Willy Bosga: The Recognition

Since January 2002 the Art gallery "De Herkenning" (The Recognition) shows, besides the changing national and international exhibitions a permanent nucleus collection, which is a composition of works that carry the signature of the Recognition. These works of art can be abstract as well as figurative in their appearance. If you read the manifest of the Recognition, you will notice that in item 2, the question will be raised to what extent the artist will be aware of the pure source from which he or she can draw inspiration. This brings us immediately to the next, double question: is it possible to make Recognitiv art, just as a goal, and is it possible, as an artist to join in to this art-stream?

To start with the end, No……you can join a group which works in-or from a certain direction, for example cubism, or pointillism, but you can't join a stream, which arises from a live philosophical layer. The characteristics of a stream like that is, that it arises in-and from itsself. She is like a river, which has flown a long time under the earth and suddenly, on certain spots, comes up to the surface. You can go with the stream, if you are part of it, but you can never join into the stream.

The first part of the question can be answered with Yes,if………It is possible that an artist will be very inspired at some moment and that there will appear a work of art that has the signature of the Recognition. This can be a single moment, because we have here an artist who, in principal has the possibilities inside, but who is not yet in the possession of the inner maturity to give form to this pure inspiration in a conscious way. In that case, the work of art will fall inside the Recognition, but the artist will not. Those who can give conscious form to that inspiration will, as artists, fall in the range of the Recognitive stream.

I will give two examples, first the etching of Edith Stoel. The essence of her work is that she shows in an inimitable way the "idea" behind the observable reality. Look at her work "Cornwall cliffs". In the reflection of the ancient cliffs, time comes to life, they tell the story of many hundreds of years and the bird forms a gateway to an other reality, which seems to be some where behind the horizon. She does the same with her "cows". To speak of Platoon, here it seems that the idea of the cow is getting visible through the individual cow. Timeless, universal and most of all, original. All of her etching are unique although they are more or less made in series.

And then, something total different, the works of Peter van der Veen. In the manifest was mentioned the universal language of image. The oldest of them is the sound. The world is sound, rhythm and vibration. From an apparent chaos of noise comes the harmony of Nada Brahma, the eternal song of unity. The works of Peter van der Veen are to me an example how coagulated sound, rhythm and vibration look like. At first the spectator thinks "what a cacophony of colours, what a chaos……." But, if the same spectator will make the effort to calm down the bustle in his head and will take a chair to sit quietly in front of the painting, then he will notice to his surprise how quietness, rhythm and unity will come out of the painting in front of him. Peter van der Veen is one of the artists who show the essence of the Recognition on an abstract level, time after time, in all his works.

Here it is very clear that the recognition shows her self at the same moment that the spectator becomes quiet, stilling the restlessness inside him. At that moment the direct inspiration which the artist reflects goes through the canvas on to the spectator and then shape, colour, rhythm and harmony fall together in a work of art that needs no further explanation.

The essence of the recognition is: the point of intersection on which the personality, during the process of creation, will make her own will subservient to a inner observed reality, through which the reflection of a deep inside known, or recognised (Divine) beauty will become active by the consciousness of the artist.

In other words, what will happen if the artist no longer reflects from the, by the personality in the limelight placed will, what so intensely is felt and known, but applies very much conscious to the inner compass, the inner knowledge. Applies him self to that which surpass the personal feelings and emotions. The art that will be born then, is the best the artist can make out of his or her present state of being and because the directness will not be fed by the obstinate will of the personality, but through the self devotion it will give an optimum recognition of the unseen reality.

Provided that: the focus of the artist gets from an awakened consciousness

It completely depends on the focus of that consciousness, if the artist shows the signature of the Recognition in his works or not. And from the part of the spectator applies the same. Recognitive art is made by people for people who search for the inner truth and live from the one source that is named Gnosis. One will call it Divine source, the other will call it Light, an other Cosmic or Universal and another will call it Tao. Whatever you call it, the direct recognition based on the soul, goes like a red thread via the works of art through the artist to the audience.

Taste is not a disputable point, nor is real beauty

A lot of people know a feeling of unidentified deep homesickness; many of them don't know where this comes from. I believe that every one of us carries a divine nucleus in his heart, a small nucleus of light, which is a reflection of the Divine Light. And it is often this, still sleeping rudimentary principle that keeps our longing for our origin, for our source awake; that some of us inspire to give expression in one way or another to that deep, inward felt longing, that knowing that there is also another reality than the world in which we live.

Artists who are inspired by this, want to express the inner known (Divine) beauty in their arts and it is their greatest frustration that they fail time after time, because this beauty is not to reflect, because she is by definition not of this world. Consequently, she can't be expressed in this world.

And yet, this desire is alive in many of us. This leads to the paradox that, since her existence humankind is busy to express in word, sound and image, that what is not to be reflected, because it is not of this world. And yet it is part of our being. What can we do with it? How can we express it in a way that will be understood by all immediately? We must accept that all our efforts to reflect all that love and beauty which is not of this world, will fail. This will often be attended by intense grief and suffering, for we know it and we can't reach it, we understand it and we can't name it, we see it and we can't reflect it. The only thing we can do is live and work in perfect harmony with ourselves, fully aware of our inner source. In our daily life, in our actions we reflect from where we are guided.

The artist who directs himself to the one universal source will make works of art, which are not food for the senses, but for the soul. This art is not new, but centuries old, she is of no specific culture, but universal,

In the manifest I write about the bankruptcy of the three finders of our civilisation, science, art and religion. Science is the dominion of the head, religion of the heart and art is the inter medium between them. If something was made clear in the last decade, it was this: religion didn't liberate but enslaved mankind (moral theology and authority belief); science is slowly become a wizard-pupil of which you can wonder: on what knowledge is she based, is she serving mankind or herself and is she able to keep the results of the applied science in hand? How far will science go in the field of creating new genetic manipulated life and how far does she go in the super sophisticated destruction of that same life?

To put it simply: we, as mankind, have lost our head and we don't listen to our heart anymore. Modern art is the reflection of all of this………….

We can ascertain that, in the 2000 years that lie behind, we have developed many techniques and as many art directions to mould into concrete what's holding us, but no matter how you look at it: (sur)realistic, conceptual, in multicolour or monochrome, from bronze, stone, plastic or metal, it will always be contrived, because we will never be able to solve the paradox, we spoke about before in this article. Real renewing in liberating sense will only be possible if humanity will renew, because we can't make anything we don't know already. If you view in depth the meaning of this, than it is a hopeful prospect, for in every one of us there is such a thing as pre recollection. We know in our deepest soul our origin and our destination. But we don't according to it.

For that we must think with our heart and feel with our head, and than, the manifest of the Recognition will become alive for many of us.

Willy Bosga Art Gallery De Herkenning The Netherlands