Essay ‘contra Ernst Fuchs’ by Demetrios Vakras
“On the fundamentalist religious zealotry of the art of Ernst Fuchs”
An essay attacking Fuchs imagery and alleged religious views by Demetrios Vakras. Demetrios seems very angry at Fuchs in his use of the symbology of Christianity and Judaism. It is more a case of Demetrios assembling and then demolishing his own straw dolls.
The following quote from Demetrios is quite interesting and good for all artists of the fantastic to incorporate into their enquiry :
“Much of what is defined as “fantastic” is an artform which exists in spite of, rather than in reaction to, the prevailing currents of modern art theory; that is, instead of acknowledging the history of art for the past 100 years and arguing against it, they ignore it altogether and simply co-exist with it. Most practitioners of what can be termed “fantastic” would be better described as 19th century theosophists who can paint, but have remained oblivious to their surrounds and oblivious to art and theory of the century which intervened between the 19th and 21st. The best statements articulating the raison d’être of these practitioners was made in the ArtVisionary exhibition held in the city of Ballarat in Australia (2004) in which some very beautiful work was exhibited, but which, in context of the theory propounded, was stuck firmly in 19th century mysticism in which the art was claimed to be “intense” and “visionary” arrived at by “supernatural” means, “the artist as shaman”; essentially mediaeval religious rapture… “
According to Ernst Fuchs:
“images are the language of the spirit, the messages from Heaven, manifesting themselves as they did in the tongues of the prophets. One should not argue that art has nothing in common with prophecy since, after all, the prophecy of the ancient people and art were identical. Prophecy expressed itself through the sisters, music and poetry, serving as forms of revelation… Art is nearness to God, received without effort. This is the concise meaning and basis of a theology of art which is age old and has maintained again and again that jubilation erupts when God is near. Through that jubilation, the artist’s nearness to God was brought through creative service without sweat or torment.”
Ernst Fuchs, pp. 8-10 Quoted from One Source Sacred Journeys; a celebration of spirit & art, Markowitz publishing.