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Curator's Statement
Introduction
Last and Universal: the Semantics of Judgment
Thought Through Images
Seduced by Freedom of Thought
Art in the Age of Short-Term Memory
A Call to Artists and Audience
Seventeen Modern Tales
Thought Through Images
Scanning the surfaces of all the Last Judgment frescoes and canvases, we see the Judge above, almighty and final in his verdict. Below, bodies rise from the grave and are sent to join either the elect or the damned. There is salvation and joy for some, despair and fear for others. Resurrection, Judgment, Salvation/Damnation: a drama in three acts, telling the story of the end of history and the beginning of eternity. It is a drama we play out each and every day.
As a story designed to
deliver a moral message, myth can be described as thought through images.
Thinking in images has the advantage of being more communicative and persuasive
than language alone.
In his dialogue “Phaedo,” at the end of a grandiose eschatological
myth that describes the destiny of souls after death–a description that
survived almost intact in the Christian imagery of the afterlife--Plato attributes
to myth a power of persuasion comparable to a “magic charm.” Myth
is an imaginative catalyst, which helps the mind grasp concepts that reason
would dismiss as wild conjecture.
I have always found this definition intriguing and true. Think of the Greek
myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods for us. Think of the myth
of Icarus, overconfident in his human nature. Both deal with man’s spirit
of independence and creativity, and his drive to face unknown forces, all
of which irrationally motivate human success and failure. Think of the Sumerian
story of the king Gilgamesh, who fought against death to gain immortality
and returned from his supernatural journey in defeat. Think of the sad ironies
of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Think of the testimony to war in Picasso’s
Guernica, or of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.
Don’t you see the message of each?
