"God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere." - Hermes Trismegistus. second century BCE, Egypt.
Iconography, symbolism, genre. All are subjects taken with extreme seriousness in the world of art criticism. But artists intend to evoke a variety of responses other than hushed awe. The clothespin figures of Atilio Salemme (1911-1955) or the stilt-walking characters of early Lyonel Feininger are meant to bring smiles.
As a change of pace from the febrile intensity of fin-de-siecle Vienna in recent posts, these photographs by Clarence H. White. (1871-1925) offer a straightforward delight. White was an accountant who gradually realized that his photography was more than a hobby. Encouraging by Arthur Wesley Dow to take up the teaching of photography in 1907 at Columbia University, White went on to found his own influential Pictorialist school.
Something about these low-tech pastimes, watching raindrops bead on a transparent surface, blowing soap bubbles, or playing a game of quoits suggests the pleasure of thinking and feeling shapes in motion. I can't resist mentioning Max Wertheimer's Gestalt principles of our perceptions of form (proximity, symmetry, etc.) but don't let them take away from the pleasure of looking.
Images:
1. Drops of Rain, 1908, Camera Work, Number 23.
2. Blowing Bubbles, c. 1903, Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
3. The Ring Toss, 1899, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
3 comments:
I am in love with the Ring Toss. Wonderful - to look is really a pleasure, and to see is often so rare.
Tamborim Zim, my grandfather had a set of quoits that we played when I visited him. They were made out of tightly coiled rope - about the weight of the ropes used to tie a boat to a dock.
hu, that's heavy!
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