the development of symbolism in my paintings and other artworks

Leonardo

The Development of Symbolism in My Paintings and Other ArtworksAuthor(s): Jacques LemaireSource: Leonardo, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Spring, 1982), pp. 126-128Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1574549 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 126-128, 1982 0024-094X/82/020126-03$03.00/0 Printed in Great Britain Pergamon Press Ltd.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYMBOLISM IN MY PAINTINGS AND OTHER ARTWORKS

Jacques Lemaire*

1.

I was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1949, and studied '.:. :. ':" graphic art there at the Higher Institute for Graphic - ::: .... . Education and later at the St. Lucas Institute. In 1975 I

devoted myself principally to projects designed to make ... .. i.i

use of painting, sculpture and architectural design in a. ; ; functional framework. For this purpose I have at my disposal a house, which was opened to visitors in 1979. -.

One of the projects underway is an animated cartoon called 'Cosmogony'. It is being made with the aid of the - Center for Animated Films in Ghent under the direction of Raoul Servais, a cartoon filmmaker who received the:: .... :

Golden Palm award at the 1979 film festival at Cannes, France. Another project involves 64 drawings of subjects :. in the Book of Changes (I Ching), the ancient Chinese . book of oracles. It will be eventually published in book "':'': . form.

..:.: .. . .......

2.

My painting has progressed through four periods, starting about 1972. Previous to that time I was influenced by examples of Pop Art, New Realism, ::.... : ii :::; Minimal Art and Zero Art. Setting out in an independent direction, I gave my attention to the surface material ;;

: ; ... ;t;;

characteristics of a canvas support. "' :

.: IIII' : : 'Boundary Explosion' (Fig. 1, top) is an acrylic :::

painting on canvas depicting, at large scale, a charred : : canvas and two burnt matches. I chose burnt objects such i X :. ^ as these because I relate them to what I call the 'magic fire . . of life' to express ecstasy, tension, etc. I made the painting. . with the aid of a projection of a photographic image onto ; . .. .. the canvas, a technique that I also employed during my :

second and third periods. In an article in Leonardo, Paul ^ Franck has reported on drawing with ink on scorched or..? : burnt paper and on burnt sized canvas [1].

Fire on canvas remained a basic aspect of the paintings i that followed in this series. In my sketchbook (1975) I .; wrote: 'My works want to be a transparent manifestation * . j..: : i. of fire, of the heavenly energy that continuously animates matter! I try to express what to my mind is sacred within and without man, the triumph of light'. . :--- - . ..

My second period, beginning in 1974, consists of a series of paintings entitled 'Sun Avalanche'. In these a

Fig. 1. (Top) 'Boundary Explosion', acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120cm, 1973-4. (Bottom) 'Sun Avalanche', acrylic on canvas,

*Painter, Graafv. Ulaanderenplein 24, Ghent-9000, Belgium. 150x 150 cm, 1975. (Photos: Rudy Vermeulen, Gentbrugge, (Received 8 Jan. 1981) Belgium)

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The Development of Symbolism in my Artworks

pattern of burnt areas is depicted showing the burnt traces oriented vertically, horizontally, or diagonally (Fig. 1, bottom). As will be evident below, in my later works, I employ vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines (which I associate with squares, crosses and the picture frame itself) in a more explicit way. The emission of light from burning materials led me to employ colours in the hues of red, yellow and blue. Between canvas and fire I imagine an opposition typified by static/dynamic, birth/death, construction/destruction, object/subject, yin/yang [2, 3].

In the third period, beginning in 1976, I made a series of paintings containing depictions of bits of burnt raw canvas under the title 'Astral Projection', (two of which are shown in Fig. 2. While in Fig. 2 (bottom) the bits might seem to be in chaotic motion, on closer inspection one will notice that the central ones are clustered within a circle cut into quadrants by a Greek cross [4], and those beyond the square shape might be viewed as moving outwards. Contrasts are provided by means of the lines,

Fig. 2. (Bottom) 'Astral-Projection', acrylic on canvas, 120x 120 cm. 1977. (Top) 'Astral-Projection', acrylic on canvas, 250x 250

cm, 1978. (Photos: Rudy Vermeulen, Gentbrugge, Belgium)

shapes and colours used, which I intend to signify my reactions to the existence of relationships that may be assumed to exist between any animate, inanimate and immaterial thing.

