About Renewal

Art in the 20th century was marked by Modernism through which artists expressed and viewers explored their subjective, emotional worlds.

Simultaneously, the 20th century saw the discovery of modern psychology, which promised personal growth and well-being based on emotional awareness. Centered in the world of emotions, however, both contemporary art and psychology are reaching the limits of their usefulness.

While psychology deals with the personality and destiny of an individual, art does the same thing for our society. Mirroring the world and envisioning its future, artists play a major role as messengers of our lifestyle. Today our planet is in crisis, as psychologist James Hillman so eloquently stated in the title of his book, co-written with Michael Ventura: We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse. As psychology and art share similar paradigms, changing the word Psychotherapy to Modern Art produces an equally true statement.

The beginning of our 21st century is a troubled time: the world is engaged in destruction, the planet is more polluted than ever, and anxiety is creeping to unbearable levels. As rich and poor breathe the same polluted air, no one is spared. Terrorism is spreading throughout the world and diseases like AIDS still respect no frontiers and know no boundaries.

By escalating its emotional provocation quotient, today’s art is reaching into expressions of inhumane proportion. Recently, an artist presented the unbearable sculpture of a person being squashed from the impact at ground zero after jumping from the World Trade Center in flames. Our civilization is facing an unprecedented crisis, and leaders’ words of reassurance about what lies ahead are not convincing. Many contemporary artworks imply the apocalypse, but the time has come to leave behind this negative reinforcement and express some credible hope for a brighter future.

To do this, we will need to abandon the values of the past that no longer work and replace them with new ones. The Chinese pictogram for crisis contains the symbols for “danger” and “opportunity.” Artists may hold the key to facing dangers and successfully surmounting challenges, thus opening the door to a new Renaissance. With one foot in the past and the other in the future, Symbolist artists have historically facilitated the transition from a decadent period to a renewed society. That Symbolist state of mind is badly needed again in today’s art world.

About Balance

All theories of psychotherapy center around cognitive, affective or behavioral currents or, in simpler words, our basic capacity to think, love and act. Despite the fact that mind, heart and body represent our three life forces, artistic movements are usually centered only on one of these sources of expression, to the exclusion of the others. Modernism, with its prima facie emotional artworks, focuses on the heart by directing its expression to the viewer’s subjective world of emotions.

For the last 100 years, we have been trained to consider our own emotional reactions when viewing a work of art, at the expense of our intellect. With today’s artistic innovations reaching insane levels of dehumanization, a balancing reaction has become inevitable. Like the Symbolist masters of the past, I am an idealist who believes in a more humane, loving and spiritual society. Such a holistic society would have to reflect the union of body, mind and spirit. It would be a society in which science and art, finally bound together, would become a new spiritual guide.

As visionaries, artists can lead the transition by expanding today’s emotional art towards broader artistic expressions that integrate emotions, intelligence and spirituality. Symbols in Art represent eternal values of the past and are the deep roots from which credible visions of the future spring forth. Just as in the societal crisis in Europe during the Renaissance and again at the end of the 19th century, a Symbolist state of mind is again necessary to secure the transition to a better world. What was true then is true today.When symbols are introduced in a work of art, a meaningful story becomes encoded within the image. By opening the door to new interpretive possibilities, symbols bring to emotional art what sound brought to silent movies. While understanding the verbal speech in movies is automatic, the revelation of the subtle story in symbols requires a mental effort. For the last 100 years we watched artwork with our hearts, and the time has come to add the rational side of our brains.

After analyzing a Symbolic painting, my satisfaction in uncovering its hidden meaning is as great or greater than my initial visceral reaction. By explaining in this book how to discover the hidden story in a symbolic image, it is my hope to have guided the reader into a more fulfilling artistic experience. Waking up the other half of the brain after one century of artistic sleepiness is not an instantaneous task but the reward is well worth the effort. Stimulating more balance in our perception results in the kind of awareness required to prepare us for a more humane and holistic world.

About Love

What does it take to balance our heads and our hearts when considering a Symbolic work of art? As we are already well trained in emotional perception, the focus is necessarily on our mental faculties. The methodology comprises three easy steps: After your emotional reaction, analytically observe the artwork by describing what you see and identifying potential symbols. Then ponder the messages of the symbols, possibly with the assistance of books such as a dictionary of symbols. Finally, synthesize those messages into an encompassing meaning. The process requires some practice at first, but becomes much easier as more art is examined.

By analyzing art, we are also gaining answers to our questions about the world’s uncertainties and, as fear of the unknown diminishes, harmony increases. What appears as a mere intellectual exercise in fact represents a renewed dimension in our lives. Just as two wires are needed to produce electricity, the spiritual energy of the soul requires a flow between the heart and the head. As the soul receives more validation, the balance grows stronger.

Most of our world’s problems result from excesses of materialism that have promoted self-protection and security at the cost of compassion. This imbalance is painful, and most suffering stems from our unsatisfied need for more confidence in the future, more trust in others, and more spirituality in our lives. Simply put, we are longing for more love. The artist’s mission is to help society gain greater awareness in this regard. It is my hope that this book is considered an artistic act of love in that direction.

My vision is that this book will bring to the artistic community an awareness of the importance of symbols in art today. We are on the verge of a major crisis and all the world’s visionaries can contribute to the solution by mobilizing their talents to shine light in the darkness. The world needs artistic expression that encourages the replacement of the love of power with the power of love. The clock is ticking. Consider this book a tribute to Symbolism and a call for a more serene and harmonious tomorrow. Let light and love be with you.