Publications
Below you will find a small selection of publications:
Margot Homan’s Images, Gombrich’s Patents of Nobility, Drs. Terence van Zalingen
“Duo Seraphim clamabant alter ad alterum” (1)
“Hut ab, ihr Herren, ein Genie”, as the opening line runs of the famous article that the young composer and music critic Robert Schumann wrote on the first opus by his fellow composer and contemporary Frederic Chopin his eye had fallen on. (2) Such masterly and prophetic praise, and such disarming way to reveal it to the public! Full of fiery enthusiasm and totally without any envy! Moreover, it was written with regard to Chopin by someone who, like the former, was at that very moment developing into one of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century. An exemplary gesture of cultural nobility indeed!
With regard to the esthetic judgment it might be interesting to widen this beautiful historic scene into a somewhat more general and prosaic reflection. In casu, which qualifications does a person need, we would like to ask, to be able to judge someone else’s artistic greatness (or inferiority).
And next: “Who will guard the guardians?” (3) in relation to the Visual Arts for instance, could it be the art critic, the art collector, “the public”?
As a matter of course everyone forms his own opinion, everyone has the right to do so regarding the value and quality of a work of art; and no judgment of course is without subjectivity. (Even the act of recognition implies some form of judgment (J. Bronowski). Every experience is determined and colored by earlier experiences.) However, and this is the painful truth , often, e.g. in art criticism, opinion proves to be prejudice; and prejudice often leads to denunciation. Art criticism as a license to unbridled subjectivity, a priori bias or even petty-minded arbitrariness: there is an overwhelming number of sad examples. Even a science like Art History is polluted, consciously (e.g. due to certain philosophical “contaminations”), by elements of partiality, impurity and officialism that sometimes result from intellectual laziness or arrogance. In view of this, a person who starts a collection because of his love of works of art runs the risk to fall a prey to commercialized forms of these types of mystifying manipulations.
And yet, sporadically something happens to an artist, completely unexpected, from an unsuspicious corner and completely disinterested, but of the highest order.
In the winter of 1999/2000 Margot Homan received a letter, dated 13-1-2000, by E.H.Gombrich. From this letter the author appears to have laid his hand on a catalogue of the artist’s works. In the end he writes:”(This catalogue)….acquainting me with your astounding oeuvre. It is indeed a consolation to discover that such mastery still exists.”
To be praised in such a way by one of the most prominent historians of art of the 20th century, the contemporary eminence grise, is an experience that view will have! A few words on the author this epistle: Ernst H.Gombrich (4) was educated at the universities of Vienna and Berlin in the early nineteen thirties. Since 1936 he has lived in London where he has been a university professor for a long time (at Oxford and Camebridge as well). Until his retirement he has been the director of the prestigious Warburg and Courtauld Institute. Gombrich’s was an extraordinary lucent, original and critical mind. Unlike most of his colleagues he did not shy away from contacts with other disciplines (a.o. Psychology, Philosophy, Biology etc.). He was also extremely skeptical with regard to the often presumed scientific character of his own discipline. Nevertheless, also thanks to his ability to discuss the most difficult an elitaire subjects in an enviably readable way, he became the most read art historian of his time. From the letter of praise mentioned above a cordial correspondence developed between artist and the art historian, in which the latter invariably refers to Homan’s sculptures as “masterpieces’’. In one of the most interesting letters to the artist (dated 28 11 2001) we read:
“Just as you do in your work, I hope to appeal to the natural reaction of my readers, and to communicate with them on an equal footing. Your choice of Beethoven’s motto for his Missa Solemnis (5) has encouraged me to enclose an extract of one of my favorite poems by Schiller and which seems to me admirably to sum up the aims of sculpture such as you practice.” Next there are two strophes in manuscript from “Das Ideal and das Leben” (1795) by Friedrich Schiller (VIII and IX). (6) It would go too far to analyze these verses extensively here and to stress the striking correctness of Gombrich’s choice (as much as the apparent congeniality of the artist and art historian). In a paraphrase one could typify these verses as a description of the creative process of the sculptress an sich: how the creative mind and hand want to impose their artistic ideas and wishes to tangible (i.e. marble):
‘’Nur dem Ernst, den keine Mühe bleichet,
Rauscht der Wahrheit tief versteckter Born,
Nur des Meissels schwerem Schlag erweichet
Sich des Marmors sprödes Korn.” (VIII, 7-10) (7)
Seldom someone has characterised the essence of Margot’s oeuvre so to the point and so directly (or found it put into words in a poem which was experienced just as much as decisive for himself).
