Speculations
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Speculations
SPECULATIONS
In art the idea is an abstraction in space and the realization of it is the time taken by the space. The sum of the idea and the realization is the time-space of art. With consecutive shapes the purely mechanical time is more important than space as an abstract idea. The surface is two-dimensional when it exists ‘a priori’ and the artist makes his composition within it. It is a neutral area, and, being neutral, it is also dead, in the sense that it existed before the idea; and from this a priori existence comes the urge to subordinate the idea (spatial) to the time (in which the idea is placed). Instead, the idea, which is spatial, has to be brought into being within its own particular time. In which case, the surface-time must be constructed to the demands of the space which is going to be expressed. If I wish express this surface in terms of space it loses its immediacy. The ground base of modern thought is the idea of space-time. In art, in other ages, the artist created his still life or portrait using the surface as a space in which to show things. The way the abstract artist used the surface of his painting was not, in fact, different from this. Now, however, my idea is neither to go further than reality nor to show it, but to change this surface of the painting into living space. The ‘picture’ a ceases to exist as itself and becomes an abstract background integrated with the artistic idea, which is space.
COPYRIGHT ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL «O MUNDO DE LYGIA CLARK»