This essay is the actual continuation of the previous one,
“THE ALPHA SEER ON AN ARTICLE ON “SHE” BY DR. W. FRIED, PH.D.”
Invest the blind with a semblance of authority, and they will pluck the eyes of all the seeing,… .Give a slave his way but for a day, and he will turn the world into a world of slaves.
THE BOOK OF MIRDAD
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The third observation of the Alpha Seer in this world of phenomena is that if you cannot exist on the basis of reality, you try with all your might to create a para-universe in order to convince the public that your opinions count too. This is precisely what the academics are doing in the realm of art criticism. The academic in the form of a psychoanalyst has done this to art right from the dawn of the modern eras and he has been so wildly successful that his narratives have largely overcrowded the pages of art criticism, and they have suffocated, supplanted, and eventually replaced the original host in the realm of art, the true artist himself! Coupled with what the Alpha Seer calls “a syndrome of Blind Man Feeling the Elephant,” this fraudulent practice was in full battle cry in our times ever since the first bodies of art criticism were written. I will not go there now as it is the conversation for another day. Almost without exception, one can always sense the psychoanalyst behind the art critic. In fact, the psychoanalyst IS the art critic!!!!! For this predominant archetype of art criticism, the critic’s racket has never gone beyond the shape or purpose of a horse race, with the artists for whom he writes articles, his horses! If any one of those horses wins out, he stands to benefit from the race, in terms of monetary gains, power, or prestige in his circle. One needs look no further than the WHO’S WHOs that stood behind Andy Warhol, promoting him to such a phenomenal status of success, despite the fact that Warhol was a complete art illiterate, and by some biographical accounts, an idiot ! Of course there were other forces in play too in the making of a pop-star in the society, but the opinions of the art critics are always by far the biggest influence in these types of horse races.
This is the real reason why Dr. Bill also digs in, advancing and endorsing his theories of psychoanalysis on art, fabricating a para-universe in the hope of creating the semblance of a school of thinking to convince the society of his clairvoyance. He wants us to know that his opinions count so that his horse may win the race ! Unfortunately, all of his literary efforts here have been shown to be irrelevant and misleading, therefore completely worthless! His opinions have nothing to do with art,- even less so with the subject at hand,– SHE!
Dr. William Fried, Ph.D’s seeing of art remains on the periphery. He is not qualified to perceive its center.
Now that Dr. Bill has spoken, let’s take a good look at what he has to say from paragraph 3 through 5.
Dr. Bill is saying,
1. “Martin’s paintings could all be titled “Ecce Femina,” “The iconic image of a man being murdered,” meaning Crucifixion, is supplanted by the Woman in SHE. Instead of beholding the man, (i.e. Jesus Christ the Man,) he claims that Knox Martin is now asking his viewers to revert to beholding the Woman.
2. “The show’s title, SHE, the subjective form of the personal pronoun, reflects a critical characteristic of the paintings, the abolition of any conventional distinction between figure and ground. This feature of the works establishes Woman as the complete subject.”
Then he elaborates that the elimination of the so-called “binaries as figure and ground, subject and object, primary and secondary, energy and mass, process and outcome,… ” is essentially what Knox Martin’s achievement is in the creation of SHE. Finally he claims that the unification of the “conventional” (i.e. subject/object) type of “binary vision” into a unitary “vision” is Knox’s chief achievement through SHE. He also proclaims that in SHE, Knox “overcomes the so-called tyranny of subordination that typically limits the ways in which we see.”
The Alpha Seer does not know what exactly he means by “tyranny of subordination,” nor its relationship to art, but really, what can a blind man see, especially when none of the above has a grain of truth to it!
I am certain that Dr. Bill must have conducted an interview with Knox before he set out to create his para-universe in this article on SHE. One may reasonably expect Knox to have told him about his artist intention in creating SHE. Unfortunately, Dr. Bill, being the blind man that he is, one who was trying desperately to feel the elephant, had come to this interview with the preconditions of a psychoanalyst! As if that baggage were not heavy enough, he thought he had already known what kind of an article he would have for SHE even before he sat down in discussion with Knox. He already had everything figured out even before the consultation with the great master Knox Martin! Dr. Bill’s aim is not in learning art from a master, he is bent on pursuing his own agenda! I am quite sure that Knox had mentioned the LINEAGE of art, and explained patiently how SHE had also come from that LINEAGE. But instead of trying to understand what an elephant is, Dr. Bill is just too earnest in making up his own version of the elephant!
But the outcome is just as one would have anticipated. the outcome is what we have mutually experienced here. Yes, you’ve guessed it: it is a monstrosity, a psychoanalyst’s version of an elephant! It is the para-universe of a psychoanalyst!
Dr. Bill’s deliberate misinterpretation of Knox’s intention is deep-rooted, and his desire in supplanting the reality of art with the fabrications of his own para-universe is just so blatant!
As the Alpha Seer has pointed out from the beginning, none of what Dr. Bill sees in SHE, neither of what he perceives as SHE’s relationship with art, is valid in any shape, color, size, smell, or form. There is no archetype of “Ecce Femina” in SHE, nor any of such garbage as an “evolution” from a binary form to a unitary form in Knox Martin’s art! In fact, that can never happen, since upon correct understanding of the LINEAGE, (or of true art itself,) one can recognize with supreme clarity that the precise science of painting sustains absolutely nothing that is based on figure and ground!
Where was Dr. Bill when the great Knox Martin expounded the knowledge of art? Where was Dr. Bill when Knox explained his own heritage through SHE to LINEAGE? Was Dr. Bill daydreaming about his naked Woman in metallic sheen, or was he simply distracted by Mr. Boo, Knox’s favorite African grey parrot who seems to enjoy every visitor regardless?
None of what Dr. Bill has written about SHE is based on REALITY!
Yes, there is such a thing called the REALITY of art! The only trouble is, artistic reality cannot be understood by everyone in the world. It really takes an artistic genius to access it. Unfortunately, Dr. Bill is not that person!
Matisse says, “Art cannot be taught!” It is not just something being said to exclude the rest of Humanity, it is a statement of fact!
Dr. Bill remains a blind man in the knowledge of that elephant! He remains blind to art!
Knox Martin cannot change that reality even if he had wanted to!
Knox is NOT evolving from the LINEAGE, as Dr. Bill implies, on the contrary, Knox is reinforcing and advancing this LINEAGE through SHE!
But Dr. Bill has no access to that knowledge!