the art of the great Spanish artist, Antoni Tàpies, has puzzled the art world (and me) for decades...
This year (2019) I finally decided to peer into the heart of his mysteriously abstract works, and damn if my intuition had to work overtime to get me even the slightest insight into his metaphors...
Part 1 of this episode sure had me sweating it out...
**here's a link to the catalogue of the show I was visiting**
🎶 kristo's bongo intro theme 🎶
Welcome to kristo.art
a podcast that makes art both interesting and accessible to everyone…
hey, I wanna take the elitism out of Art, Museums and Art Criticism, without resorting to gimmicks, or by just dumbing it down…
in the process I’m gonna show you an art super-power you may not realize you already have:
your own intuition…
so are you ready for this…?
let’s go get you high on art…
Why, why, why Tàpies...?
In this episode I visit Galerie Boisserée in Cologne to take a closer look at the art of Antoni Tàpies, one of the biggest big shots of 20th century Spanish art...
[“Why, why, why...?”]
01:16
okay, well I don’t know if I can explain why he’s such a big shot artist, but before I try, let me tell you why I chose him...
or at least let me explain it to myself, since this guy and his work has been hanging around in that over-stuffed, lint-filled space between my ears for one hell of a long time...
kinda like loose change in the sofa, you know...
[“I don’t think so” (girl)]
01:39
well, it’s not because he’s such a big deal in the art world...
although sight-unseen, I’d probably agree to put one of his works on my own wall...
but way back in 1991, when I first saw his work, my girlfriend at the time — an artist I still respect,
well, she saw the same piece that I did and she fell in love with it.
I remember thinking that the piece was interesting, but I just couldn’t figure out the metaphor in it...
I didn’t really try all that hard, especially since there were so many other works by lots and lots of different artists in that particular show we were at...
still, the fact that I couldn’t grasp what he was trying to get at felt like something of a challenge...
well, you know I’m pretty confident about my ability to do that...
to figure out what a guy is trying to say with his images
so I knew that eventually I’d figure him out...
[“oh yeah”]
02:34
over the years, for whatever reason I never ran into any of his work, so he remained a somewhat memorable enigma...
but then this year, I read that the Galerie Boisserée was putting on a show with something like 62 individual works by Tàpies...
[“ooh la la” #4]
02:52
so I figured, here was my chance to confront that enigma and maybe figure out why collectors, curators and the art market (not to mention my ex-) all seem to find him so important...
[Art Auction sold]
03:05
well, maybe scratch that art market part...
I haven’t got the slightest clue as to why the art market values anyone or anything...
and I don’t particularly care to find out...
I read that back in 2013, there was some art world debate staged at Art Basel Hong Kong and the title was “The Market Is the Best Judge of Art’s Quality.”
[“boo” (couple of people booing)]
03:33
yeah, well, I’m with you...
and I just love what Christopher Knight, the Art Critic for the LA Times had to say about this:
The market is just a shopping mall; it judges what’s best for the market -- what sells.
So the art market is a judge of quality, just like Mom and cousin Fred are, but hardly the best judge.
Artists decide who is worth paying attention to among their cohorts.
Art comes from art. It doesn’t come from Goldman Sachs.
[“roger that!”]
04:07
and so there you have it...
an artist I still respect decided that Tàpies is worth paying attention to...
and I’m a sucker for an intuitive enigma...
so let’s start with the looking...
🎶 Bongos 🎶
04:19
All Abstractions — No Narratives
There's no easy way to even begin talking about these pieces
They’re abstract in the extreme —
and you're confronted with one abstraction upon the other
one after another…
there’s some themes of course…but…
Well:
his crosses...
his sticking his finger into mud,
as if it were sand paintings...
but sand paintings at the beach…
Colors…
His colors are amazingly interesting...
but when you’re looking at black-and-white,
what are you left with…?
It's ALMOST impossible to try and make out some sort of narrative from these pieces...
but there's a metaphoric narrative somewhere…
Maybe what's most interesting is that they ARE interesting...
they draw you in, despite yourself...
Interesting, yeah... but WHY...???
[“Why...?”]
05:37
well, you kinda beat me to the punch here...
I mean, my first question is why are any or all of these total abstractions interesting...?
there’s gotta be SOME good reason...
I mean, plenty of collectors and curators think they’re pretty hot stuff...?
and I’ve gotta admit they ARE interesting...
geez, the guy even has his own museum in Barcelona...
although it turns out that he built it himself for his own works...
but why, why and why...?
where do you find that thing in his work that pulls people in...
can anybody really put their finger on it...
