About this site:
IMAGES AND INSPIRATIONS FROM THE BOOK OF THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE:
A PHILOSOPHY OF ART FOR WORLD REVOLUTION
"If I were mindful of only my own glory, I would choose always to make war in my own country, for there every man is a spy, and the enemy can make no move of which I am not informed."
- Frederick the Great
"Here and there in the midst of American society you meet with men of fanatical and almost wild spiritualism, which hardly exists in Europe. From time to time strange sects arise which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness. Religious insanity is very common in the United States."
- Alexis de Toqueville
Democracy in America
"First by the artist is heard his voice, the voice that is inaudible to the crowd. Almost unknowingly the artist follows the call. Already in that very question "how?" lies a hidden seed of Renaissance….That which has no material existence cannot be subjected to material classification. That which belongs to the spirit of the future can only be realized in feeling, and to this feeling the talent of the artist is the only road.…. He sees and points the way. The power to do this he would sometimes fain lay aside, for it is a bitter cross to bear. But he cannot do so. Scorned and hated, he drags after him over the stones the heavy chariot of a divided humanity, ever forwards and upwards….."
-Wassily Kandinsky
Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
"The political conditions of the Renaissance favored individual development, but were unstable; the instability and individualism were closely connected, as in ancient Greece. A stable social system is necessary, but every stable system hitherto devised has hampered the development of exceptional artistic or intellectual merit. How much murder and anarchy are we prepared to endure for the sake of great achievements such as those of the Renaissance?"
- Bertrand Russell
A History of Western Philosophy
"[Somewhere] a dark hero - who little mentioned at the moment - is lurking in hidden garrets on miserable straw pallets - the hero destined to play a great role in the modern tragedy. He is only waiting for the cue to make his entrance. We must never lose this actor from our sight….we must seek out the rehearsals where he prepares in secret for his debut."
- Henrik Heine (1797-1856)
Poet.
