The Alpha Seer understanding true art

 

FIGURE 1: THE ALPHA SEER A.K.A.  BEN LAU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No one should call himself “master” the way impostors such as Jeff Koons,Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Ai Wei Wei etc. etc. call themselves “masters.”

To be a master you must be the real thing.

And you’d better be the real thing,– because the Alpha Seer a.k.a. Ben Lau won’t be happy about it. 

In the domain of real art, only one genius can recognize another, so the title of one master is always conferred from another artist of equal or superior caliber!

When Ben Lau was young he went around  looking for a person in Pablo Picasso’s caliber to tell him what art is. He knew that since New York had exceeded Paris as the capital of auction houses and museums, he vaguely concluded that New York would be the place to be if you want to be an artist. Sure enough, Arshile Gorky, deKooning and Elias Goldberg were based in New York. But he knew nothing about Knox Martin at all. Knox has never enjoyed the same kind of fame as deKooning’s and he was selling his work at, maybe a hundred thousand at the most,– while deKooning was already selling his in the range of millions. However, it was more than obvious to Ben that even at that tender age in his life, Knox’s talent is much bigger than that of Gorky, Goldberg or deKooning combined! Putting it in a less complicated way, Knox is bigger even than  Ingres, Cezanne, Picasso or Matisse!

And it just turned out that Ben had the great fortune to meet Knox Martin at the Art Students League in New York City. Looking back, Ben would acknowledge that as his bit of crazy luck in life! Ben would write his dad in Hong Kong about this piece of good luck. He wrote: “The odds of meeting someone in Master Knox Martin’s standing is so great, and the window of opportunity so narrow– and yet I made it!”

 

That was the year 1976. Ben originally wanted to become a scientist and he had his B.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook.  Ben went to Stony Brook because the famous Nobel prize winner Yang Chun Ning, a fellow Chinaman , taught at Stony Brook. In 1977, Ben’s father passed away and Ben would return to Hong Kong for the funeral. On record Ben could only claim to have studied with Master Knox Martin for about a semester at the Art Students League.

After seeing Ben’s artistic effort, Knox Martin, a former professor at Yale University, pulled his student aside and said to him: “Ben, I don’t know what your plan is, but you need to continue this course. I do not have any doubt  in giving you this advice. You won’t catch me talking to another student like this. To be an artist is not  exactly an easy or romantic life- style, you know.

To be fair, Knox Martin is an artistic genius of  I.Q. 196. Compared with Einstein’s 160+ and JFK’s 98 or so, ( at 98, you can become a pretty decent US President already,– and what with GWB’s dismal standing and so forth,…? So I really don’t think the GWB’s  decision in picking up the paint brush by way of unfolding the next stage of his life is such an awesome choice,…  someone really needs to tell him that, not Dick Cheney again, I hope! )

 

Real art is real  hard for the laymen. That is to be expected. It has taken the Alpha Seer called Ben Lau,  ( recognized by Master Knox Martin in 1976 )  another 40 years before Ben truly finds himself fully matured as an artist. Universal recognition from the public VERY OFTEN will only come to a great artist posthumously. There is nothing you can do about it!  Imagine this: no way, –absolutely no way , can Master Knox Martin’s talent be fathomed by his contemporaries. You cannot see the summit of the Himalayas as you walk directly under it! The contemporaries of Knox Martin won’t be able to see how great Knox Martin is, they are walking directly under the Himalayas! And the Himalayas in this particular personification represent the great master Knox Martin. Eras will pass before history is able to make the correct judgement. It will then be like  everyone seeing the Himalayas from a distance. You just cannot see its top when you walk under the foot of the Himalayas.

 

Yeah, you won’t believe me, right? I know you won’t, but that’s O.K. I’ll tell you why you cannot believe me.

First, you are not an artistic genius. Second, you only believe those with the dollar sign attached. I would too if I have no other way in knowing what great art is, or whether the Alpha Seer a.k.a. Master Ben Lau is telling me the truth.

I don’t blame you. After all, that is how things are.

How can one blame  Ignorance when Blindness itself fails to see its own predicament?

When Van Gogh tried to give a painting to the mailman, guess what the latter  told him?

” Thanks, –but no thank, Master Vincent! My wife will be mad at me if I take this thing home. You must understand, –we are living in a very small house, and you know what that means!”

