ILLUSTRATING INFINITY
buzz | Jun 23, 2009 | Comments 0
“The unutterable and the formless must needs be concealed”
.…………….–the Pythagorean brotherhood, circa 500 BCE
Saul Steinberg
Michelangelo’s illustration of the Book of Genesis
In fact, the subject of an illustration can be more profound than the subject of so-called “fine” art, especially in an era like ours where fine art so often gravitates toward minor themes. Here is the art of contemporary art superstar Jenny Holzer:
Holzer takes platitudes fit for a fortune cookie and converts them into art by projecting them on the sides of buildings or flashing them on electric signs. It’s hard to imagine Norman Rockwell settling for such simple minded content.
When it comes to profound, challenging subject matter, you can’t aim any higher than the absolute. Great writers and artists sometimes aspire to “catch a glimpse of eternity through the window of time,” transcending their small vantage point in history by identifying things immutable and great. Even if the quest for universal principles and eternal truths is a hopeless one, the mere search elevates the artist because it compels him or her to step outside of the fashions and styles of their day and focus on the most permanent things they are capable of conceptualizing. It stretches an artist to create forms commensurate with great themes.
1. A color field of gold represents “the self-luminous Absolute.”
2. The first manifestation of the cosmos
3. The siddha, “exuding silvery light (jyoti) engenders the next level of cosmic light and consciousness.”
Now that’s what I call sequential art! The difficulty of finding shapes and colors to portray such subjects is underscored by the corresponding text from the ancient Hindu treatise, Shiva Purana:
When the present world is not in existence, the Absolute alone is present. It is incomprehensible to the mind [and] cannot be expressed by words. It has neither name nor color…. it is immeasurable, propless, unchanging, formless, without attributes, perceptible to Yogins, all pervasive and the sole cause of the universe.
One measure of the universal adaptability of this work is that it is compatible with modern scientific theory about the big bang, where the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, strong interaction and weak interaction) emerged from nothingness at the origin of the universe.
An artist who attempts to realize timeless ideals by making an imperfect mark on a perishable surface reminds me of the Great Gatsby preparing to kiss Daisy:
He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star.
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