On Fri, 16 Apr 1999 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> I began first to
> read about Aboriginal paintings and realise that though they in many cases
> sold on a general market (could be fitted in as "abstract" art in the
> European understanding) they were highly coded in a way that wasn't even
> speaking to me
- this is actually a great experience, innit, and tho it exposes ones
ignorance (no big feat in my case) it's also tremendously exciting (to me)
because of the sheer number of times one comes across it, from Bach and
the Book of Kells to so-called "primitive" cultures everywhere - deep
coding which the casual reading takes as "abstract" (musicologists say
"pure" which begs so many questions...). Interesting to go to the Pollock
exhibition this week and note that he asserted at one stage that his work
was, to a greater or lesser extent, figurative, code-carrying... his use
of "primitive" art to me entry-level, banal, as if he'd snitched a couple
of deep, hard-won images from it and run home to play with them. A warning
to us all perhaps...
RC
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