I mean can anybody explain it in words...
[“maybe”]
06:15
well, I kinda doubt it, but I do think I know the reason people like him and why his work sells...
that said, I’m not a mind reader...
so first let me tell you why they’re interesting to me...
[“nooo...!”]
06:30
as I said in the intro, I first ran into his work at a show in Chicago in 1991...
there was only one piece of his in that very large show:
Antoni Tàpies Writing on the Walls 1971
but my girlfriend at the time, who was and is an artist I respect
was particularly drawn to that piece, and to him as an artist...
so because I thrive on finding meaning and metaphor in paintings and sculptures (as well as dreams and fairy tales), back then, I tried to fathom what that metaphor might be...
but instead of a satisfying metaphor, I could only find that single piece (and him) to be a total enigma...
[“damn!”]
07:10
so when somebody I respect as an artist tells me she really likes his work,
well, that’s a decent enough reason to pay him some attention,
but it’s not enough to get me to like that work...
there has to be some visual hook that attracts me...
and there was one...
[“what?”]
07:27
my guess is that it’s the same reason that curators and collectors like him and buy his art...
but I’m finding that the visual hook — that visual reason to like him...
well, it’s almost impossible to put into words...
and that’s because it’s more of a feeling than anything else...
and that feeling doesn’t seem to have any name...
and yet I think we’ve all experienced it...
it’s something I can only describe as a kind of compositional satisfaction...
or maybe a sense of harmony...
since it might have something to do with mathematics and whatever it is they call the Golden Ratio...
[“what’s that?”]
08:03
well, since math isn’t my thing, the only example I can give has more to do with the so-called rule of thirds...
[“what’s that?”]
08:11
well, the most common example I can give you is what you see in landscape painting...
in landscapes, the most visually satisfying place to put the horizon line isn’t smack dab in the middle of the picture, (between the top and the bottom of the image), but one third of the way up from the bottom of the canvas...
[“interesting...”]
08:30
but Tàpies doesn’t create landscapes...
at least nothing recognizable as a traditional landscape...
there’s something more visceral to his stuff...
so maybe the pyramids are a better analogy...
because they’re not some generic natural structure, like a mountain or a hill, something that sits solidly, but unremarkably in some generic landscape...
of course, they’re man-made, but again, they’re not like some boring generic apartment building that sits solidly, but unimpressively on the corner of any typically anonymous thoroughfare...
[horns-sirens]
09:05
in every 2 dimensional image of the pyramids, you can see that they’re just ordinary geometric shapes in a very beige landscape...
but they still give you a sense of solidity and ancient mystery, and that’s the more visceral feeling that Tàpies seems to have tapped into...
and it also seems to be what makes his stuff all the more Sphinx-like...
[“hmm...”]
09:37
remarkable or not, his pieces don’t exhibit any of the mastery of craft that Monet or Caravaggio did...
so it didn’t surprise me to learn that he was a largely self-taught artist...
[“ooh...”]
09:50
but what his work DOES have is some sort of oddly satisfying style...
in many of his pieces that style involves a 3 dimensional texture...
something sculptural you can almost feel it in your fingertips...
even though you never ever touch them...
but then there’s something else in all of them that’s purely visual and very imaginative...
I don’t know how to explain it in any other way except to describe it as something that’s very familiar to photographers, but it’s also something we can all recognize...
[“really...?”]
10:21
there’s a certain fascination that many of us have with using a magnifying glass to see the small intricacies of nature, and even of the most mundane objects...
some photographers like to use extreme close-up lenses to photograph ordinary things so that we can see, examine and contemplate the surprising beauty of what are otherwise invisible intricacies...
[“that’s correct”]
10:44
I think most of us have seen those beautiful images of sand grains photographed through a microscope...
they were all over social media a few years ago...
(and if you haven’t seen them it’s worth visiting the guy’s website to take look...
so I’ll post a link in the show notes...)
[“you better...”]
11:01
but what makes them most interesting isn’t just the hidden beauty that’s revealed by the magnification of a lens, it’s the simple fact of the visual novelty...
close-up images of the sand grains seem particularly remarkable because we’ve never seen them that close-up before...
but that’s just one example of visual novelty...
it’s the very simple phenomenon that was exploited by the earliest use of hand-held video cameras in the 70s...
everyone carries a way more sophisticated video camera in their pocket these days, but back then, the technology was clunky, but it was also an astounding novelty with huge creative potential...
and that’s what produced cinéma vérité,
[“oooh, la la...”]
