hexodus
Inspiring visibles and audibles and very little else.
Jul 04
Jul 03
Yves Jeanson discusses the moment of geometric abstraction in arts: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Vasarely, etc. and the theoretical insights that they brought to the field, which Zanis Waldheims took even further - attempting to create a bridge between image and word.
I like this video because Yves expresses his enthusiasm for my grandfather’s art and his desire to bring some attention to his ideas.
Behind him is part of the large collection of books, documents and drawings that Zanis Waldheims left in Yves’ capable hands.
I like this video because Yves expresses his enthusiasm for my grandfather’s art and his desire to bring some attention to his ideas.
Behind him is part of the large collection of books, documents and drawings that Zanis Waldheims left in Yves’ capable hands.
Jul 02
Esquisses II:
My grandfather wrote his journals and sketchbooks in French(with a few passages in Latvian or English), which he learned while living in France after the second world war, and improved while living in Montreal.
Shown here is one of his sketchbooks - Esquisses II, or Sketches II - that he used to plan his art pieces. For every piece of art that he produced, he had a corresponding set of pages in his sketchbooks where he constructed a drawing of the proposed piece, and on the other side he included passages and ideas from the thinkers that inspired the piece. His favorites were the Stoics: Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Cato - however, his range of readings was broad and included many of the key writers of the 20th century and before.
What may not be immediately apparent is that each piece of art is a distillation of those ideas which influenced him most. The lines, angles, circles, squares in each piece represent a concept, or the interplay of concepts. The attempt to unify many of these ideas and develop a coherent system of analysis had been the object of his pursuit for the nearly fifty years that he produced art.
I have only had the chance to look through a few of the journals, and since my French is limited I am unable to gain the full impact, yet.
If you make this your soundtrack this morning, you will have a great day.
(via pazroberto)
Jul 01
Noösphere:
Yves Jeanson made this glass sculpture of the Noösphere, patterned after a painting of the same by Zanis Waldheims.
Yves made at least three versions, one of them done in steel balls, but most were done in glass. While I was in Montreal, he showed me his glass-making studio and the calculations necessary to create this sculpture. Although my grandfather worked primarily on two dimensional canvases, Yves led the way towards bringing his ideas into the third dimension.
The most fascinating thing was how the sphere refracts and reflects within itself, creating a fractal pattern, perhaps representative of the set of knowledge that this sculpture depicts.
Psychedelic Cathedral:
We took some time out from looking at my grandfather’s art to see some sights in Montreal. Most curious was the Basilica of Our Lady of Notre Dame, the landmark cathedral of that city.
The blue and purple and white give it a distinctive feel, right?
Oh, and happy Canada Day!
