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be an expression of his ideology and perception of reality, his weltanschauung; and he wanted to see
both of these sides to life and art, the philosophical content and the
aesthetic expression, satisfactorily reconciled. For him, this was an
important consideration worthy of serious, continuous study. It followed,
he thought, that he should be able to formulate his analysis and
understanding in a comprehensive and logic manner. In order to explain some
of his key thoughts in this context, Skov wrote a short essay for the
exhibition catalogue in which he summarized a number of his conclusions.
One of the key points is, interestingly, that he perceived the eternal,
fundamental philosophical choice between mysticism and empiricism as being
reflected directly in the choices between aesthetic expressions. In the
essay, here translated from the Danish, he wrote as follows [translator’s
notes shown in brackets]:
“Since
the challenge of art in its nature is universal, that is to say it is an
expression of the human spirit, cognition [knowledge and understanding]
must be the basis for that challenge; because without cognition the human
spirit does not achieve expression, but looses itself in mystification. The
aesthetic-realistic painting [figurative art] of today stands in logical
consequence of aesthetic continuity as a necessity, created by the need for
continued [expanded] cognition, because the new realities only develop from
a need for that expanded cognition.
The
synthetic painting [creative, compositional art] of the 20th century builds upon the
foundation of Cubism, which is confirmed by [John] Locke’s and [Immanuel]
Kant’s theories of cognition [understanding and epistemology]. By
addressing [and resolving] the conflict between the 3-dimensional space
perception and the 2-dimensional pictorial surface Cubism breaches the
visual perception of the Renaissance as a consequentially cause-determined
evolution of the experiences and gains [in artistic understanding] of that
epoch.
Since
it is the mission [challenge] of
every generation of painters to find [re-discover] and re-acquire the
artist-painter’s tradition [centuries of aesthetic knowledge], every artist
seeking continuity of tradition to-day must take a position regarding
Cubism which is the key to the [artistic]
pictorial expression of our time, in order to reach [an] expanded
cognition [understanding] through personal experience. The
tradition-seeking artist stands in opposition, based on his
aesthetic-realistic [figurative]
continuity of the tradition, to the abstract ornamental [non-figurative] painter, who
expresses a metaphysical, mystical ideology.
By
learning from personal experience [through working] with
his material the artist works with
his intuition to expand his conscious knowledge, whereby the synthesis
results that can satisfy both
[the rational] intellect and [the aesthetic] feeling. Through his
aesthetic-realistic manifestations
[figurative paintings] the artist
concretizes [documents] his
universal feeling and ideology in a
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