Of course, wise an inspiring words have been dedicated to the artist’s sculptures earlier; whereas a continuity from classicism in her work was emphasized by F.Bastet (8) J.P. Guépin noticed the exact opposite: a full break with the same classicism (9). In his essay on Homan, G. Cordoni interpreted her creations as a new type of vital modernism (10), and J.P.Rawie put the accent on pure Beauty (11). However, a full understanding of the artist’s true source of inspiration and of the concept of her creativity, of the unique kernel, as shown by Gombrich, is absolutely exceptional. In view of the correspondence of artist and art historian, it is indicative of their touching intuitive relationship of purity. The letters are patents of nobility granted to a pictorial sculptress by a great art historian and human being. Indeed:
“Duo Seraphim clamabant alter ad alterum.”
Drs. Terence van Zalingen, januari 2003
Notes.
(1) “Two seraphs called to one other.” From: “Vespro della Beata Vergine” (1610), CI Monteverdi
(2) “Ein Werk”, R.Schumann. In “Die Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung” (Leipzich,december 1831)
(3) “Sed quis cutodiet ipsos/ custodes?”Juvenalis, Satire 6, 347 f.
(4) See o.a. W.E. Kleinbauer, “Modern Perspectives in Western Art History.” (1971) p. 271 f.f.
(5) “Vom Herzen-Möge es wieder-zu Herzen gehn.”
(6) F.Schiller: Sämtliche Werke. Erster Band, p. 203 (München, 1980)
(7) “The hidden source of truth only murmurs
In seriousness that does not shrink from trouble;
The hard structure of marble
Is “defrosted” only by the chisel’s heavy blow.”
(8) Opening speech F.Bastet, “Zouavenlaan”, 28 III 1992
(9) Opening speech J.P. Guépin, Galerie Bonnard,22 XII 1995
(10) G.Cordioni, 14 VIII 2002 (Viareggio).
(11) J.P.Rawie, opening speech Galerie De Twee Pauwen, 23, XI 2002
Interview with Drs. Hans Koch (English)
Allow your eyes to dwell for a moment linger than only the moment of recognition on e.g. the statue of Margot Homans’ “Psyche”.
Size up with your eyesight the bronze proportions of the statue, the play of the jump and the mantle, the moment of floating on air and the geometric marble gravity of the pedestal; compare the meaning with your insight and yourself. In this way you have made a synoptic paraphrase, although cartographical; the complete artistic life of the sculpture has been translated into a photographic silhouette, an oblique phenomenon.
Enter now (perhaps in your mind) the space where the statue is in real and actual fact. Now the piece of art is not a mere representation anymore, but an entity, a peninsula of reality.
And you, you start to behave like a lyrical detective, encircling this, especially this artwork, circle after circle; you find subtle adventurous counterpoint, from movement into movement, from moment to moment, without stopping, without paradox. There seems to be an eternal communication of continuous elements, not so much of details (too statical) but of referential fields of togetherness. The slightly declining neck melting into the shoulder, this tender arched shoulder flowing into this part of the torso etc.
Choose your own pattern of dance around this sculpture, be at liberty, all great sculptures invite visual invite visual liberty.
This creates the essential meaning. Meaning in sculpture is the total expression of a statue; different from painting, it is not a flat musical score you read, but a reality, logical in its formal total, a three dimensional discourse. Actually you literally repeat the last creative movement of Homan, who forced this Psyche superbly into this form, and who applied this bronze garment. Only with this clear difference that the sculptress draped it in an everlasting grace around a center, a point and actually around or from a void. Wonderful moment of condescension, talented hand that gives the bronze and the marble such a soul (Psyche), that between you and me as viewers and the sculpture a meaningful notion, a living stillness seems to be created, a bridge of serene emotion over the yawning chasm of our existence.
It is said that when the mythical Orpheus was singing, the stones locked into one another like a wall, without prompt.
Plato implemented the notion of primary ideality of all art into our culture.
Look at these sculptures with your best efforts. Look at the wealth of variations in form, the marvelous contents of style, in short, look at Beauty:
Orpheus singing in bronze, Plato pondering in marble.
