Traditional Art
For all recorded history before the last 150 years, art did not concern itself principally with matter. Historically, art dealt not with the material, but with the spiritual. Religion and art in all traditional cultures are inseparable. When Samuel A. B. Mercer first translated the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, the oldest known literature in the world, he found the texts not to contain histories or epic poems, but a collection of magical spells for protecting the Pharaoh’s soul!
But 150 years ago, Western art turned its back on the Pharaohs, sibyls, and Renaissance geniuses and began to measure art by the foot and pound, not by beauty or inspiration. In a material sense the painted wall of a house has not much physical difference from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Both are wall coverings, both function to conceal dirt and mildew, both are produced by craftsman who are paid for their product. This is the modernist theory Clement Greenberg perpetuated regarding painting in the 1950s and 1960s. Modern art, abstract expressionism and minimalism were purely and aggressively reductionist materialist theories.
Where We Went Wrong
Modern art, like most of modern life, has been governed by two equally unsuccessful theories, capitalism and Marxism. On the one side is the market-oriented critique, where value is ascribed in dollars and markets are allowed to set the price of art, and thus those same markets control the broader distribution and promotion of any art piece. The predominance of the auction/ gallery system for the distribution of art and compensation of artists makes this theory of art the predominant functional rational for the production and distribution of art objects (including performances and other “intellectual properties”).
On the other side, Marxism dominates all academic art theories. This is still a materialist theory, meaning that it is principally concerned with the production of physical objects (and “intellectual property”), the distribution of said property, and the maximum social effect of that property. This is the dominant scholarly theory of art and can be found in all art that attempts to affect a change in society, provide a means of expression for disadvantaged or “underrepresented” groups of people, and that attempts to use art for a materialistic end.
Both the market theory and the Marxist theory of art are two parts of the same materialist rationale for art. Whether a means of storing wealth and rewarding “great” artists, or as a tool to better society through the production and distribution of art, each treats art as a physical phenomenon. And by physical I do not mean just with mass and dimension. Even intangible conceptual art seeks to make changes to the physical world, the world of experience. Striking a nail with a hammer is an action, and thus not a physical object, and yet it is also materialist in the sense that the action is entirely directed toward changing the physical world, the world of experience.
Like the Ludites of bygone eras, the modern-day zealots of materialist dogmas cannot see anything but the material. It is as if an entire world has become invisible, and so this new millennium’s art is as empty as 20th century art. Good and bad, to the extent those words have not been banished by Marxist artspeak, are judged by the physical effect of the art produced. Did it help a group of people overcome some problem or, for the market theorists, did it produce a “new” style, or reward the most “creative” and “brilliant” artists. These are all materialist concerns.
Only the surrealists permitted themselves to address the spirit as a psychic state, as was done by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Surrealism then, with its pre-occupation with psychological states and the dream world is an in between realm, both something to be physically studied and also something that cannot be entirely explained away in materialist terms.
It is convenient then to view surrealism as the theoretical bridge back to the spiritual roots of art. Only surrealists in the past 100 years contributed anything lasting to the art world. All the rest of modernism will be viewed by future generations as a kind of corporate feudalist art. To escape the new dark age that we find ourselves, this millennium’s art must rediscover the soul, whether that is viewed as a psychic state or in its quintessence as pure idea.
Correspondence As Art Theory
Correspondence is the theory that the material nature of an object is a manifestation of its core idea or form. The idea or spirit of the object is the true essence of existence. This is not a new concept. Around 500 BC, both Pythagoras and then Empedocles taught that the true nature of things lay not in their physical appearance or corporeal form, but instead in the mathematical and symbolic meaning of the objects. Pythagoras said the true nature of the world was “mathematical”, although the ancient Greeks had a broader definition of the word mathematics, which meant something closer to the word “idea.”
Plato’s teachings a century later still very much conformed to this ancient Greek concept of the mathematical or spiritual nature of the world, when he provided the famous analogy of the cave, where mortal men are only capable of seeing the shadows on the wall of the cave, and not the true forms of things. From this analogy came the concept of a physical thing being but a shadow of its true self. And from these teachings the Neo-Platonists and early Christians borrowed to create the traditional notions of the “soul” or spirit of a man being separate from his physical body.
Pythagoras seems to have learned about the mathematical or spiritual nature of the world from the Chaldeans, who were considered to be the greatest mathematicians and astrologers of the ancient world, and also from the Egyptians, whose studies of metaphysics influenced the Western world broadly. Vedic influences may have been the earliest prototypes for each of these cultures, where the visible world was but one small part of consciousness.
So, the concept of correspondence in art has ancient roots, going back into lost ages perhaps 12,000 years if we are to trust the chronology of the ancient Vedic writers, or even 30,000 years if the Histories of Herodotus can be relied upon. Yet the existence of correspondence has been fully banished from art theory, as the radical reductionists attempted to root out any concept from Western art not grounded in materialist phenomenon.
What Is Correspondence Then?
Correspondence teaches that if an object’s true nature is mathematical or spiritual, then, to use Plato’s language, the “form” of the object is broader than any particular expression. So for example, one particular apple is an expression of “appleness”, but is not in and of itself a complete and perfect representation of the form, or spirit, of the apple. An individual apple may be blemished, may be unusually marked, perhaps picked too green, or worm eaten, too large or too small to fully convey the essence of the perfect or ideal apple.
So then no one physical manifestation of the apple is a complete statement on that apple, and men, philosophers, artists, writers, etc., can seek to learn more about the apple by studying not just one, but many different apples, in order to gain an understanding of the proportion and ideal, or truth, of an apple. The student of the apple may go beyond simply looking at the apple, but may also study the tree, its leaves, roots, the ground it grows in, and the air and climate around it, so as to more perfectly understand what it is that creates the essence of an apple.
“Correspondence” means that the many different physical manifestations of a form or spirit all share a relationship together. They each correspond to the ideal or the perfect form of the thing they represent. The apple you hold in your hand is but a reflection of the true apple. The apple you hold in your hand “corresponds” in many ways to the ideal, but also is missing things.
Just as the particular apple you hold corresponds to the idea, so does a painting of an apple, or a poem about the apple, or a play or photography, or scientific analysis. Each of these corresponds to the ideal, and hence contains part of, but not all of, the spirit of the apple.
So, then a painting of fire contains fire. A painting of water contains water. A painting of a man contains a portion of that man’s spirit. Now the true magic of art becomes visible through art theory. Art is both a way to more fully understand the beauty and perfection of the spirit of things, and also a way to create and change those things.
A New Purpose for Art
Art is not just the producing and distributing of beautiful objects, and not just the mobilization of men to beneficial action. Art allows the artist to explore the very essence of reality, and then change it. Art gives men a window into the spirit world, a view into the perfect world of Gods and heroes.
When the artist fully comprehends the power of correspondence, it will radically transform his art. What can an artist paint, what does the artist dare to paint, knowing that in his hands he is not making mere likenesses or illusions, but is handling true spirit? Certainly, the artist will begin to respect his own talents more fully and will respect his subject matter and his art more too.