Over some years I took out from the bookshelf a book “The Antagonistic Link” which contains letters of Theo van Doesburg and Joaquin Torres-García. I bought this book on 1997 in Amsterdam while I was studing in the Rietveld Academie. I remember that I was captured by the sincerity and passion of their letters, how these two great thinkers of avant-garde movement with different backrounds were able to discuss about the meaning of the single word over and over again. How they had strong disagreemnets and they still tried to explain to each other ones points of view.
It is very emotional book I enjoyed it very much, containing next to the correspondence of these two big men also interesting articles about their backround and the circle of artists they were involved with. It is certainly one of these almost blind purchases which turn to be very dear. I admire their works very much.
Only now being involved with Grey Area I kind of realised that the whole book was a huge and great cooperation of curators and familiy members in Holland and South America too.
I chose to show you some symbols by Torres-García as I find his theory very interesting and maybe this will inspire you too. I am quoting from the book. :
Torres-García said: “Geometry and symbolism tend to be the artist’s natural mode of expression. First of all geometry because it is the graphic language of reason; then symbolism, because the symbol is also in fact a graphic idea. But there is another reason from the artist’s point of view,and this is of the greatest importance. The symbol in fact, unlike all other images, does not represent any other thing; the symbol is different: it represents itself. Because in the symbol, idea and form are the same thing; one and the same thing: it is the idea-matter, or matter-idea, whichever you prefer… If the artist is a creator of symbols it is because the symbolic form is not just something that exists within the rational structure, but also within the soul and in matter and it emerges from them made, as it were, of one piece; and this is why it has, in a sense a magical value, and why it operates directly on our spiritual sense, without requiring any interpretation or reading; and for these reasons as far as its form is concerned it has a value in itself.
Maybe you know this book? Let me know what you think about T-G theory about symbols!
Ketli