11:45
with it’s nosy novel perspective on the most mundane of experiences...
people with those cameras started poking their noses into public spaces exposing unpleasant realities of public life, and the often anti-social practices of minor bureaucrats and even ordinary people...
and all of that made for compelling documentaries on public television...
[Public TV short]
12:08
of course now, we can’t imagine any sort of documentary without that kind of imagery...
but the novelty factor, which is the driving force of the aesthetics or visuals involved, is a constantly shrinking frontier...
[“uh-oh” guy]
12:37
Tàpies and his images, which sometimes look like hyper-magnifications of rust and weathered objects, have heavily exploited the appeal of that visual novelty,...
and as obvious as that is, they still present us with something a little bit more valuable and ultimately timeless:
it’s that rare and important prize of artistic activity known as harmony or what I would call compositional satisfaction...
an arrangement of color and shapes that just feels, for lack of a better term: right and good.
🎶 bongos 🎶
13:12
I still don’t know how to say this, but there’s something in this guy’s images that satisfies some innate / internal sense of harmony or how things SHOULD look when their colors and shapes fit well together...
ultimately, this is what poetry is for...
to put into words something we all know very well, but hadn’t thought how to say in such a damned good and understandable way...
but I’m not alone in my verbal inadequacy...
in 1962, the art critic of the NYT couldn’t do any better at describing the visual appeal of Tàpies and his images than by saying that he had “unerring taste...”
🎶Jazz Bass 🎶
13:54
ALMOST, ALMOST, ALMOST...???
So, how to begin?
well...
these marks seem so random
and yet they have a —
a kind of balance to them
they’re not just thrown down like pick up sticks
even though I'm looking at this one piece and it is just black-and-white
a black background and white
and some of these marks are ALMOST jagged
like those plastic Pick Up Sticks I remember from being a kid
but they also look like they could be thorns
actually rather large thorns probably 20 cm long
you could ALMOST consider them to be a sort of ideograph: a Chinese script
done in what you can only describe as his personal manner
02:52
These short strokes —
but then there are a few longer ones
and the longer ones:
they’re completely mystifying
because they ALMOST seem to look like something
there’s something that ALMOST looks like a foot
with a shin
there are some images that ALMOST look like eyelashes
something near the bottom that ALMOST looks like a cart with wheels
and at the top there are these strange jaggedy lines that ALMOST look like barbed wire…
there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of them as if it were a barbed wire fence
and then at the bottom left, my left, there’s something that ALMOST looks like a book
it’s all white but thickly drawn — something that he usually does
With the black cross in it, and it ALMOST looks like the front of a cart
so, we're left with a lot of ALMOSTs
and yet It is something definite…
🎶 bongos 🎶
16:04
your intuition KNOWS...!!!
ironically, all of those almosts... they tell us something pretty definite...
I can only hear myself now using that word “almost” for now the second (and third) time in this situation...
because that’s how your intuition leads your logical mind around...
your intuition knows exactly what you’re seeing...
but it has to give your logical mind something to grab onto based on similarities to things you’ve come across previously
things your logical mind thinks it already knows and feels comfortable with...
[“mm”]
16:31
so if something you don’t know is ALMOST like something else you know, it becomes a tiny foothold to get you moving closer to really understanding the thing...
that makes abstract art kinda like a rock face or a rock wall that’s challenging you to climb it...
[“challenge accepted”]
16:47
and as I’ve said before, looking at art is the best exercise I know for training your intuition...
(or maybe, training your logical mind to accept the fact that you actually do have an intuition, and that it’s worth paying attention to...)
🎶 bongos 🎶
17:03
each ALMOST is a piece of the puzzle...
none of them alone look like anything recognizable...
but taken together, they start to reveal a logical pattern...
and that’s what I call the consistent metaphor...
[“what?” guy]
17:22
as the puzzle builds, what emerges is some sort of hypothesis as to what that metaphor might actually be...
but in this case with Tàpies I was getting absolutely nowhere...
my Intuition may have already known what he’s all about, but I sure as hell didn’t...
[“do you give up now?”]