So Vincent Van Gogh could not even give away his work when he was alive.

And Paul Cezanne,– look:  Cezanne was ridiculed by the Paris public all his life. The whole of Paris really came to the conclusion that Cezanne was a perfect mad man, that he was indeed the poster child of eccentricity!

Cezanne, a genius, was taken to be a lunatic. How crazy can Paris be? Is it not mirroring  on us, reflecting the so-called human condition that keeps on repeating itself?

The Paris public was blind to real art. I am not saying this to insult anyone, just pointing it out as a fact. They were only able to see the trail of money when it came to art. And likewise, since everyone today think Andy Warhol was a master, (alas!)  and  deep-pocketed fools listen to the so-called pundits, ( i.e. the art critics, the art professors, the so-called art historians, the art magazine editors, gallery owners, those who run the auction houses, the art directors,….etc.–who themselves know next to nothing about real art,) then go on to follow their herd instincts and vanity without question,– no doubt they are willing to pay big bucks at  fancy auction houses for a piece of  shit like  the Campbell Soup, or photocopied portraits of Monroe. Other odious impostors like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Ai Wei Wei etc. etc. can eventually thrive because of such stupidity, blindness, ignorance, superstition, vanity, or herd instincts, –or all of the above.

Use your arithmetic, friends,  since I am sure that anyone perusing this blog is far from dumb,– most  of my readers may be lacking some kind of  vision for art, but , hell no, you are not  dumb, –of course you  know how to count!

In the last centuries, we only had Ingres, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse  Gorky, Juan Gris, Seurat, Miro, and deKooning. The number of real artists is a little more than the number of fingers on my hands. How they come up with the number of one million is really beyond me.  Not only that, but each impostor are at the same time,– what gut!– proclaiming themselves as “masters” ?

Let me put thing in the proper perspectives then:

Real art does not necessarily come to us with a price tag!

Real art is the labor of the artistic genius, since no one else except the genius can know the secret of beauty, and therefore what it means to be great.

Real art is timeless, why?  because it is priceless!

Real art belongs to all humanity, not just the nauseating , pretentious walls of some deep-pocketed fools! 

    FIGURE 1: SATYR AND NYMPH SERIES 391

Ben Lau	Jan 10 (4 days ago)
—

Knox	Jan 11 (3 days ago)
to me

YOU DID IT  /////////////////////  AGAIN  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   KNOX MARTIN: (www.knoxmartin.com)

Are the Alpha Seer’s work about sex? Don’t get deceived by the cover of the book:  His work have a deeper layer of meaning than sex. He adopts as his theme the interaction of Yin and Yang, of which the secret action of the satyr and the nymph represents the guilt-free condition of what is inherent with existence. Color is deliberately left out so that the essence of the calligraphy in art, or the purity of perception, if you would, may be attained with immediacy.

This work, which the great genius Knox Martin has praised profusely, can hang on your wall for any length of time,– i.e. even if you were to look at it everyday — still you will feel no fatigue in the visual contact.  Why so? –because all great art generates good Fung Shui. It moves the Qi in its vicinity, it will only make you feel energized, so you will be replenished with a most precious thing,– unseen, but most precious, — fresh energy. Is it a theory? No, it can well be proven. There is no way, for example that you can get tired viewing a scroll on the wall containing the masterful calligraphy of Wang Hsih- chih or a Picasso drawing. You can only grow to like it more and more! The great compositions by Mozart and Beethoven have similar fascination on us. One just cannot get tired of listening to them,– but not the raps, or the Beatles, which are bad Fung Shui to start with,… ( Now I ‘d better get out of here quick before some Beatles fans hit me hard with a broom,…..!)

