REDUCTIONS; AN EXAMINATION OF A THEOREM
With regard to all works of art, certain precepts are given:
That every painting begins with an idea
That every series emerges as a continuous train of thought
That every idea is connected with History, and every series carries with it to the future certain aspects of the past
That every thing may be seen as a whole, or as a sum of its parts, or part by part
That any thing, to become known, will require careful observation and discernment
That to really observe requires a reduction of the thing to its essence, resulting in an intimate knowledge of the subject
That the masterworks in the canon of Art History have withstood the test of time, and are accepted as things of Beauty and Truth
That all Art was once modern and that artmaking reveals a continuous nexus of going forward by looking back; furthermore, that artmaking is an effort to find a new idea while seeking to capture the sensibility which the Iconic imparts to each generation
That every new idea is inherently ambiguous and open to interpretation and scrutiny
That every dialogue begins with a locus of uncertainty and continues without conclusion or resolution and that Art is always changeable
Therefore, in Art as in Life, all history is subject to interpretation. With regard to the past, present, and future, there will always be more than a single answer to any question.
And so it is and ever will be, that Art educates the mind’s eye to seek answers that may never be found; to consider possibilities that may never be attained; and Art teaches humanity to expand and enhance imagination to the very cusp of reality – that place where all progress is made.
