March 7, 2009

  • ART WARS continued:

    One or Two Ideas

    From James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

    The dean returned to the hearth and began to stroke his chin.

    --When may we expect to have something from you on the esthetic question? he asked.

    --From me! said Stephen in astonishment. I stumble on an idea once a fortnight if I am lucky.

    --These questions are very profound, Mr Dedalus, said the dean. It is like looking down from the cliffs of Moher into the depths. Many go down into the depths and never come up. Only the trained diver can go down into those depths and explore them and come to the surface again.

    --If you mean speculation, sir, said Stephen, I also am sure that there is no such thing as free thinking inasmuch as all thinking must be bound by its own laws.

    --Ha!

    --For my purpose I can work on at present by the light of one or two ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas.

    --I see. I quite see your point.

    Besides being Mondrian's birthday, today is also the dies natalis (in the birth-into-heaven sense) of St. Thomas Aquinas and, for those who believe worthy pre-Christians also enter heaven, possibly of Aristotle.

    Pope Benedict XVI explained the dies natalis concept on Dec. 26, 2006:

    "For believers the day of death, and even more the day of martyrdom, is not the end of all; rather, it is the 'transit' towards immortal life. It is the day of definitive birth, in Latin, dies natalis."

    The Pope's remarks on that date
    were in St. Peter's Square.

    From this journal on that date,
    a different square --

    Box symbol

    Pictorial version
    of Hexagram 20,
    Contemplation (View)

    The square may be regarded as
    symbolizing art itself.
    (See Nov.30 - Dec.1, 2008.)

    In honor of
    Aristotle and Aquinas,
    here is a new web site,
    illuminati-diamond.com,
    with versions of the diamond shape
    made famous by Mondrian --

    Cover of  Mondrian: The Diamond Compositions

    -- a shape symbolizing
    possibility within modal logic
     as well as the potentiality of
     Aristotle's prima materia.