Art and Revelation - Artist’s essay
Art and Revelation - Artist’s essay

Summary/Abstract: The paper reflects on attempts to achieve revelation, epiphany, or enlightenment in the modern world. Sometimes the hope of reaching this state accompanies dangerous mountain trekking expeditions. However, it is believed that revelation can be achieved more quickly through drug use, practiced by artists from the nineteenth century onwards. Seeking visions in this way is part of the cultural tradition of the North and South American Indians. In the twentieth century, such artists as Pollock, Rothko, Motherwell and others alluded to these practices. The Russian tradition had a different way of achieving illumination. Avant-garde artists (such as Malevich or Kandinsky) drew inspiration from it, seeking sudden revelation combined with surprise. The paper concludes with the author’s reflections on the possibility of personal experience today that would exceed the cognitive limits through contact with certain works of art, ancient and modern.

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