H. Koch
Fragments of an interview with the sculptress Margot Homan on the eve of her departure to Pietrasanta (Italy), where she casts her bronzes at the Foundery Mariani and where she finds the marble for her sculptures.
How is your inspiration born? Or is that truly an artistic mystery?
It is certainly a mystery, in the same way that every subjective experience, when it comes down to it, is indescribable, only the form in which an idea expresses itself. You see for me, an intuitive idea will take shape for a long time inside my mind. It grows into a irreversible whole. Everything falls into place, everything becomes, in a way, ‘inhabited’. This fundamental image is crystal clear, and a transparent fact; ‘L’imagine del Cuore’ (‘Heart’s Image’), it is not photographic, but visionary in quality within an emotional compass, it does not fall into detail.
You say it does not fall into detail, but then….?
I know what you’re going to say, that ‘the details make tour work memorable’: It’s true that this is something I hear often, almost accusingly. Let me try to explain this carefully. When the internal idea is perfect and self contained, it is followed by a long and arduous process; the material is raw, and unfinished. The beautiful glowing marble, folds rather then breaks under the blows of the chisel. My hands choreograph the expression of my idea. Everything from it’s contours to its smallest detail must breathe the same clarity, in harmony with rest. The whole must be the sum of its parts: “To See a World in a Grain of Sand”. If you found a fragment of one of my sculptures you should be able to visualise the rest from that single piece. What is sculpture other than the ability to capture a scale of movement, waves of life, that one moment, in the tangible sheen of marble.
But doesn’t there have to be an external plan, such as anatomy or a logical theme?
A physical perfection exists that transcends the restrictions of anatomy, seen from an artistic point of view of course. Anatomic knowledge does not per se have to seen as anything more then a tool, a means to an end (although a fundamental knowledge of the subject is of course of first importance), It indicates a systematic purity, the mechanics of the human form. It is the same for something that is even more abstract than that. Symmetry: pure symmetry when applied to truly human beauty is eventually an imperfect form of harmony, imperfect because in for example something as relevant as the illusion of movement, all symmetry is cancelled out.
Sometimes it seems as though you talk in paradoxial terms, isn’t that, to put it criticaly, what Nietzsche called “artistieal metaphysics”?
True, nut I insist that however you or I try to define the essence of the artistic process, we reach the boundaries of the one medium that at that moment you are not using creatively, are not allowed to use creatively, namely, language. The realization of the, let us say ‘sculptural creative process’ is coupled with an external logic. A polyphony of materials and the conceptual spirit navigates my hand through the marble. They are descriptions, not conclusions. Something of the kind is beautifully illustrated in the early Gothic cathedrals. They are built following the builders hand, almost, you could say, blindly; without any prior knowledge of the laws of gravity, the architects and masons have almost invoked these buildings.
The hand operates along the lines dictated by the spirit, sometimes automatically or conditioned, sometimes free and lucid; that last is creation. And the titles of my sculptures are the same; they are more breath than words, if you understand. They are suggestions of viral meanings, such as for example, “A last Heroic Season”: it is not a realistic, illustrative interpretation of a text, but a name such as you and I possess..
You talk of your sculptures and approach them as though they were living beings.
Sometimes when I am weary of my work, I lean my head against the freshly sculpted stone, and realise with a shock how cold the marble is.
SZMK – October 2012 – Marga Klompé was a strong woman (Dutch written) – .pdf
Moving Art Magazine – Image of the Heart Margot Homan (English) – .pdf
Margot Homan: The updating of the ideal (Dutch written) – .pdf
Opening Markiezenhof 2003 - Henk van Os (Dutch written)
Het wonderlijke is dat dat ook wel voor de beelden van Margot geldt, maar daar moet nog iets aan toegevoegd worden, want haar beelden zijn niet zomaar ideale Gestalten. Die beelden gaan eigenlijk over het proces van idealiseren, of sterker nog die gaan over wat idealiseren eigenlijk is. En dan wil ik u het volgende uitleggen: ik heb een tijd boven in de expositieruimte gezeten; die beelden hebben een hele nadrukkelijke lichamelijkheid, ze hebben daardoor ook een hele reële presentie, het zijn bijna blote iemanden met borsten en met billen. En tegelijkertijd zijn ze ook Gestalten uit een ideale wereld. Dat brengt mij ertoe om te zeggen, dat het niet alleen zomaar ideale Gestalten in een zoveelste neoclassicisme zijn, maar het zijn beelden die gaan over dat proces van idealiseren, over wat idealiseren eigenlijk betekent. Het is heel spannend om daarover na te denken en die spanning is heel erg voelbaar in haar werk.
