Monday, November 14, 2011

"I am indebted to my friend and former pupil"


How often do we see this acknowledgment, in prefaces to almost everything. I was preparing a little entry drawn from some dialogues in The Republic and a monograph by Roger Sessions, when again this phrase cropped up. I'm glad that he referred to the experience of the class-room. They may be scholars, some may become peers. They are all pupils, and it is their nature to seek release from their cage. This makes the teacher their pupil, and is the common air that they breathe.






I like Barnett Newman's diptych, I appreciate that the two panels are unique, but in the same tonality and scale. Blue is so hungry, and that is a state, not a measure. I like its expansion in their reciprocating fields; I can feel its light, and so can you.



















Roger Sessions
The Musical Experience
  of Composer, Performer,
  Listener
Princeton University Press, 1950©


Barnett Newman



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