#dufu

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Joan Halifax

Du Fu: Spring View (755AD, Tang Dynasty) The nation is shattered.. mountains and rivers remain.... (國破山河在)

[readertexas-blog]

Francis Bacon & How an Image Informs Reality

I enjoy reading about artists’ intellectual/aesthetic pedigrees.  When I came across David Bowie’s voracious reading habit, he listed “Conversations with Francis Bacon” as one of his favorite books.  My knowledge of Bacon was limited at best, but I took a chance on the book anyway and am glad to have done so.  The book’s really a reflection on -- among other things -- aesthetics, the interplay of the conscious and subconscious in the creative process, and the role of history (specifically its subjectivities, failures and opacities) on the individual mind and body.  These broad topics of conversation all discussed with Bacon’s work as the spine of the entire collection. 

Although I’m only 1/3 of the way through the book, a passage I came across today really stood out.  It reads as follows:

...I have been accustomed to always living through forms of violence -- which may or may not have an effect upon one, but I think probably does.  But this violence of my life, the violence which I’ve lived amongst, I think it’s different to the violence in painting.  When talking about the violence of paint, it’s nothing to do with the violence of war.  It’s to do with an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself.  And the violence of reality is not only the simple violence meant when you say that a rose or something is violent, but it’s the violence also of the suggestions within the image itself which can only be conveyed through paint.  (*Emphasis my own.*)

I found fascinating Bacon’s belief that his painting carries specific, capable means to effectively actualize pure violence.  To me, his struggle underpinning the “attempt to remake the violence of reality itself” is one of luminosity.  (Maybe I’m splitting hairs.)  My initial reaction was to relate Bacon’s struggle to that of a poet’s, specifically the process of delivering a poem from its obscure origins of intention to allowing the body of the poem to become as it ought.  I’ve found that the most effective poetics are those that reject obscurity or outright force of intellect and allow the pure body of a poem to rise via linguistic accessibility.  (Ironic perhaps, given how I’m attempting to explain my point.)  East Asian poetics, especially Du Fu, Li Bo and Basho immediately come to mind at masters in this specific craft.  

Nevertheless, without veering too far from Bacon, I think his explanation is a good lesson at allowing the end-result of the image to self-reflexively influence one’s creative approach.  Without proper analysis and understanding of one’s work as a whole, I think the work’s final appearance loses significance, for it negates one of creation’s primary purposes: the rendering of an ideal form.

I could be totally off on what Bacon’s getting at, but for anyone invested in creation, I highly recommend giving this book a shot.  Bowie was not wrong vis a vis Bacon’s significance.  

[kingsave3166-blog]

【春望】— Daily Chinese Poem

🌸 每日古诗 | Daily Chinese Poem 【春望】 杜甫 (Tang Dynasty) 国破山河在，城春草木深。 感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心。 烽火连三月，家书抵万金。 白头搔更短，浑欲不胜簪。 ──────────────── Translation: The nation is shattered, yet hills and rivers remain. Spring in the city, grass and trees grow deep. Moved by the times, flowers shed tears; Resentful of parting, birds startle the heart. Beacon fires burn through three months; A letter from home is worth ten thousand gold. I scratch my white hair ever shorter— Soon it will be too thin to hold a hairpin. ──────────────── One of Du Fu's most famous poems, written in 757 CE during the An Lushan Rebellion. The famous line "家书抵万金" (a letter from home is worth ten thousand gold) has become a proverb expressing how precious family communication becomes during times of separation. #ChinesePoetry #TangDynasty #DuFu #古典诗词

[starsilversword]

Inspired. #quotes #dufu #quotesaboutwhoyouare #quotesaboutspring #sayings #sayingsandquotes #quotesandsayings https://www.instagram.com/p/CfAbHqrpioT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[suduu]

“露从今夜白，月是故乡明.”

Hung’s Tattoo Parlor

377 University Avenue, St. Paul

[filmkitapdizi101]

Squid Game #squidgame #dufu (South Korea) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVaXCjCsXVe/?utm_medium=tumblr

[wandersort]

Hidden #chengdu #sichuan #china #dufu #poet #home #garden #hidden #perspective #pavillion #rainy #humid #lush #autumn #talltrees #chinese #tangdynasty #architecture #中国 #四川 #成都 #杜甫 #草堂 #唐代 #建筑 #latergram (at 杜甫草堂) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6I5HeoBQtD/?igshid=wpjwauq3c1y8

[wandersort]

Poetry #chengdu #sichuan #china #dufu #poet #home #garden #rainy #humid #talltrees #corridor #tiledroof #pavillion #chinese #tangdynasty #architecture #中国 #四川 #成都 #杜甫 #草堂 #长廊 #亭子 #latergram (at 杜甫草堂) https://www.instagram.com/p/B50RaZ1pYrr/?igshid=1dzhxnojenoui