A true artwork must come to reveal and to conceal, to build and to destroy. It must seek to erase and obliterate conventional or accustomed manners of looking at the world that are in a false way and reveal a more true vision of reality. Every person’s search for truth ends at a certain point. (All the more so those who seek falsehood; their life’s work doesn’t even have a beginning point.) Even Moshe Rabenu, a”h, didn’t reveal all of the truth, rather he left place for generations of sages and tzadikkim to come and to reveal more of the truth. As history advances more of the truth is revealed until finally Mashiach will reveal Malchuth of Kedushah in it’s entirety (also this is only a stage which precedes further revelation, as is understood well by all those who know in these matters, but this is matter is beyond the scope of this writing.) The artist’s task is to see the point to which truth has been revealed before him and the face the opposition to the truth that accompianies it. For simultaneously alongside the revelation of truth in history there is likewise the advancement of darkness, of falsehood, (of the kleipah), of the concealment of the Malchuth of Kedushah which roar like the waves of the sea seeking to crush out the last sparks of kedushah, Heaven forbid. So the artist must act conversely and overturn the falsehood of man’s false vision of the world and reveal a gateway towards seeing the truth which is in the world. In general, this is a matter of contradicting the illusion of “nature”, and revealing that a Jew’s true position is in relation to hashgachat pratit, and of revealing the true nature of the world which is E-kut. It is impossible to record the details of this process for it is unique to each artist, indeed each person, according to his unique mission in the world. Yet, each seeker of his true purpose will understand what this means for him.
featured image:
אין קצבה לשנותיך
(מתפילת מוסף של ראש השנה)
There is no limit to Your years
(from Rosh Hashana Mussaf Prayers)
Oil on canvas
ציור שמן על קנבס
תש”ע
90 cm. x 120 cm.