THE PARALLEL PATHS

[i] The statement for the relationship between form and emptiness, is from Buddha's turning of the second wheel of dharma teachings, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras (Geshe Gelsang Gyatso. "Heart of Wisdom", Tharpa, London 1996). The French artist Yves Klein was the first to dedicate himself to “depicting” emptiness in his Monochrome paintings. His long noviciate in judo and assiduous study of Rosicrucian theory resulted in his persistent pursuit of a spiritual life which first found expression in his monochrome paintings in blue, what are known as ÉÂÊ (Énternational Klein Blue). “Le judo, la doctrine des rose-croix et le monochrome constituait les trïis approches de l’ ‘espace spirituel’  qui lui appartenait en propre,” (Thomas McEvilley, “Yves Klein conquistador du vide”, from the catalogue for the retrospective exhibition Yves Klein, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d’ art moderne, Paris 3.3 – 23.5.1983, p. 34). Pierre Restany described Klein’s monochrome paintings as “images de la contemplation pure” (ibid. p. 36), in other words “images of philosophical theory”.

[ii] The subject matter, as well as the explosive depiction of natural phenomena, and the frequent juxtaposing of warm and cool colours, are indicative of Konstantinos D. Kapetanopoulos’s particular admiration for the work of J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). In writing on the work of Mark Rothko, Diane Waldman (Diane Waldman, “Mark Rothko”, Thames and Hudson, London 1978, p. 275) mentions the influence, apparent in Mark Rothko’s painting, of two of Turner’s paintings which he had seen in an exhibition in 1966 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They were Light and Colour (Goethe’s theory) and The morning after the Deluge – Moses writing the Book of Genesis, 1843. Rothko is impressed by the dual relationship between darkness and light or colour. He sees it as Chaos with the world emerging from it.

[iii] It is worth noting that alongside his very apt text entitled “Rothko’s Unknown Space” (catalogue for the Mark Rothko exhibition, Washington DC, p. 303) in which he studies Rothko’s painting as the pursuit of intellectual space, Jeffrey Weiss gives the following English translation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s words “Fullness is emptiness given direction” as a motto.

[iv] The empty gold space in Byzantine iconography has metaphysical significance and alludes to unstructured light. In Chinese painting, on the other hand, empty space works in a totally different way – it surrounds the shapes, keeping them apart and frequently plays an active role in the image as it is not the artist’s intention to cover the whole surface with colour. Painting and writing are in an inviolable relationship; each complementing the other. Moreover, novice calligraphers and artists in China had to practice calligraphy for a long time before they could progress to painting images. During the first years of their noviciate copying was the fundamental teaching tool. In the 17^th century for example, one of the most important aids to learning which a novice artist had to study in depth was a manual entitled “Mustard Seed Manual Of Painting” (Jieziyuan huazhuan) which included chapters on producing images of rocks and plants. Subsections in the chapters provided detailed instructions for depicting specific parts of the subject in question, such as the leaves of the bamboo plant, according to whatever it was that the novice wanted to paint and how it was to be achieved. Learners had to cultivate a spirit of humility, show respect for the study of past masters and constantly find joy in their work. John Ruskin (1819-1900), Turner’s ardent admirer, proposed similar training for students of painting in some of the fundamental principles he set out for the Ruskin Drawing School. Student training aimed more at developing spirituality and humility than technique and creativity. Students had to concentrate more on reproducing subjects seen in the natural world than creating their own compositions.

 Konstantinos D. Kapetanopoulos became familiar with Chinese calligraphy during his travels at a time when he was also systematically studying Ruskin’s work. There are similarities between his use of the basic principles of Chinese calligraphy and that of the American, Mark Tobey (1890-1976), who studied with the Chinese artist, Deng Kui, in Seattle in 1923. While on an extended tour of China in 1930, Tobey studied calligraphy with the same teacher in Shanghai, and later on in Japan, too. On his return to England, where he had taken up residence, Tobey embarked on a series of paintings using a technique of his own, which he called “White Writing”. One of his most mature paintings employing this technique is the Edge of August, 1953.

Chinese and Japanese calligraphy also played a determining role in the work of the Frenchmen, Georges Mathieu (1921) and Henri Michaux. Their work, and the work of Wols in particular, but also that of Hans Hartung, Jean Fautrier, Alfred Manessier, Georges Soulages, Nicolas de Staël and other artists, has been classed as a new trend, an answer to the American abstract expressionism, and is known as Art Informel, art without form. The term “Art Autre”, or different art, was used by the critic Michel Tapié in 1952. He organised an exhibition with this as its title at the Studio Faccheti gallery in Paris that same year. Art Autre, like Tachisme, should be regarded as an artistic expression belonging to Art Informel. 

[v] The influence of Chinese calligraphy aside, Kapentanopoulos’s work also reflects strong ties with the work of Tobey, who believed that painting should come through the channel of meditation and not through the channel of action. With this as his fundamental principle he completed his series of paintings entitled Meditative Series in 1954. Tobey was not particularly popular with the art critics in New York because of his philosophical and theological beliefs and his disagreement with the principles of abstract expressionism. In keeping with the same theory, the American, Sam Francis (1923-1994), produced paintings whose aim was to depict the fluid, constantly changing nature of the world. Influenced by Zen Buddhism and his journey to Japan, he came to believe that only through meditation was it possible to produce a genuine work of art.

[vi] Wols, an eager student of Lao Tse, writes in one of his renowned Aphorisms: “I look into the depth of things / means: I see but one thing, and always the same one. / I look deep / means: I see the one and only”, (Wols, Poems and Aphorisms, Watercolours • Drawings • Photographs, Presentation-Translation E.Ch. Gonatas, stigmi, Athens 2002, p. 44). The Chinese express the same idea in their proverb: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[vii] “When a work of art forms part of a collection or is included in an exhibition, we say it has been elevated to its place. But as a change of place this elevation is totally different from the change involved in erecting a temple, erecting a statue to a divinity, or staging a tragedy on a day of celebration. It is an elevation which lauds and honours, it is no mere elevation to a different place. Here the work of art opens up the sanctuary as a sanctuary and God enters through the open nature of its presence. The work of art gives praise, showing respect for divine superiority and splendour. Divine superiority and splendour are not qualities which God stands near or behind; on the contrary, the essence of divinity resides within superiority and splendour. The reflection of this splendour lends light to the place we call the world. The work of art being erected has within it a yardstick, which from then on acts as a guide”, Martin Heidegger, “The origins of the work of art”, Introduction, Translation and Comments by Yannis Tzavaras, Dodoni Publications, Athens-Yannina 1986, from [Chapter two] The work of art and the truth, p. 73.

[viii] The paintings which Rothko produced especially for Huston Chapel summarised his views on spiritual matters. “The doorways to a higher reality created Huston Chapel [and] were still redolent with sensuous color and form: there was in them the equilibrium between two states of existence, the spiritual and the physical”, (Waldman, ibid., p. 69).