risen so high as to be in danger of the generous illusions they have claimed to escape from … We need to be on guard against such people. They talk like sages who have passed through the half-truths of humanitarian benevolence, aristocratic honor, or romantic passions, while in fact they are clods who have never yet advanced so far.”
Jules Bastien-Lepage ~ Muse, Study ~ Ca 1880
Contemporary society is plagued by “natural” men and women which assume the “inborn savagery” of human nature due to the modern system’s program of self-alienation. But over a century ago there was an awareness the of the effects of modernization. Much of the beautiful art that was created at the time of the formation of industrial system reflected resistance to the “dark, airless, ugly places.” In such an ugly place of gray steel and calculation where could an artist find the Muse? Often the Muse was rendered as a young girl because an artist could imagine that someone who was young had not been disenchanted by the industrial machine. Many artists were inspired by the joyful state of being outside of what Max Weber called the iron cage.
Bessie Vonnoh ~ Secret Garden Fountain Central Park, New York
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) was an influential French artist. Like many of his 19th century peers, Bastien-Lepage was draw to paint subjects away from urban centers. Very often rural peasants or children were chosen as a subject of great moral worth, since they were believed to be uncorrupted by the sophistication and materialism of the modern world. Gill Perry recognized that “Many artists whom we now label ‘modern’ were in fact opposed to the processes of modernization (by which I mean the forces of industrialization and urbanization in Western capitalist society).” Often I read claims that Bastien-Lepage participated in the “evolution and acceptance of the modernist movement.” I supposse this may be in part due to a misinterpretation of the world view reflected in Bastien-Lepage’s art. The French Realist Gustave Courbet is famous for having said,”Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one.” Although there is similar rustic realism in the work of Bastien-Lepage and Courbet, Bastien-Lepage’s work reflects a world-view which was not confined to the mechanistic paradigm. A study for a painting which was never finished shows a an angelic muse standing in a forest, hardly a modern subject.
Julien Bastien Lepage ~ Papà Jacques ~1881Jules Bastien-Lepage ~ Damvillers ~ 1882Jules Bastien-Lepage ~l’Amour au Village (Love at the Village) 1883Jules Bastien-Lepage Joan of Arc ~ 1880Jules Bastien-Lepage ~ Song of Springtime ~ Ca 1880
János Miklós Vaszary (1867 – 1939) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. His art studies began at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts under János Greguss. After Vaszary saw an exhibition of paintings by Jules Bastien-Lepage, he moved to Paris in 1899 and enrolled at the Académie Julian. Vaszary’s work is very interesting because his art reflects the transition in culture that occurred between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. When I collected the images for this post I perceived an increase of mysticism as Vaszary’s style changed over time. The art critic H.R. Rookmaaker recognized that there is a strong mystical element in modern art. The main idea of mysticism is that the material world is wholly bad. Life is regarded as a trial, so life is of little value. In the religious forms of the past, salvation was regarded as a means to escape from the material world, to get nearer to God. Rookmmaker pointed out this was a great error in Christianity to hold such a low view of material life. Although mysticism is usually regarded as religious phenomenon, a new secular form has developed in modern times. It seems the postmodern forms of mysticism may manifest a greater estrangement from the nature of humanity than any previous forms. Mysticism can exist in the most primitive cultures and in our advanced techno-industrial culture. All the forms misplace priorities of life which lead to the impoverishment of living.
János Vaszary ~The Command Has Arrived ~1894
The Command has Arrived is the earliest work I could find by Vaszary. Apparently the woman in the painting is upset because the young man in the blue military cap is about to leave with the command. Since the painting is traditional, the work depicts meaningful relations of people in the physical material world. There was little shame in showing human emotions for physical ties.
János Vaszary ~ Golden Age ~ 1898
The Golden Age is my favorite work by Vaszary. The young couple seem to be in an embrace to cope with a saddening loss. The young woman places a flower on a pan before a statue of Venus. The work could be read as a expression of the loss of traditional culture, love, beauty, and truth. But since Vaszary jumped into modernist aesthetics less than ten years after the Golden Age was painted. It seems that he imitated the traditional art of the period without holding the organic view of life.
János Vaszary ~ Fancy Dress Ball ~ 1907
The figures in Fancy Dress break down in loose brush strokes, apparently, one is supposed to take pleasure in the application of paint. The figures hardly seem to relating to each other in a meaningful way, they are like strangers at a crowd. As a matter of fact two of the figures wear masks.
János Vaszary ~ The Raising of Lazarus ~ 1912
The Raising of Lazarus is interesting because its painted in Neo-Gothic style. The stiff wooden figures were common in the mystical period which held little value for the beauty of physical life. That was Rookamaaker’s point, the abstraction of modernism is akin to the art of earlier mystical periods. The new industrial culture of the 20th century had estranged man from physical life, creating a new form of mysticism.
János Vaszary ~ Morfinista ~1930
Morfinista is the most modern of the paintings by Vaszary. Although a figure is drawn at the bottom of the painting, most of the forms in the work don’t represent the material world. One is expected to find “salvation” though a fetish of color and form. The influential modern art critic Clement Greenberg stated that “subject matter or content becomes something to be avoided like a plague.” Art that expressed warm human bonds was considered low sentimental kitsch. I know from experience as an artist that the crazy people in the arts consider a painting of beautiful girl to be a sin. It may be called “politically incorrect” or “canceled culture” but it amounts to the same thing.
Karl lhelm Dieenbach Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851 – 1913) was a German painter and social reformer. He was a pioneer of the naturist and the peace movements. His ideas reflected life in harmony with nature. Although Diefenbach has been called a mystic, his ideas were the against the common forms of mysticism which rejected the material world as wholly bad. After he gave a sermon “On the origins of human misery,” he was forbidden to speak in public. He was unpopular with the authorities, who unleashed against a smear campaign in the media against him. The artist Fidus left art school in 1887 to join Diefenbach’s commune near Munich, he was influenced greatly by Diefenbach’s art.
Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851 – 1913) was a German painter and social reformer. He was a pioneer of the naturist and the peace movements. His ideas reflected life in harmony with nature. Although Diefenbach has been called a mystic, his ideas were the against the common forms of mysticism which rejected the material world as wholly bad. After he gave a sermon “On the origins of human misery,” he was forbidden to speak in public. He was unpopular with the authorities, who unleashed against a smear campaign in the media against him. The artist Fidus left art school in 1887 to join Diefenbach’s commune near Munich, he was influenced greatly by Diefenbach’s art.
Celestial Venus 