17:41
the only thing I did know, and still do, is that I trust my Intuition, so as much as I wanted to throw in the towel on Tàpies, I wasn’t ready to give up and leave...
there’s nothing wrong with giving up trying to find a metaphor in somebody’s art...
and I can tell you that even so-called experts do it...
[“no way...” guy]
17:59
I will never forget a particular art history class that one day featured a guest lecturer...
this woman was a well-known art critic for a major art publication, and when she asked for questions, I asked her what does she do when she’s reviewing an artist’s show and she can’t figure out what the hell his or her metaphor or meaning is...
well, she shocked the hell outta me with her answer...
she said that if she couldn’t figure out the work in 5 minutes, she just panned it...
[“it’s all complicated”]
18:28
well, I can understand deadlines, but wow...!
call me naive, I was still shocked by her cavalier attitude...
but that’s something the logical mind will often do...
instead of digging in and working harder, it covers its ass and blames the artist...
and when it does that, it’s really just shooting craps...
because it may or may not be correct...
it’s a 50-50 chance...
only your Intuition knows what’s really going on in a work of art...
and catching up with what your Intuition already knows...
that takes time and effort...
and if you’re not up for it — fine, but don’t blame the artist or the art...
[“that’s bad”]
19:09
just say the three most excruciatingly difficult words for the logical mind to pronounce...
especially when they constitute the absolute truth:
just say: “I don’t know.”
[group-shocked!]
19:22
I’ve got a helluva lot to say about “I don’t know” as the correct and truthful answer to so many of the questions we get asked in our lifetime...
but since it’s also an answer that’s frowned upon and punished in our culture, very few of us have the stones to hold our ground with it...
and while the implications are far reaching, especially in terms of education, but even in something as seemingly inconsequential as art appreciation, I’m not gonna get into that here...
let me just say that living with an “I don’t know” as my judgement of Tàpies for almost the last 30 years didn’t have any negative consequences for me...
but now, standing in front of this black and white image, and finding nothing but a handful of Almosts, my 30 year “I don’t know” was starting to feel like a defeat...
and what I mean is, I was actually starting to get depressed by my inability to understand this image...
🎶 bongos 🎶
20:26
now I’m really in the dark...!
It seems like there's a lot of white splashes on this black background
along with these marks that he was making
it’s not clear whether this was on a wall when he painted it or on the floor —
ALMOST like a Pollock —
but I suspect it was on the wall because now I can see dripping from some of these lines
seems to go in a vertical manner
as if gravity had something to do with it…
[“all I can see is the end”]
21:07
somebody turned the lights out down here,
[dark laughter]
21:10
maybe there’s a motion sensor…
🎶 drum roll 🎶
21:17
yes there is…
[“Ta Da!”]
21:21
So standing further back from this piece —
I wouldn't want it in my living room
It's not that compelling an image in terms of what it looks like
is it pleasant?
it’s not really very pleasant
makes me feel like there's some angry art motive behind it
[“I don’t like you, I don’t like you at all”]
21:44
but that's no way to judge his work
it's just one piece
I'm still mystified by him
he does so many interesting things
but I cannot penetrate the metaphors
[“it’s locked” + “aaargh!”]
22:02
🎶 bongos 🎶
anyone see a starbucks?
I find it a little disconcerting that I couldn’t see that there actually was a logical image peering out at me from this painting...
even standing further back from it I still couldn’t recognize it as a face and a book...
and I only understood that when I looked through the exhibition catalog the gallery was kind enough to give me...
**here's a link to that catalogue and HERE's that black and white image I'd just been talking about:
it’s almost embarrassing...

[a group “oooh”]
22:35
but that’s the way we humans are wired...
for better or for worse, we don’t always see what’s right in front of our faces...
but unless we’re legally blind, it’s strictly because of some story our mind is telling us...
what I mean is that we don’t always see what our eyes see, instead, we see what our mind is telling us we see...
[“anyone see a starbucks?”]
23:00
as far as accuracy goes, that can be a real problem...
consider the fact that it is almost miraculously easier to draw something if we look at it upside down...
meaning that, if our mind can’t recognize what we’re seeing, we can be so much more accurate about the shapes and lines...
[“I see these things now...”]
23:23
it’s something I learned from that book popularized in the 80s: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
it’s pretty cool...
in this case, I was blind to the story of a face and a book which is only way more obvious in the catalogue picture of it...
[“can you see it now?”]
