''The man who never in his mind and thoughts traveled to heaven is no artist'. William Blake (1757-1827).
Through the ages, people confronted with the mysterious, creative and seemingly supernatural gifts of some unique and talented individuals have, more or less, regarded these individuals as mediators between heaven and earth. The beauty, mystery and grandness of their fruits, until today, stimulates our curiosity, stills our minds, encourages us to open our hearts, and sometimes even fill our eyes with tears. It is these qualities of art that makes the soul of the spectator merge with the soul of the artwork. Or,as the great symbolist George Frederic Watts once said:'Profoundly deep in the human mind exists a spiritual yearning dependent of no special creed, questions by nature left without response, yearnings the most perfect knowledge of material things will never stifle. The true prophet, be his language prose or poem, art or music, can transport to regions where earth takes its place among the stars and something beyond of heaven's infinity seems borne upon the air'.
Any form of art, be it a painting, poem or symphony, can be the bearer of this heavenly presence, just as any of the senses may function as a channel between this 'angelic' presence and our souls. Sometimes, though, art greatly confronts us with the unexplored and hidden parts of our inner world, as if the mysterious angel has rather ascended from hell than descended from heaven. It makes us realize that birth into light is often preceded by descent into darkness...
The presence of this essential core in any creative expression, according to the above-mentioned words of the visionary William Blake, results in a piece of art in the true sense of the word. It is the secret of poetic intensity that is embedded in John William Waterhouse's paintings; it is the presence of alienation and loneliness noticeable in Chirico's art work; it is the enchanting beauty and power of Anton Bruckner's great symphonies and the mystical and tender purity in 'Gitanjali', a collection of poems by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. It is indeed in this sense that the artist has an almost priestly calling and, therefore, has a responsibilty concerning the quality of his own life. He can only integrate and express in his work those aspects of life he knows by intuition or has actually experienced. A meditative attitude to life, in this respect, is by definition more open to the subtle whisperings of inspiration than a more superficial and outward directed life.
The art of Paul Klee(1879-1940)was also very much based on an internalized attitude of life. He once said:'It is the artist's mission to penetrate as far as may be toward that secret ground where primal law feeds growth. Which artist would not wish to dwell at the central organ of all motion in space-time (be it the brain or the heart of creation) from which all functions derive their life? In the womb of nature, in the primal ground of creation, where the secret key to all things lies hidden? (...)
Our beating heart drives us downward, far down to the primal ground'.
However it should be emphasized that it is not just the esoteric attitude to life which guarantees inspiring and convincing art work. Spirituality is more than esotericism. So-called esoteric art is often limited by mental processes, as a result of which art functions as a means to show off one's knowledge of symbols and books instead of revealing to the spectator a true experience of the soul. This type of art develops easily into a secret language that is only understood by 'initiates'; a pitfall also, it seems, for many modern fashionable expressions of art. They replace universal expressiveness for a restricted elite technical jargon, and vague concepts or mental gymnastics are preferred to the natural archetypical directness of the imagination. ( Article will be continued on the next page.)
