Wednesday, August 12, 2009

All The Better Angels Of Our Nature Are Anonymous*




Fig. 1. James Lee Byars - The Angel, 1989


'Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.'

Simone Weil


* (a) 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' (Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861) and, (b) 'A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is anonymous about it.' (Simone Weil)


Addendum #1: Art News - Paris, Australia (click)



Fig. 2. Vincent van Gogh - Bedroom at Arles, 1889


Addendum #2: Art News - Stadel Collection, Melbourne (click)



Fig. 3. Edvard Munch - Jealousy, 1913