Homage to Plato, Suzanne Lilar and Eugene Martin

http://www.eugenemartinart.com/ .
http://youtube.com/nemastoma3 .

Homage to Abstraction and to three highly imaginative and original thinkers: the philosopher Plato, the writer Suzanne Lilar, and the visual artist Eugene J. Martin.

"If you seek just a little truth, as most, you should not ignore abstract forms, the basis from which all short-lived experiences we call reality springs." -- Eugene J. Martin.

One of the most beautiful, thought-provoking and original passages ever written on Form and Abstraction was provided by the Belgian writer Suzanne Lilar in the evocation of the fossil: the fossil as the symbol of Form but also of the dignity of Matter.

She writes (S. Lilar, A propos de Sartre et de l'amour [Paris, Éditions Bernard Grasset, 1967, p. 43; Reedited 1984, Gallimard, ISBN 2-07-035499-7]):

"If the ammonite that lived two-or-300 million years ago only left behind an abstract pattern upon which it was moulded, matter again had to support this form to come to our consciousness and allow us to see and touch it. All that had morphologically characterized the life of the fossil became reproduced in detail in stone; yet, besides the calcium carbonate and phosphate of the shell that finally became digested and replaced, as had organic matter before that, the ammonite that lived in the Devonian and today's fossil only have in common a sort of pattern upon which were shaped a set of proportions, of relationships, in other words, of Form in its pure abstraction, alone triumphant over time, alone representing the truth."

The participation of matter and form: for Lilar, herein lies precisely the role and dignity of matter, namely to provide inseparable support to the mind and for both always somehow to remain associated. The fossil represented for Lilar the concrete expression of the Platonic daydreaming of form, in that the truth didn't lie solely in the mind, nor solely in matter, but in their relationship; it confirmed to her that blending is proper to our condition and that there is purification only at the level of thought. For Lilar, this notion was reminiscent of the Aidos of Plato, and of preference in Plato's Parmenides, in that by introducing the notion of participation, he made the Eleatic and Socratic doctrine of form less rigid.

If we remain open-minded and curious about the world surrounding us, we may see analogies on a regular basis, such as analogy of movement, in that the spiral of the ammonite is reinforced by a similarly free-flowing curve and ridges expressed in the painting by Eugene J. Martin behind it.

Video montage by S. Fredericq, filmed in Lafayette Louisiana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_J._Martin

Sonatine - I. Modéré, Music by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). Alfred Cortot, piano. v.1931, London. Remastering 2008, EMI Classics. Alfred Cortot - The Master Pianist plays Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Liszt, Fauré, Schumann, Mendelssohn
http://www.amazon.com/Icon-7-CDs/dp/B001B1R1FO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=...

Source: Fredericq S. 2001. 2001, 'Elegance: A Brief, Perfectly Balanced Instant of Complete Possession of Forms", pp. 14-19 In Elegance, Beauty and Truth", Ed. Lewis Pyenson, New Series Vol. 2, Center for Louisiana Studies, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette, ISBN 1-889911-09-7.
http://morayeel.louisiana.edu/SeaweedsLab/Fredericq/Elegance.1.pdf

Category:

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• Eugene
• James
• Martin
• contemporary
• visual
• artist
• African
• American
• Suzanne
• Lilar
• Belgium
• writer
• Plato
• philosophy
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• of
• Forms
• fossil
• ammonite
• abstract
• painting
• Parmenides
• surrealism
• acrylic

[IsabelTaylor]

J'adore cet homage... Quelle femme merveilleuse et comme ses fossiles vont magnifiquement avec l'oeuvre de Eugene!

[advancedwon]

화석으로 보여주는 자연의 아름다움이 너무 좋다. 이렇게 정교할 수가.....

[redwatersedge]

Just as the abstract form as expressed in the fossil could only be perceived by our senses through matter, so too are the abstract thoughts in the artist's mind expressed through matter - the paint on the canvas. Briliant.

[Cryptonemia]

Muy interesante ver a Platon en este contexto!