(To read the above, use your mouse on the line to highlight it.) How do you read this composition? Learning how is an art in and of itself. One will appreciate this instruction even more later on, especially  as it can become a general guidance for anyone with above average intelligence to read great art in general. For example, one may read Titian’s composition, or that of Picasso’s, in a very similar manner. Reading Knox Martin’s work is a lot more complex, which belongs to another chapter. First narrow your eyes and gaze at the total white, (or the  whole Yang , if you want,) and simply allow your vision to be taken to whatever corner in the composition. Starting from the nymph’s head you come to the breast. Now you follow the  bend of the nymph’s curling body, her leg on the satyr’s back, only to be continued by the satyr’s body,which takes a Z shape. Pause, then if you  follow the straight of the curtain it will take you to the  pure white of the cave exit, which points back at the back of the head of the satyr. Next there is the white of the satyr’s eyes linking  the small curve that defines the satyr’s face. From that point on the white comes down perpendicularly in the shape of the nymph’s arm. Knox Martin is reading exactly the same thing. But he was fascinated enough to say : “You did it again!!!!!!!!……” The reason why Knox is fascinated but the public is not, is perhaps due to the fact that Master Knox is an artistic genius with an I.Q. of 196, way above that of Einstein’s. In other words, that also represents an I.Q. superior to that of Picasso, Matisse, or even Cezanne anytime of the year.

FIGURE 1: THE ALPHA SEER A.K.A. MASTER BEN LAU   **********************************************************************************************************

First, a story.

It was said that many years after the Buddha Gautama had discovered the ultimate truth on existence he returned to the palace he had once deserted in order to bring enlightenment to his folks as well. He knew that he would be facing the accusatory eyes of both his Dad the old king and his own wife, the beautiful princess, –especially the latter,– since he could still  recall that chain of events on the day  he departed from the old kingdom. Right at the moment of mounting his chariot for the forests  his wife gave birth to their first child. That was how it was. He did not bade farewell for fear that his wife would raise objection.  He was at first tempted to take one last look at the baby, but he  waived that desire. He was afraid that approaching the baby might wake his wife up. So he just ascended his chariot without looking back.

However, it would be safe to assume that the Gautama was enlightened enough to be free of guilt. It was reasonable to think that he had attained the ultimate freedom through discarding his own ego. One would feel guilty only when the ego lingers.  When the ego is no longer, who is there to answer to the guilt? So it  makes sense to believe that the Gautama was by that time entirely free of guilt.

The conversation between the Gautama and his wife was particularly noteworthy. At the reunion his wife asked him a question, one that had never even crossed his mind. It was an excellent question.

“Come to think of it , World Revered One,” said his wife, ” Do you think I would have stopped you from embarking on your search for  truth, even though knowing that your mind was already set on it ? Why was there then the need to desert all your folks here at the palace,– why was it necessary to cause the sufferance of a king in the loss of a son; a loving wife in the disappearance of her husband, and this beautiful child here, pointing to the young man the Gautama had deserted at birth, in the sufferance of growing up without a father?  “It is an excellent question, woman, one that  had never crossed my mind at all until now! You are perfectly right, none of that sufferance was ever necessary, I could still have attained enlightenment right here in the palace, but the fact was that neither you was I unsure of, nor my father, nor the burden of parent-hood, nor that of a kingdom, that  I was afraid would  deter me from my goal.” None of those considerations would have deterred me ,… .It  was I myself that I was unsure of!  I myself was the one that I was afraid of! I, and no one else, being the one that would have created enough obstruction  from my goal! It was easy to answer your question on hindsight but never quite so at the moment of my departure for the forests, when I wasn’t even sure of myself!

In many ways, the search for beauty is similar to the search for truth. It was the “I” that a searcher for BEAUTY is unsure of. It was no one else but the “I” that is stopping a searcher from his goal of beauty.   It is the “I” that makes me search elsewhere, because of my own uncertainty there is created the illusion that BEAUTY is out there somewhere! The illusion that BEAUTY is always out there  has stopped the searcher on his track! Instead of looking within, he looks somewhere else, because he believe that BEAUTY is “out there” somewhere!

 

FIGURE 1. SATYR AND NYMPH SERIES 0378

 

Most of the Alpha Seer’s work appear to be about sex. Don’t get deceived. If he is interested in pornography, he would have taken up a camera instead! All of his work have a deeper layer of meaning. It is about the interaction of Yin and Yang, of which the sex act is inherent with existence. Color is deliberately avoided so that the essence of art, its purity, if you would, may be achieved with ease and with clarity.

Knox <knox@nyc.rr.com>	11/6/14
to me

Y                       E                                 S                                                                            !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     The above comment is given by the great master Knox Martin, one of the greatest artistic geniuses of all times. Note the number of cigars (exclamation marks) that give away the surprise and fascination of a kid. Master Knox Martin is 92 years old in fact. www.knoxmartin.com