All of what was once developed is recapitulated, included from an advanced position: the choice of figurative-narrative, subtle-beauty are both at hand, one in the left and the other in the right. The total picture, or unity is the truth: the audience is the final stage of art; their relationship to the dualisms defines perception.
This realization has been the underlying theme of this series of essays. From the zero-point of psychological dynamic via cultural development, position and quest of the artist, it has led us — as any art will — to the audience.
BY SAMUEL ABELOW
EDITED BY JOHANNES BÖCKMANN
“The ORIGINS Color Chart,” watercolor and charcoal on paper, 19 x 13 inches. S. Abelow, 2019.
To anyone keeping a distanced observance on the buzz of the world — mirroring itself in media, and impotent decadence of the cultural elite — an impression of turmoil will set in quite quickly. How is this so? one might ask.
Audiences in a fractured underworld seek out endless figurative and narrative stimulation in order to stir the complexes — instinctively yearning to fall into the ocean, in order to drown or survive. Repeatedly, their unwitting demand will be for the manifold allures of the underworld, latently yearning for some epiphany to finally strike.
Audiences in a sterile upper world, on the other hand, will fix themselves to exalted forms, heady, yet arbitrary philosophies, seeking ultimately to tumble down off their high cliff, and finally, touch the earth.
Many artworks attracting contemporary audiences today promote, on the one hand, entanglements in the underworld and, on the other, high-flying ideas, ungrounded, or unobtainable ideas. Chewing on one bit after another, audiences are satisfied, until they’re not; that is, until the next fix. Creative individuals are called into question as to why exactly their factor of unique personal expression is supposedly so valuable.
Furthermore, in the hubris of the social media generation — to think that they can traverse the underworld and descend from upper worlds, to play around with the trickster and seductress — a sense of orientation and purpose is lost. All goes according to whims, fascinations, and pleasures; the consequences of choices are masked and subdued; and the artist thinks of themselves as an artisan, producing images, goodies, for the decadent uprising, or else social revolt.
This decadence is of-course met with heavenly retribution. For as much as the seductive feminine element elicits this confusion, Her ultimate wish is to be known and respected in the form of the powerful priestess. So the heavenly aspects, in response to the lower, produce this test: conscience.
And thus, a new factor is recognized. This increasingly recognized dimension is connected to the unique factor of audiences as “completion” and “continuation” of the artwork. The viewers are uniquely involved in the art process. This ties into the proliferation of psychology: commonly it is beginning to be understood that life is meaningful, that is, narrative — and that beauty & truth fascinations are included in this creative endeavor of life-making.
“The greatest art is life itself,” becomes a colloquial notion
which encapsulates the esoteric art of alchemy, shamanism, and other forms of mysticism, which proceeded psychology as a modern way of describing the mysterious processes of living.
Addendum
The ORIGINS & SHEMAH Color Charts are useful mnemonic devices, organizational tools — not only for creating aesthetically organized paintings — but for the integration of personality potential. The comprehensive overview of qualities that can be developed individually, socially and interregionally, are expressed in color symbolism in these charts. This invention is a long-term project, which is useful for artists, psychologists-philosophers, and the common individual, all of whom are involved in the creative endeavor of life — intrapsychically, socially and politically.
A few major implications of the color system, and for audiences, to overcome the turmoil of modernity include:
The ability to recognize and appreciate “other”, represented by a “different” color combination, or another. Each one has value.
The expansion of personality into a multifaceted whole, which incorporates previously unknown, unreachable dimensions. For example, the poet becomes grounded, the business-tycoon becomes moral, and the academic becomes earthly, warm.
Art has always been a collective endeavor to explore all means of beauty expression, in relation to whatever “truth” might be. In the Western context of the avant-garde and contemporary scenes, this became an outright attempt to recover the lost archetypal feminine values, rejected by the collective ego (morays) and therefore repressed into the shadow. Without consciousness — that is, a moral position — this excessively diverse, and hugely difficult process cannot be integrated. And yet, moralism prevails — which exacerbates projection. “There's no coming to consciousness without pain,” said C.G. Jung, and what is more painful than what you hate? In what you hate is the possibility for a new value. So, if you hate “red,” and love “blue,” then go to try to see the “other side.” If you’re all about “accomplishment” then try to see the value in “nothingness.” It is this sort of examination that leads towards integration.
Jung also wrote that “society is the sum total of individuals.” An so, through continued efforts to recognize the import of our personality growth to the collective whole, and to strive for greater inclusivity, understanding, we have a hope of finding unity.