PAINTINGS – Henri Hagman

The First and Foremost Task of Painting

The first and most important task of painting is to open up human sensibility—the relationship with the senses and the sensory apparatus as a whole—toward the spiritual.

The second task of painting is to nurture a realm of illusion where utopia, pure perception, and truth converge. When beauty and the sublime meet, the ultimate becomes the foremost and the most real.

The third task arises from the first two: human consciousness awakens to existence and the nature of time. Through this awakening, there is no doubt about how one should live—seeking spirituality, acting in the name of freedom, peace, joy, and equality.

This perspective is not mine, but that of painting itself.

Vision is mostly conditioned by instrumental rationality, meaning it is primarily a tool for survival. Looking at a painting, however, is purely aesthetic. There are different ways to try to displace utilitarian viewing with aesthetic perception. One approach is to adopt the attitude that it is the painting that looks, while I am the object of its gaze. Another way is to look without fixing the gaze, allowing the eyes to move freely, or to look slightly past the painting while simultaneously observing its effect in one’s consciousness. One might also think of listening to the music of the painting—with their eyes.

The viewer’s attention is both on the painting and on their own psychosomatic sensations; the focus is not on thought, as the painting does not encourage thinking. Instead, the attention is on the essence of the painting and of oneself. The focus is on being—and on how time flows within that state.

For me, my paintings work best from a distance of 3 to 8 meters.

This text was created with AI assistance