Die Janusköpfigkeit der Kunst
Was tut der Künstler? Er setzt sich gestalterisch mit sich und seiner Umgebung auseinander und fungiert in der Zukunft als „Quelle seiner Zeit“, so könnte eine sehr einfache aber durchaus mögliche Antwort auf die Frage lauten.
Was macht ihn aber zum Künstler per se? Sein „Künstlertum“ kann auf das stete gestalterische Forschen um die ästhetische Innovation im Rahmen eines autonomen Prozesses parallel zu gesellschaftlichen Umwälzungen verstanden werden (cf. Beat Wyss).
Eine solche Art der Betrachtung von Kunst kann nur in einem Rahmen fungieren, in welchem Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte verstanden wird.
Und doch bleibt die Frage von Julius von Schlosser „Inwiefern lässt sich ein subjektiver Akt ästhetischer Wahrnehmung in den theoretischen Horizont von Geschichte stellen?“ omnipräsent und lässt die Frage bestehen: Wie ist demnach Kunstgeschichte möglich?
Der künstlerische Prozess als ein autonomes Ganzes und Kunstgeschichte als ihrerseits eine Welt für sich stellen offensichtlich Widersprüche dar, die trotz ihres gegenteiligen Charakters oft in einem und demselben „engen begrifflichen Korsett“ von Kunst gehandelt werden. So findet sich Anfang und Ende der Kunst in diesem Zwiespalt zusammengefasst. Dieser weist auf die Janusköpfigkeit der Kunst als einen überdauernden und sich offensichtlich befruchtenden Widerspruch hin.
Colors
Colors are the main topic of painting. Chagall, the great master of color, said once that if you look at the colors a painter is using you can see his character. How right he was! Colors are most eminent to all painting. They differ from painter to painter, from epoch to epoch, from geographical area to geographical area, from culture to culture.
Even if you look how people are dressed in different countries you will see how different the attitudes towards colors are and how different the color taste of people living in different cultures is. To investigate the history and theory of colors not only in painting but in culture in general is a real adventure.
Character & Ethics
Nowadays we meet a large number of people. If we have to judge a person in a very short period of time it can be quite tricky. No one is better in putting on a “mask” then human beings. So how can we be sure that the person in front of us has at least some traits of a good character and good ethics? It is easier to judge if we have in front of us a dog owner: a look at both of them (the person and the dog) will tell us a great deal about the character and the ethical background of that person. If someone is walking the dog listening to his/her music or reading a book: well, that’s a sign of a so called “ego-shooting” mania: he or she is obviously no taking the least care or having empathy for that animal: there is no relation between them. It is quite common that those persons who treat animals ignorantly or badly will most probably do so with persons too. Both, human beings and animals, have a right of a life in dignity and joy.
Der Mäusetanz
Mäuslein hin, Mäuslein her, ein Schritt nach vorn und dann zurück, das ist der Mäusetanz.
Wir wenden uns ganz geschwind, lachen viel und täuschen die Katze. Kaum ist sie da, dann tanzen wir ihr auf der Nase herum, weil es Spass macht, darum! Ein Schritt nach vorn, einer zurück, dann eine Drehung, juhu, das ist der Mäusetanz. Lass uns tanzen, von Käse träumen und Katzen täuschen.
Good Manners
Good manners are more than just “nice to have”. They are the basis of a personality. To act according to good manners means that you are integrated and accept your cultural setting you are living in. These settings differ widely in our world. What means “good manners” in Africa or Asia means not necessary “good manners” in Europe.
In Europe for example it is a clear rule that you answer to questions you are given in a known social context. It is about bad manners not responding to a personal e-mail even if it is only about saying thank you or confirming having got an e-mail. In Europe is is very impolite if you cancel a fixed meeting postponing it without coming back to that postponed meeting. All this things are very different in Asia or Africa. But leaving in Europe one has to adapt to these rules. Why?
Good manners are a valuable sign of a integer and trustful person, in one word: of a good friend.
Once a person from another cultural background told me that she is selecting very carefully her friends. What a statement I thought first but then I saw how sad the fact was: she thought that she could select friends and that friendship is about selections. If you think that way you will be aging quickly and will die very lonely one day.
Globale Ballonfahrten
Hier fliegen sie: unsere Welten! Globale Ballonfahrten entführen den Menschen in rosarote Realitäten…
The Contemplative Nose
The nose is a central and very important organ for most animals. And so it is for us humans too. The nose can tell us about many things of the human being in front of us…
The Artist
What is an artist? Such a kind of question arises if you look at the huge production in visual arts or among writers.
Thousands of books are being produced by thousand of mostly unknown “writers”. Most of them are not artists in a proper sense of the word. The are producers with a more or less creative and knowledgable side inside them to be able doing so. Since using ghost-writers among celebrities is most common even that side diminishes. The huge amount of that kind of production is due to the contemporary fashion which dictates that being an “artist” is great and has even a sexy appeal. But in a country like Switzerland those kind of artists mentioned above are well accepted since they are beside being “artists” lawyers, house wives or CEOs.
But what is that other kind of artist we known from personalities like Chagall, Giacometti, Pessoa, Rilke and many others?
They all were extremely different personalities working in a very different way to achieve their success in the art world. Pessoa (the writer) for example had during his life time a 8 hours job and was writing in the evenings and on weekends. Picasso did nothing else but working as a painter, sculptor, drawer. All these “real” artists do have one common side in their approach towars their art: they invested their whole concentration on that work, all other things were just done but not part of their inner most sincere concentration.
Concentration, focus, expertise and a life long examination of art makes an artist an artist. This kind of artist goes on working not depending on the fact being “seen, read or heard”. In the long term his/her opus will survive.
Let’s look at this real art and not mere at those countless (re)productions of the “so called” artists.
Der Schneehase
Der Schneehase hüpft und springt, sucht den Frühling, die Blüten und Farben. Doch weiss er wohl: ich bin der Schneehase und Schnee meine Heimat. Darum pflücke ich meine Blüten immer im Sommer, um sie später genüsslich in meiner Schneehöhle zu verspeisen. Und plötzlich war der Schneehase weg, entschwunden in die weite grosse Schneewelt…
Die Katze jagt den Kater
Die Katze jagt den Kater und setzt zum Sprung an: hoppla, nicht der Kater ist in ihren Fängen, sondern: die kleine Maus. Zufrieden schnurrt die Katze und lässt es sich schmecken. „So macht das Leben Spass, den Kater schnapp ich mir ein anderes Mal“, singt die Katze und sonnt sich im Blumenbeet.
Die Gesetze der Natur walten, ohne dass wir die Welt dabei verwalten.