It would not be inaccurate to pronounce; nor would be it anything less than inordinately conspicuous to those who have perused this website, to detect that Emerson makes me…gleeful.
His pages delineate – nay; ARE! – my mind, thoughts, beliefs and actions; and when the cross-pollination of intellective thread wends its way through his contemplation and genius and my own and imports a fresh peripheral into the mix, it’s wonderful!
I saw the David Hockney exhibition last week: the additional element; for his work renders me equally jubilant.
“All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. The love of beauty is Taste. Others have the same love in such excess, that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is Art.”
~ Emerson, Nature
Notwithstanding this breathtaking and affecting subject matter, I find myself swayed to draw consideration to the transmittance of time: the last time I saw a Hockney exhibit, many of the works hanging in the Tate had not been painted yet; and distinctively, those before which I found myself more than for a moment transfixed.
Hockney was uncommonly affected, and drawn to the face of his world; his native Yorkshire (uh-oh, there it is again; and anyone who knows me knows precisely to what I hint!), and his discontent with merely admiring brought forth some of his most exquisite masterpieces.
Hockney’s “Woldgate Woods”
Hockney’s “Woldgate Woods 21, 23 & 29 November 2006”
The two pieces I have chosen to share communicate wordlessly to their beholders.
I discovered it diverting; the irony that, I – as a fellow Artist – have not oft composed landscapes; however, that I could readily discern deepness of sensation in the panoramas of another Artist was an epiphany to me, and beseeched another of Emerson’s ascertainments on beauty:
“A leaf, a sunbeam, a landscape, the ocean, make an analogous impression on the mind. What is common to them all – that perfectness and harmony, is beauty.”
~ Emerson, Nature
I am superlarively elated; and now I feel like painting!
A Classicist Writes... 
I prefer Lowry & this is because of my visit to Salford & the museum that showed how he learned to paint. Maybe it was the contrast with the dark grim Imperial War annexe nearby or maybe the song “Matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs”.
I am prompted to wonder if I can think of other songs that have made artists & maybe scientists too eg Cloudbusting by Kate Bush.
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Lowry’s paintings — and I have not seen much of his work — appealed to me because it always looked like they took place in heavy rain.
And I thank you, Paul, for the fact that I am going to have that song running through my head for the next week = )
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I love that you’re mixing the mediums of Emerson, art and painting. The wise one himself said, “the landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.” Therefore it is quite appropriate that whilst your eye gazed upon the landscapes of Hockney, you yourself possessed that view for the moment, and something stirred within you and gave rise to delight. When painting landscapes and attempting to capture an impression of light and beauty of the natural world, I too feel almost immersed in the setting and feel something illusionary to being surrounded by nature itself. When we gaze on the beauty of Nature something is oft restored within our souls. As Emerson artfully phrased it, “In the presence of nature a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”
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When I was looking at Hockney, I was minded of, “Nature is a sea of forms radically alike and even unique. A leaf, a sun-beam, a landscape, the ocean, make an analogous impression on the mind. What is common to them all, — that perfectness and harmony, is beauty.” Which reminded me again of “accidents of appearance” and how we all view surfaces differently. The Great One also reminded us of how we are connected with Nature, and how our integration into society diminishes that unity; whilst, returning to it and retreating from society recaptures it: “We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” God, I just love him.
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Whenever I look at a masterpiece created from one of the greats or a chalk drawing on a strip of concrete I find myself becoming lost in it as I do with the written word, musical compositions, and the theater. Artists have the ability to take something we take for granted or perhaps never noticed before and make it beautiful. For the essence of the creator is displayed by the words on paper, the brushstrokes on a canvas, or the notes in a song. When you look at Hockney’s Woldgate Woods not only do you see the beauty of the trees but there is a tremendous depth to the painting as if you are in the center of a forest. It is that depth that I feel all of Hockney’s paintings demonstrate and your fancy man has reiterated so wonderfully in his written word. xxxx
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I love how you call him my fancy man, Doreen…cackle! We think alike: The a Great One, you and me xx
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Reblogged this on A Classicist Writes… and commented:
As the Hockney exhibit enters its final weeks…
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