Cezanne (many of whose views about art and the universe I find congenial) sensed in nature an underlying order for some of its seemingly chaotic characteristics. I believe he wished to present in his pictorial artworks aspects of such underlying order. In this respect, the statements by artists, scientists and scholars of art published in Leonardo on the meaning of spatial and temporal order are, I find, relevant [5].

I am particularly influenced by the symmetrical order such as one finds in flowers, butterfly wings and snow crystals, which, much as in kaleidoscope patterns, are similar yet individually different. The painting shown in Fig. 2 (top) has a pattern with a center from which shapes can be taken to originate in a way found in yantra mandalas used in India for Tantric meditation.

An important symbol appearing in many of my works is the swastika, which I believe to be a primal geometrical configuration that is the basis of Mandalas. A kind of swastika can be discovered in Fig. 2 (bottom). In my sketchbook I wrote (1977): 'The swastika turns around its axis in such a way that all the points of the body come in contact with one another. In India it is known as a turning wheel of fire that symbolizes the continuous cycle of life and death. In my paintings I try to capture the electric spark it emanates and which we all carry in our hearts.' This statement reveals my attempt in my painting and in my stained glass work (discussed below) to draw attention to my belief that there is an underlying spiritual cause for what occurs in the universe.

In my fourth period (1979 onwards), I did not depict burnt and charred objects, and I did not employ photographic projections as an aid. In these paintings, which were influenced by the colours produced by stained glass, I tried to introduce transparent colour effects. In flat areas, I obtained an intensely vibrant effect by brushwork, and I executed lines by free strokes of a brush [6].

My aim was to produce simplified shapes. I started each of these paintings by drawing freely its motif and altering it to provide a grid of horizontal and vertical lines (Fig. 3, bottom). In the pen-and-ink drawing in Fig. 3 (top) the grid is made up of only a few lines. I wished the lines to seem in motion and, by being parallel to the edges of the picture, to emphasize them. The vibrant effect, produced by brushwork in Fig. 3 (bottom), is more clearly evident in the fine pen work in Fig. 3 (top).

In the paintings of this series shapes are simplified and the lines, which have an organic quality, contrast with flowing shifts in colour. In my sketchbook I wrote (1979): 'I am looking for an open forum that might enable me to move the brush more freely .... What I still aim at is that line and colour should transform the form by being applied rhythmically and clearly.

'Formerly, I strove for the immaterialisation of the subject through physical burning, now I try, however paradoxical it may be, to materialise psychic fire. It simply has to come from within, from an inner fire....'

3.

Closely connected with the above-mentioned pictures are those in which I employ very long sheets of paper on which usually only one calligraphic kind of line is drawn. The line is meant to be a sign signifying a line of fire and the paper the materiality of things. For the Art in Culture Symposium held at Ghent State University in August

127



Jacques Lemaire

I consider the pictures in the four series I have described above as highly abstract versions of trees in which a cross- section of a trunk is at the center and from which branches spread outwards. The branches may take the shape of a Greek Cross or of a swastika. I like to imagine that I am sucked up in the sap from the roots through the trunk ('a spine of ascending fire') into the branches while I ponder ideas such as that a tree embodies the four elements of the Ancient Greeks, water, earth, air and fire.

4.

A watercolour for a proposed stained glass window 'A Tree of Light' is shown in Fig. 4 (see colour plate). (John Stenhouse in an article in Leonardo described a painting on silk on the same theme [7].) It stems from the pictures in the four series and from my preoccupation with the possible symbolization of fire and of light. The window's design includes both squares and circles, a characteristic that I associate with romanesque design. The ratio of height to width of the window is 8/3, which is in the range of proportions of humans.

