Sökarens tecken - några reflexioner kring geometrins och tomrummets användning i den moderna andliga konsten

Abstract

"For the Lord was passing by: a great and strong wind came rending mountains and shattering rocks before Him , but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a low murmuring sound. When Elijah heard it, he muffled his face in his cloak...." (I Kings 19:11-13)  

This is one of the most densely packed of the mystical texts. The reader’s obvious expectations are frustrated three times. Immense terrestrial for­ ces are unleashed - the storm, the earthquake and the fire; surely the Lord will reveal Himself in them? But it is not until after this demonstration of strength that there occurs something very similar to "the pregnant silence", a "low murmuring sound". Then and only then did Elijah muffle his face.  

The making visible of religious experience, of the spiritual, has to proceed through an outflanking movement. The void becomes increasingly charged when encircled or filled in a way which becomes an opening inwards. The image as a secretive hidden sign occurs in another familiar Bible story. In Joh 8 we read about the woman taken in adultery. At the height of the drama there comes a sentence which stops it dead and forms the void already mentioned: "But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground". What did he write? We are not told, of course, but lack of knowledge makes a catalyst for our imagination.  

Mysticism of numbers and geometrical sacred signs - both visible and concealed in the very structure - are legion in Christian art and architecture. The present article instances the use of this geometrical language in modern abstract art, showing that, not infrequently, it entails shifts of meaning.  

In the cases of Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevitch and Piet Mondrian - the three foreground figures - it is noted how very much their respective backgrounds are reflected in their works, despite the artistic "reduction" of their media. In the Dutchman Mondrian, we find an austerity which goes back to iconoclastic Calvinism, while in the Russians Kandinsky and Malevitch, we find much of the abundance and sensuality of icon painting, even if they make no attempt at repeating it. The artistic vocabulary of all three, of course, has been greatly affected by their interest in theosophy.  

This interest in theosophy, coupled with strong elements of occultism and spiritism, is also shared by the Swedish artist Hilda af Klint. Her spiritist, "dictated", abstract painting was discovered late, causing quite a stir in the 1980s because she is considered to have been painting in an abstract style a couple of years before 1910, thus before Kandinsky, "the Father of Abstract Painting". Her style is considerably gentler and more organic than in the case of the male artists.  

Hans Lindström’s sanctuary mural in the Catholic Church of St Thomas, Lund, is mentioned as a contemporary Swedish example of Kandinsky’s "spiritual triangle". It is an "open-ended" work with many explanations. The artist himself sees it as a spiritual path and says that its title might be "God is the Truth and the Light".  

This hesitancy about giving a single explanation for one’s own work is something we find in most of the artists dealt with in this article. Writing to the author, the French artist Jean Bazaine emphasizes: "A work of art may conceal many truths..."  The French debate of the 1950s on abstract art and the Church is referred to, as well as Kandinsky’s colour symbolism, especially as regards the spiritual content of blue and white. Carl Magnus’ stained glass win­ dows (1989) in the chancel of Hemlingby Church, Gävle, are mentio­ ned as one example of blue being used in a strictly abstract work which has actually been installed in a Swedish church. A square window, sug­ gesting an open door, is surmounted by a round one containing an equi­ lateral Greek cross - all in different shades of blue. An image of the empty tomb and thus a symbol of resurrection, but at the same time a modern, abstract interpretation of the "window to heaven" of the icons.  The special position of the cross among geometrical emb.ems is un­ derlined, because, unlike the circle, square or triangle, it is not a purely geometrical sign but, ultimately, an instrument of execution, no matter how stylized. The article ends with two contemporary Swedish examples of the personalized use of the cross as a symbol. Following the death of his wife, the sculptor Björn Erling Evensen used the cross more as a con­ juration against pain than anything else. In a letter to the au:hor he re­ verts to the question of whether, as a professed non-believer, he can use the cross without having "an authority" to turn to. He has also produced a sculpture of a broken pillar - perhaps the stem of the cross - inscribed in a square. One interpretation is that the broken pillar with its central void stands for spiritual power, as distinct from the traditiona., strength- demonstrating column of the secular power.  The fragile is taken to its ultimate extreme in a widely noticed com­ position for the east wall of the sanctuary by AnnaKarin Bylur.d, a young art student. It is made up out of more than 700 beef extract wnppers, fix­ ed one by one straight onto the wall to form a shimmering square with a void between each of them. On the silvery surface of each wrapper, a gold cross has been formed by the impression left by the beef cube. This composition has been shown at successive exhibitions all over Sweden but is much too fragile ever to be permanently installed in a church. In an exhibition catalogue, Bylund writes: "I saw the presence of Christ when I hastily opened the beef cube package. ’Don’t reject me! I am the friend of the poor. Re-use me and remember that I am always still there, albeit transformed’".  This absence of ready-made, absolute answers or interpretations is felt by some to be a deficiency, while for others it presents a great opportuni­ ty of finding a credible art for our own time.  Translated by Roger Tanner