[MD] Intellectual activity

[Platt Holden]

Hi Ham,

I couldn't resist sending you this clip from today's NY Times:

"Considered among the best draftsmen in history, Rembrandt seemed to 
approach drawing compulsively, as an end in itself, rarely as a means 
to iron out problems for his paintings. He drew actively from his teens 
until his death. He sketched on almost anything at hand - bills, 
announcements - and the subject matter was tremendously varied: family 
scenes, landscapes, biblical histories, nudes, self-portraits, animals, 
portraits of the famous and of the poor.

"There is no formula, and in the end no satisfactory explanation, for 
Rembrandt's way of capturing" the "spiritual essence of his subjects," 
wrote John Canaday in The New York Times in 1960, when the Morgan 
Library held an exhibition of drawings."

Not only did "spiritual essence" catch my eye, but so did "no 
satisfactory explanation." You see the term "mystic" to me simply means 
an experience that cannot be expressed in words -- the knowable but 
inexpressible. Art at its best ignites such experience, and being 
ineffable, it's beyond the ken of philosophy.

No need to go the Far East. :-)

Best regards,
Platt