23:40
for whatever reason,
I was just seeing shapes...
those jagged lines are obviously hair, and there’s a nose and mouth and chin...
and the eyes look closed because the eyelashes make it look as if the face were dozing...
and those splashes of white I saw look like a 3 day growth of beard...
which seems like an impressive detail...
[“I see a cloud”]
24:02
but I don’t understand those Pick Up Sticks lines to the right of the face, or the oblong shape scrawled over the mouth...
they must have their own story to tell...
but there comes a point in your looking that starts to ring false and actually becomes tedious
something starts to sap your enthusiasm and make you feel badly...
[“it’s really terrible”]
24:24
there’s even something more sinister than anger in an image like that...
in fact, the piece in question which is titled “Le Lecteur” / The Reader
is a woodcut...
it’s not even a painting...
and that would tend to explain the jagged quality of those lines...
but I don’t even want to get into the fact that it was created using a knife or some sort of carving blade...
and that reluctance and the overall feeling I’m getting just thinking about this image is a sign that’s just the opposite of a synchronicity...
it’s like my intuition is trying to tell me to move on or away...
[“move!”]
24:59
so that’s something to remember...
if you’re truly drained by a topic or an image, it does you no good to pursue it...
it’s your intuition telling you that your attention is better placed somewhere else...
because whatever it is, is robbing you of enthusiasm...
and that’s worse than depressing because this thing is actually lowering your self esteem...
something that nobody and nothing has the right to do...
[“you can’t do that!”]
25:26
🎶 bongos 🎶
BVD-art (???)
there's a number of these pieces that actually have like shirts in them
he seems to be interested in using shirts as part of his metaphor
so I’m standing in front of one that looks like a wife beater, right?
a sleeveless T-shirt
[“oh boy / belch / oh boy”]
25:45
This again is another piece that I just would not want on my wall
It doesn’t move me
sure, there’s an interesting flow to it…
I mean, the neck lines and the arm lines look like a monogram
an M
which has really nothing to do with his name…
🎶 bongos 🎶
26:06
okay, this shirt business is not something I spent any real time looking at or contemplating...
nor do I want to...
[“no sir!”]
26:17
like that face image I described, it was actually depressing...
there aren’t any jagged lines in it, but it still seems too much like angry art...
[“aargh!”]
26:27
I mean...
these shirts he uses, (which apparently is a common theme in some of his work) are really more like underwear...
[“ew!]
26:35
he even has one piece with a pair of tightie-whities...
[disgust...”well, then...”]
26:39
so the vibe you get
well
it’s just way too personal...
it doesn’t exactly feel like he’s putting his dirty laundry on display though...
which is something that angry art tends to do...
but it’s still a little embarrassing...
kinda like seeing him half dressed — or undressed...
and I’d much prefer not having to...
I’d just rather turn my head and not play the voyeur,
I just want to leave him be with his intimate wear...
and the semi-secrets he seems to want to half-reveal...
to me these pieces feel like he’s being something of an exhibitionist...
as if he’s insisting on addressing us, his audience, while standing there in his BVDs...
[“that is so not cool...”]
27:21
but that’s also what a lot of angry art seems to come down to...
a covert display of someone’s intimate and personal pain...
[“please, don’t do that”]
27:31
and putting it into an artwork amounts to a grievance...
a somewhat immodest, public complaint
in which the artist takes an unconscious, if not perverse satisfaction in displaying his pain metaphorically
without having to reveal the explicit details of the pain which caused the anger...
[“what seems to be the problem?”]
27:52
if this were his only visual theme, I’m pretty sure it would turn me off to him completely...
but it isn’t, so let’s take a look at another one of his major themes...
🎶 bongos 🎶
28:04
I’m ALMOST completely stumped...
I’m standing in front of another piece / it's fairly tall / it’s vertical, um...
It's probably about five feet by two and a half feet
it’s sort of like an excavation again…
there’s a surface of one color that always looks like sand or has the consistency of sand…
or at least looks like it has the consistency of sand
and then there are these shapes
where something
the sand has been scraped away
But then what he’s done is he's outlined the — these shapes…
given them a sort of shadow effect with light yellow
ALMOST a Naples yellow
to emphasize something
to bring out the shape itself but, eh...
again he’s got his characteristic plus signs or crosses in this
it's as if you had taken a magnifying glass
and looked at some really rusty strange
something or other
decaying
a piece of metal
decaying
out in the wild
rusting away
but a very close look
What Is he getting at???