In the window, the human body is symbolized by the square, triangular and circular shapes; the soul by the colors red, yellow and blue; the mind by diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines.

The yellow column rising through the center is a spire of fire, referred to as kundalini in Buddhism. This fire is imagined to be coiled like a snake at the base of the human spine, and in yoga practice it is sent through various centers of the body with the intent of achieving the unification of body, soul and mind. I would gladly provide interested readers with more details on my intended symbolization of parts of the design. In dealing freely with symbolism in my paintings I am spurred on by the following words of Matisse: 'An artist must never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation, prisoner of success. Did not the Gancourt brothers write that Japanese Artists of the great period changed their names several times during their lives? This pleases me: They wanted to protect their freedom!' [8].

I regard the design of the window as the culmination of the four series of pictures I have described above, and I hope the stained glass window will someday be produced.

Fig. 3. (Bottom) Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 120x 120 cm, 1979. (Top) Untitled, ink on paper, 50 x 35 cm, 1980. (Photos: Rudy

Vermeulen, Gentbrugge, Belgium)

1980, I produced such a monumental picture with an irregularly painted line in black acrylic on a piece of paper 1.50 m wide and 50 m long. It was stretched along the floor of a corridor and a passage in the auditorium, and extended up the auditorium's front wall to the ceiling. My aim was to unite the horizontal and the vertical visually in one line, by making the line appear to move upwards on the wall.

Often I sketch trees, which are so important for life on the Earth and which have intrigued artists. Mondrian finally reduced the depiction of a tree to a 2-dimensional structure of horizontal and vertical lines, seeing in it a demonstration of relationships between opposites. Van Gogh's pictures of cypress trees I like to regard as implying links between Heaven and Earth. Yves Klein's 'Blue Tree' suggests to me an experience of ultimate unknowable reality.

References

1. P. Franck, Kalcinat Prints and Relief Sculpture from Flame- Treated Plastic Sheet, Leonardo 9, 300 (1976).

2. F. Cromphout, Object, Concept and Symbol: Meaning of the Works of Jacques Lemaire, Restant, Rev. Literature and Plastic Arts 4, 94 (June 1975).

3. K. Lenaerts, Jacques Lemaire: Notes on the Work by a Young Artist, Yang, Rev. Literature and Communication 11 (April, 1975).

4. T. Healy, The Symbolism of the Cross in Sacred and Secular Art, Leonardo 10, 189 (1977).

5. Statements on the Relationships between the Natural Sciences and the Visual Fine Arts and, in Particular, on the Meaning of Order, Leonardo 14, (Part I) p. 144, (Part II) p. 230, (Part III) p. 311, 1981; 15, (Part IV) p. 65.

6. J. Vangansbeke, Jacques Lemaire: Growing to the Centre, Yang, Rev. Literature and Communication 17 (April, 1981).

7. J. C. Stenhouse, Painting with Dyes on Fabrics, Leonardo 7, 247 (1974).

8. J. Elderfield, The Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse (London: Thames & Hudson, 1978) p. 9.

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Top left: Nicole Lemaire D'Agaggio. 'L'Homme en habit', oils on canvas, 85 x 70 cm, 1976. (Fig. 1, see page 120)

Middle left: Robert E. Dewar. Model for a sculpture 'Brimstone', pasteboard, acrylic paint, 95 x 77 cm, 1979. (Fig. 9, see page 103)

Top right: Jacques Lemaire. 'The Tree of Light', design for a stained glass window, watercolours on paper, 80 x 30 cm, 1978. (Fig. 4, see page 128)

Bottom left: Margaret Benyon. 'Secret Sacred II', reflection hologram and drawing, silver halide on glass, 20 x 25 cm,1979. (Fig. 8, see page 94)

Bottom right: Beck and Jung. A Chromocube reduction, 1980. (Fig. 5, see page 119)





















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the development of symbolism in my paintings and other artworks

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