Knox Martin is a genius of I.Q. 197 (compared  with JFK, former American President, I.Q. 96, and Einstein, with an I.Q. somewhere above 165,– but please don’t quote me on these two, since their numbers may not be exact,– even though I know for a fact that Knox’s number is,–as he had received that assessment from a colleague when teaching at the University of Minnesota…so you may have an idea how smart the man is!) In order to understand such a man fully, you must cover all the bases and pay extra attention to what exactly the man means in his utterances.
Let’s look at Knox Martin’s extraordinary comment:
Doing art is a piece of cake if you are an artist—–then you don’t have to do art —–it does what passes for one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The statement does not seem to make any sense at all at first glance, but if you put everything in context, the significance of its meaning will gradually emerge.
He is essentially saying that, if you are an artist, art is so easy to you,– like breathing, it can only come natural to you!
I am sure everyone here understands that part!
The problem is with the word “artist”.
The great master Knox Martin once said an artist is a sacred being,–one who is born into natural nobility. So when he uses the word artist, I notice immediately that there is no ambiguity to what exactly he means.
Our problem is, we have heard from a million other folks in the world proclaiming themselves as artists. But are they really ? In the past era spanning 150 years, we can only boast a handful of noble souls in the Western Hemisphere who can deservedly be called artists, such as Ingres, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Seurat, deKooning, Van Gogh, Gorky, Goya, and of course, the greatest of them all, Knox Martin! How come there are a million folks in our lifetime alone, all proclaiming themselves as artists? It doesn’t add up, does it? So it is only fair to say that those who had so proclaimed themselves are in fact, non -artists trying to pretend, or impose, as artists,– in other words, they are impostors!!!!!!!!
With the word “artist” now better defined, it is quite possible to understand why Knox has made that extraordinary statement.
“Then you don’t have to do art, it does what passes for one.”
By that he means art will seek its own doing. No effort is even required of the artist to do art at all.
It also means that you’d better make sure that what you are doing is art, before you can legitimately call yourself an artist!
Tough guy, this Knox Martin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now read the Alpha Seer’s explanation of what a composition in art means:
“And what is a complete composition?
It is the simplest of things!!!!!!! It is simply the interaction of Yin and Yang in a field of activities in this manner as follows:
. Unity and oneness must be there (one black and one white only,–not one black with multi-whites, or multi-blacks with multi- whites, like a political map of 19th C Africa!!!)
. Balance.
. Easy flow of the Qi ( the movement of the formal relations is not hindered at any point!)
It is easy to say, but pretty hard to work out, since all 3 conditions must be met simultaneously! That is why art is the playing field of the geniuses!
So how do we gauge “greatness?” Again, it is the simplest of things: just count the number of his complete compositions in the life time of the artist.
Let’s examine the works of the following people who had called themselves “artists:”
Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Richter Gerhard, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella,…. Oh, the list will go on,– it is unendless:
Based on the above definition of a complete composition, their works show that they cannot be called artists because their respective number of art completion is zero.
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Figure 1: Flowers with a Face, by Ben Lau, a.k.a the Alpha Seer
Figure 3:Â Moonless Night series 4679 by Ben Lau, a.k.a the Alpha Seer
Figure 4: Woman with Cat 4680 by Ben Lau, a.k.a.the Alpha Seer
Figure 2: Yin and Yang series 4510 by Ben Lau a.k.a.the Alpha Seer