A place to rest. Or, a tear in the cosmos, that open up something raw in us.

awe,portrait,look up
The way in which art creates desire, I guess that’s everywhere. Is there anyone who hasn’t come out of a movie or a play or a concert filled with an unnameable hunger? …To stand in front of one of [Louis Sullivan’s] buildings and look up, or in front, say, of the facade of Notre Dame, is both to have a hunger satisfied that you maybe didn’t know you had, and also to have a new hunger awakened in you. I say “unnameable,” but there’s a certain kind of balance achieved in certain works of art that feels like satiety, a place to rest, and there are others that are like a tear in the cosmos, that open up something raw in us, wonder or terror or longing. I suppose that’s why people who write about aesthetics want to distinguish between the beautiful and sublime… Beauty sends out ripples, like a pebble tossed in a pond, and the ripples as they spread seem to evoke among other things a stirring of curiosity. The aesthetic effect of a Vermeer painting is a bit like that. Some paradox of stillness and motion. Desire appeased and awakened.

~ E.O. Wilson


Notes:


Comments

  1. Wonderful shot! Amazing!

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  2. Such a wise man and a wonderful photo and quote, DK. I find Wilson fascinating. Heard him interviewed a year or so ago on NPR about his latest book and was completely captivated.
    http://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/194230822/e-o-wilsons-advice-for-future-scientists

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  3. art has a direct link to the soul.

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  4. Thanks for sharing this, David. That is a very captivating image indeed.

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  5. I’d never thought of my response to art in terms of hunger, but that’s exactly right. Hunger and satiety. All that.

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