by Harumi Sugimatsu
In November of this year, I visited London again after a gap of about a year. The town looked abloom and radiant, maybe because of such beautiful additions as the London Eye and Millennium Bridge, or because of the sight-seeing season around Halloween.
As usual, I visited many museums and art galleries to see various exhibitions; the National Gallery, too, especially the Sainsbury wing where my favorite works of the Renaissance period paintings were displayed. Here, seeing Pisanello's "The Vision of Saint Eustace", I meditated on the visions the saints have seen and which many artists drew.
During Renaissance, artists were painting the religious vision experiences of the saints. At that time in Europe, the strict iconographic requirements based on the catholic doctrine were a major constraint. Even though the painting subject was provided or the patron's request was precise, the superior artists were able to superimpose their own thoughts and emotions on to the given subject, or could insert the hidden subjects into the painting. Though the space available for each painting is very confined, it reflects various meanings like a gorgeous harmony of a musical performance of the string quartet. Painting is, essentially, polysemous and multi-dimensional in character.
Deep contemplation by an artist manifests itself in his work. I think that the artists might have been interested in religious subjects like "the vision of the saint" not so much from their religious inclination as from their curiosity towards and the challenge of depicting vision itself. They must have had the desire to see the visions just as the saints had experienced. Drawing the painting of a subject such as "the vision of a saint", the artist must have dreamed of himself as the saint. Therefore, the painting reflects the artist's intense desire to see the vision.
Living as an artist is to experience the vision. And the vision only emerges after deep contemplation. Lo and behold, the vision comes to the artist. The artist receives the vision and completes his painting. During this process the vision is metamorphosed and reflects itself in the painting. Then the painting which is permeated with the vision gives new visions both to the viewer and the artist, one after another. Whenever the viewer and the artist see the painting, not only the viewer and the artist but also the painting itself creates a new world. Painting exists within our lives.
Is this simply nostalgia for the golden age of painting? No, it could not be so. Octavio Paz clarifies Duchamp's art philosophy in his book (Marcel Duchamp ou le chateau de la purete), and also the essence of Modern art. Namely, the history of painting from Renaissance to the Modern period is a history of transformations from "art work" to "artistic thing" and from "vision" to "optical thing". Criticizing Modern art, Duchamp aims for the art in life. Such art is neither socialized nor socialistic, neither beautiful nor decorative, but the most difficult works to understand like Mallarme's poems or James Joyce's novels. Nothing but this kind of art work can give the viewer or the reader real hope for being an artist. Going back to the vision, I would therefore, continue to ask myself the meaning of painting.
Once again, going back to "The Vision of Saint Eustace"; whenever I see this work, it unfolds for me yet another page of secrets of creativity and creation of works of art. So long as art shows a new world to you and me, both art and artist are live on. Though what art and artist can achieve is only just this, it is surely enough.