what does Hans Hoffman say about creativity and why do we care?

some notes on the teaching notes of this seminal teacher of new york school painters, the abstrct expressionists, wpa painters, and black mountain artists not the figurative painters a la fairfield

he talks about nature, by which he means the source of cretive activity
as separate from observation (of an exterior nature or "fact")

he talks bout negative space as *that which constellates* or throws into relation, that which is outside / between matter -- different from Pound

expression medium -- creation is translated into an interpretation for a given medium

while Hoffman emphasizes according to knowledge of nature/capacities of the medium (for the interpretation or translation) I'd emphasize that the same impulse expressed by the same artist in different media would be different translations / interpretations -- he gets to this later in the notes, but I didn't realize this when I took it down

art blends experience with a medium

art reflects what about the artist the artist expressed in the medium

the medium becomes the art in a masterwork

think of this re: language poetry and language in poetry and re: the medium is the message

he claims that our experiences yield a human centered universe (since we center our experiences)

"concept and execution condition ech other equally"

the greater the concept, the more profound and intensive the ... animation... of the medium -- yields -- more impressive and important work

two teachnical factors in creative writing: the symphonic animation of the page, the ornament of the page

he writes a lot about the puzzle of painting being translating three dimensions into two dimensions; in writing this is translating a reality that is heard and seen into (silent) signs, letters, etc.

each thing carries a meaning of its own and an associated meaning in reltion to other things: its essential value is relative

subject matter and presentation do not separtely produce the same effects as when related

the mind uses subject matter as a vehicle for creating a super-real effect
a number of these effects can for a work's emotional substance

"interval" art: in relation

ideas can only be materialized through media

the idea is transformed, adapted to and carried by the medium

minimalism

form discloses through surface tension "form is the shell of life"

aesthetic enjoyment is caused by the perception of hidden laws
Walter Rathenau

I thought this quote - thru Hoffman -- ws especially interesting in light of debates about forms, constraints, sources, and telling readers what they are or not

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