modernism’s ancient origins.

modernism’s ancient origins.transparency, simultaneity. abstraction. a mindful reality. stimulated by the visual world but not bounded by it. not simple representation but artful abstracting. jackson pollock? could it be a description of his ‘modernist’ procedure . no. a drawing; an over drawing; an over and over drawing; on a ceiling in a cave shelter at pech-merle, 17-12000 year BP. a careful examination will reveal many outlines of animals overdrawn many times perhaps from the desire to make them move…interpenetrating figures. transparency. simultaneity. movement. finger drawing? could it be; no it’s a jackson pollock, influenced by joan miró, pablo picasso and joan sobel. 'i continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. i prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.' pollock.the pech-merle ceiling was described by hans arp when shown the ceiling from the ‘hall of the hieroglyphs’ and likened them to the ‘half eyes closed drawings’ he and his wife sophie produced;‘now under lowered lids the inner movement streams untainted to the hand. in a darkened room it is easier to follow the guidance of this inner movement than in the open air. a conductor of inner music, the great designer of prehistoric images worked with eyes turn inwards. so the drawings gain in transparency; open to interpenetrations to sudden inspiration to recovery of the inner melody, to the circling approach; and the whole is transmitted into one great exhalation’ true of the modernism of pollock and the arps as it is of the artists of pech-merle#transparency, #simultaneity, #absraction, #movement, #interpenetration, #jacksonpollock, #hansandsophiearp, #hansarp, #sophiearp, #modernism, #origins,

1. transparency, simultaneity. abstraction. a mindful reality. stimulated by the visual world but not bounded by it. not simple representation but artful abstracting. jackson pollock? could it be a description of his ‘modernist’ procedure . no. a drawing; an over drawing; an over and over drawing; on a ceiling in a cave shelter at pech-merle, 17-12000 year BP. a careful examination will reveal many outlines of animals overdrawn many times perhaps from the desire to make them move…interpenetrating figures.

2. transparency. simultaneity. movement. finger drawing? could it be; no it’s a jackson pollock, influenced by joan miró, pablo picasso and joan sobel. ‘i continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. i prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.’ pollock.the pech-merle ceiling was described by hans arp when shown the ceiling from the ‘hall of the hieroglyphs’ and likened them to the ‘half eyes closed drawings’ he and his wife sophie produced; ‘now under lowered lids the inner movement streams untainted to the hand. in a darkened room it is easier to follow the guidance of this inner movement than in the open air. a conductor of inner music, the great designer of prehistoric images worked with eyes turn inwards. so the drawings gain in transparency; open to interpenetrations, to sudden inspiration, to recovery of the inner melody, to the circling approach; and the whole is transmitted into one great exhalation’

true of the modernism of pollock and the arps as it is of the artists of pech-merle