¶ Artist: Histrionics (1)
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Index Entry
Artist: Histrionics:
"Sensitivity is enormously excited by paradox. And paradox can be so paradoxical as to be out-and-out comical. E.G., Edward Lear; Lewis Carrol’s ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ are equivalent to Dali and Frank Lloyd Wright and Poe. Poe’s histrionics were in his drink: the paradox was such pain to him but it did not betray the artist. . . When you really hit an audience with the truth-- the absurdity of UP and Down, and IN and OUT-- they are full of giggles and laughs. F.L. Wright and Dali could not assist getting the giggles out of people. They say: Isn’t it wonderful that people are shockable. Dali can reverse it. He can give them an untruth that will shock them. Wright and Dali regenerate themselves by shocking: that’s what this histrionics was all about.
"Wright was not as deep as Dali-- who is o’erwhelmed by the great mystery, like Poe. Wright let Gurdjieff take over. He therefore had a religion rather than make his own attempt to explain his experiences to himself. Poe and Dali really tried to explain things to themselves. Dali showed RBF his greatest painting in his studio in Spain. A picture of the Fishermen in the parable of the loaves and the fishes.
¶ Citations
- RBF to EJA, 3200 Idaho, Wash DC, 25 Jan’72