Het tweede wat ik wil zeggen: het is verbazingwekkend dat de beelden bijna allemaal “niet staan”, of liever gezegd, niet helemaal staan, of half staand of een beetje staand, of zweven, of opvliegen of neerdalen. Dat is nu juist iets dat Klassische Kunst niet doet. Klassische Kunst gaat over “het er zijn”, en over, dat is weer Duits woord, statuarisch. Maar dit is helemaal niet statuarisch; dit gaat niet over “het er zijn” , dit zijn beelden die willen verdwijnen en die verschijnen; dat is eigenlijk heel ongebruikelijk. Soms nijgen de beelden naar de aarde, maar dan heeft het ook een hele speciale betekenis, dan is het Narcissus of heet het beeld Overpeinzing; dus de manier waarop het beeld aanwezig is, is niet vanzelfsprekend, is niet “er zijn”, is niet statisch. De manier waarop de beelden van Margot “er zijn”, is beslissend voor hun betekenis. Er is, net zoals de spanning tussen reële presentie en de ideale gestalte, ook een spanning tussen gewicht van lichaam en gewichtloosheid. Tenslotte wil ik dat duidelijk maken met een klein verhaaltje, zodat begrijpelijk wordt wat ik bedoel.
Een jaar na de excursie (waar ik zojuist over sprak), ging ik een jaar werken op het Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton en mijn mentor aldaar was Millard Meiss. Daar werkte ik aan een observatie, die ik toevallig bij mijn werk had gedaan; dat ging over het begrip elevatie. En elevatie is dit, mijne dames en heren: vanaf het begin van de dertiende eeuw worden heiligen waargenomen ongeveer zestig centimeter boven de grond, als bewijs voor hun heiligheid. Dat zult u misschien vreemd vinden, maar dat is dus elevatie. Voor die tijd bestond dat begrip niet. Figuren verschijnen of ontrekken zich half aan de waarneming, maar ze blijven toch zichtbaar of ze verschijnen soms, zoals bijvoorbeeld bij de transfiguratie. Dat probleem legde ik voor aan Millard Meiss. Ik begreep absoluut niet waarom dat vanaf de dertiende eeuw plotseling zo was, en daarvoor nooit voorkomt, niet een beetje nooit, maar nooit. Terwijl ik toch veel teksten over dit onderwerp verzameld had.
Enfin, Millard Meiss en ik lopen tijdens onze twee-dagelijkse wandeling door het bos in Princeton, ik leg hem dit probleem voor, en hij zegt: “Maar, Henk, het is pas interessant om geëleveerd te worden als je eerst de zwaartekracht hebt ontdekt, en als je eerst het lichaam hebt ontdekt, als je eerst de aarde hebt ontdekt, pas als je dàt ontdekt hebt dan is het spannend om dat te ontkennen, half te ontkennen, want je blijft zichtbaar, anders heeft het geen functie”. Dat vond ik één van de mooiste dingen die ik ooit over dat onderwerp gehoord heb; natuurlijk zei hij het veel mooier dan ik het kan zeggen.
In ieder geval heeft dat veel met het werk van Margot te maken. Want gaat u maar kijken. Let u dan vooral op het feit dat dit verschijningen en verdwijningen zijn en dat ergens daartussen wij die beelden ontmoeten. En dat dát te maken heeft met de spanning die ontstaat omdat je een lichaam bent, en het tegelijkertijd niet of niet helemaal wilt zijn. Omdat je de ruimte verkent en tegelijkertijd meer wil zijn dan de ruimte die er is. Die beelden hebben, zoals ik u misschien heb mogen duidelijk maken, een associatieve werking. En het is net alsof Margot Hans zijn meest geliefde kunstwerken verschaft. Ik hoop dat jullie beiden nog lang met deze wisselwerking door mogen gaan.
Ik hoop dat jullie veel plezier hebben op deze tentoonstelling