After watching a painting by Van Eyck for a long time, I realised raising my eyes that the world around me could be contemplated in a similar way, I understood that between Art and Life, there was not a great difference, we could feel the same aesthetic emotion.
 
 

                                           The Manifest
 

    1°  No-Art is  not Art.

          Therefore to say it is not Art is quite true.
          To criticize it as being art is to err because one does not understand.

        -Aesthetic because it is contemplation of the outside world,even the ugliest, the world as a whole being considered as a work of art.
         -Philosophical  in the ethymologic meaning of "love of wisdom".
        - Religious because the No-artist is pantheistic or rather panentheistic.He sees divine energy in the smallest particle of matter.

            Therefore it possesses the characteristics of traditionally aesthetic contemplation.

    4° No-Art is what comes at the end of the evolution of modern art (C.f Hegel)

             Abstract Art -essence of Painting, reflexion on the action of Painting- leads to No-Art.
             Extravert traditional art, which criticizes society neverthelesss keeps an anecdotal interest.

    5°  No-Art presupposes a deep knowledge of the history of Art.
 

           It does not reject the Art of the Past ; on the contrary, it assimilates and transcends it. Now we have to see the world with Van Eyck's eyes or Bellini's, Van Gogh's, Corot's, Monet's, Vlaminck's, Bonnard's...

    7°  No-Art is transcendental meditation from an aesthetic point of view.

    8° No-Art is not really interested in the problem of communication.

          The   No-Artist certainly also wants to communicate his vision that is to say to make people understand that they don't need a painting to feel  aesthetic joy. Everybody can practise No-Art. This assertion might hurt some  people. So much the worse.

                Art like No-Art is beyond words, beyond languages, beyond ideologies.

    10° No-Art does not mean the end of traditional Art.

        One can be a No-Artist and at the same time one can go on practising traditional art just for pleasure but this time, one is not unconscious of the vanity of traditional art. Traditional Art is an approach more or less conscious of the Divine. Full awarenesss of the identity of man and God in No-Art makes traditional Art unnecessary. The real artist is the one who no longer creates anything.

    11°  It is difficult for atheists and materialists to understand No-Art or they will superficially because they naively trust "their senses"

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 Exercices in  Artistic Awareness
 

                to watch the sky
                to pull the tongue
                to raise a hand
                to raise a foot
                to jump
                to pull one's hair if any hair

                That will be enough for today

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QUOTATIONS

                Life is sacred   Art is sacred
 
 

                All is beautiful   Nothing is ugly
                All is ugly  Nothing is beautiful
 
 

                Art is Contemplation
                The world is a work of art
 
 

                To stop and contemplate
 

                Art is beyond languages,
                beyond the dialectics of words,
                beyond Good and Evil
 
 

                                    The artist really feels
                                    the sacredness of his life,
                                    The world is an "object" of contemplation
                                    and infinite delight.
 

                                     Don't care about Art
                                     Be art
 

                                     It is no longer necessary to create works of art
                                     Open the eyes
                                    The world is full of works of art
 
 

                                     Being aware of being a sacred being
 
 
 

Art can't be closed up in a frame

 
 

                                    What do you mean by the art of Life ?

                                                - Only to understand that life is sacred
                                                that every gesture is art
                                                that we must recover the feeling of
                                                sacredness of Life

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    Exercices in conscious awareness
 

                                    To have one's breakfast
                                    To drink a glass of red wine
                                    To stand up
                                    To lie on a bed
                                    To stare at the ceiling
 
 

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Bhrad Aranyaka Upanishad ( III rd century)
 
 

            ...different from the earth, that the earth doesn't know, whose body is the earth, which moves the earth from inside, that is your Atman, the inner immortal agent...

            That, living in waters, is different from waters, that waters don't know, whose body is waters, which moves waters from inside, that is your atman, the inner, immortal agent...

            That, being in fire, is different from fire, that fire doesn't know, whose body is fire, which moves fire from inside, that is your atman, the inner, immortal agent...

            That, living in the air, is different from the air, that the air doesn't know, whose body is the air, which moves the air from inside, that is your Atman, the inner immortal agent...

            That, living in the sun, is different from the sun, that trhe sun doesn't know, whose body is the sun, which moves the sun from inside, that is your atman, the inner, immortal agent...

            That, living in all beings, is different from all beings, that beings don't know, whose body is all beings, which moves all beings from inside, that is your atman, the inner, immortal agent...

Text. Scattered notes (1974)

                        No- Art is an aesthetic attitude in front of life;  No- Art means to be aware as frequently as possible of the sacredness of  our gestures ,to feel the permanent miracle of our life, to feel the immanence  and  transcendence of "God "  without the help of an artist's painting. Aesthetic ecstasy must not be caused by an external object (a picture) but by the subject himself, the spectator, becoming conscious of transcendence. Contemplation will be then amazement and wonder before the world - a feeling similar to  a child's feeling of wonder.
                        Man's religious and artistic attitudes that one separates artificially are actually , at their  most elevated level ,a same attitude. To be artist means to have a religious vision of life and to be religious means to have an aesthetic vision of life.
                        My conception of  No-Art is essentially religious. Certainly I am as nihilistic as the "Ecclesiast". Due to a religious quest parallel to my artistic research I perceived that  art and  religion, at their most advanced stage, don't contradict themselves... Beyond  abstraction, if one leaves aside the superficiality of  Pop Art or Hyperrealism, there is nothing... From a religious viewpoint, when one gets rid of some superstitions or archaisms, one comes to  Hindu mystic philosophy, notably Djana Yoga, a panentheism that means that man consciously searches for the identity of the Atman and of the Brahman. " God" is not in another world, " God" is there. The world is only an illusion (Mayan). Time and  space are only  mental constructions of our awakened consciousness. Hence the vanity of  perishable traditional art. ..  (o Greek temples!). Remains Therefore remains No - art that finally leads to the greatest artist: "God ".
                        So No - art is  not nihilistic. It is as transcendental as  traditional art.
                        Because everybody is God. Everyone will become aware of it if he condescends to accomplish the necessary effort. There exists in each of us a divine parcel (the Atman). We have to be aware of this evidence. We must then identify ourselves with  "God" to enjoy the same religious , aesthetic  vision,  the world being a mirror of Himself.
                        I adhere to the views of  Djana -Yoga. I am tempted to call  No - Art, as I see it, - DJANA - ART, because it is greatly inspired by Hindu religious philosophy (ex: Cankara). Simply, I have been surprised to note that  the  researches of artistic Vanguards were  nearly about to lead to the views of  Hindu mystic philosophy*(see note) . When suddenly catching the luminous link existing between No- art and  Djana yoga, I finally understood that I had gone beyond  abstract art on which I " stumbled " for years...
 

                        P.S: I wrote this text  25 years ago! I understand that it may schock unbelievers, but what can I do ? Atheists too often think that believers are obscurantists ", as for me, I have a tendency to think that atheists  have not understood a lot. so a draw.
                        When I say " God ", I must say that I don't know if God exists as a person but I am convinced, rightly or wrongly, that there is a Universal Order, a universal Intelligence, a  cosmic Conscience,  that impregnates  creation.

                                Note * There I may have been wrong, some present  artistic movements are devoid of transcendence.
 
 
 
  

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