The Awakening Artist

Subtitled 'madness and spiritual awakening in art' this is a wide-ranging study of the relationship between creative and spiritual processes in art. By awakening, he means a gradual movement from unconsciousness to consciousness, from egoic disharmony to harmony, which opens the artist to the transcendent and adds a new dimension to the work and to the perception of beauty. The principal idea is that of the One Art Movement embracing the entire scope of human artistic activity. The madness of the subtitle is associated with the activity of the ego (turning other humans into objects), and draws on Steve Taylor's The Fall, whereby much of what we consider normal is in fact insane, as Erich Fromm also observed. The eras of ancient art are described through this lens as we move from the age of innocence to that of madness. There is a useful chart with two axes: the horizontal is deep sleep compared with hyper perceptual awareness, while the vertical is madness compared with awakened consciousness. What we call normal lies in the middle, but there is always potential for both vertical and horizontal evolution.

Many artists are used to illustrate the thesis. For instance, Vermeer, whose paintings convey a sense of inner peace and stillness as attributes of the awakening artist. Michelangelo is an interesting mixture of ego and transcendent inspiration. Then there are a number of American artists who are much less familiar to European readers, like George Inness (1825-1894), Mark Tobey (1890 – 1976) and Morris Graves (1910 – 2001). The development of modern art from Impressionism is explored in some detail and the author sees us moving from unconscious suffering to conscious innocence. He describes the phases of the creative journey through curiosity and chaos to clarity and the relationship of universal intelligence to creative expression. Here he could have mentioned the American artist and philosopher Walter Russell (1871 – 1963) whose output is an exact expression of what he refers to. He describes what it is like to be one with the infinite creative source and the state of joy and delight entailed by this. It also means that extraordinary works can be produced out of this creative flow. The book is a thought-provoking reflection on the spiritual nature of art and artists.