I find it fascinating
and not so fascinating
because I don't like not being able to figure out the metaphors
this, I find
(heh…)
I find it a real challenge…!
but if I can't find it
then somehow or other I get the feeling I'm just dense
I’m missing something
I’m not connecting with some part of
something important
🎶 mystery of the dark forest 🎶
29:44
it's as if he's got something important to say
because he knows how to say it…
pictorially
with his lines and with his colors
I can't fathom it though…!
it’s mysterious
this image I’ve been talking about, #45 in the catalogue...
(and by the way, the Gallery is so amazingly generous with its catalogues, because they actually offer them on-line as pdfs for free...)
[“that’s nice”]
30:19
you can find the link in the show notes...
(as soon as I post them)
although sorry that it takes me so long to get those show notes formatted and published on my website...
a lot of moving parts to those things...
[“uhh, excuse you...”]
30:32
anyway, this image is a really good example of what I was talking about earlier with macro-photography or looking at mundane things with a magnifying glass...
I think you can really find all sorts of beauty that can not only be photographed via an extreme close-up lens, but can also be used as a model for paintings...
🎶 bongos 🎶
30:52
Graffiti Farm...???
so, the title of this image is
“Graffiti Sobre Ciment”
and, Geez...
I didn’t see the title in the Gallery...
but since that gallery visit, I’d been thinking about that impulse that makes people (kids especially) want to make their mark in fresh cement...
[“hmm”]
31:08
even the impulse to tag with spray cans...
of course, the title really says it all...
and once again, I almost feel stupid for saying that I worked this out for myself...
[“oh crap”]
31:20
that I saw this work as graffiti without knowing that he made that very explicit with his title...
[“oh well”]
31:26
I mean, working something out for yourself when you could have just read something that would have told you the same thing...
well...
some people would find that really inefficient...
a waste of time and energy...
I suppose any art critic on a deadline would probably have just read the damn title and saved an awful lot of time and effort...
[“roger that!”]
31:45
just as any good laborer would have the common sense enough to conserve energy and let
some animal or machine or tool do all the heavy lifting...
using my intuition amounts to what a farmer once yelled at me...
I was trying to use an old pitchfork to move clumps of weeds that had been cut down in a pasture...
I was doing it for fun...
and just to see what it was like...
but he yelled out: “What are you doing with that idiot stick?”
[“I heard that”]
32:12
of course his profession required conserving energy as best he could and applying it only in the most efficient way possible...
but I never forgot that...
🎶 jazzy bass 🎶
32:24
so figuring out such things for myself...
thinking through an artist’s metaphors...
(whether it’s a painting or a poem)
may not seem like useful work...
or even a smart thing to do...
but at worst, it’s just exercise...
like lifting weights in the gym...
and that’s the thing with Intuition...
I’m compelled to use it and exercise it...
to play with it...
even as the more logical minded among us probably consider that almost retarded...
[a confused “what...??”]
32:55
it’s certainly un-productive...
(which really means: un-profitable)
and that’s why the arts and humanities get such short shrift in education, while STEM subjects rule...
but there’s just something in my nature that compels me...
I can’t explain it (except maybe as a matter of Typology)...
but I do feel the need to defend it
because there’s a lot more at stake in our culture’s misunderstanding and denigration of Intuition and the Arts than just aesthetics...
🎶 bongos 🎶
33:24
a pernicious cultural blind spot
just take, for example, the fact that our culture believes intuition to be extremely unreliable and — this is key: something only a woman would trust...
[“whatever...”]
33:37
oh sure, men occasionally dip their toe into it...
but they would never ever believe they could rely on it,
[“no sir!”]
33:45
much less think it was worth cultivating...
[“roger that”]
33:48
and sure, there’s all sorts of lip service paid to the idea that Einstein valued intuition...
[“blah, blah, blah (1) / blah, blah, blah (2)”]
33:54
but our patriarchal culture...
the one that so adamantly believes in the superiority of logic...
also believes that it’s stupid to trust intuition...
not only because it’s believed to be un-scientific...
(Einstein notwithstanding)
but because it is believed to be the natural domain of women...
[“oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh...”]
34:21
think about it...
because that too, is just a belief...
[“no way” guy]
34:28
— a perfectly un-scientific, self-perpetuating cultural bias...
but that particular cultural blind-spot just happens to be a key element in the infinite loop perpetuating our culture’s inane belief in the inferiority of women...
[crowd booing]
34:48
so I’ve gotta tell you...
intuition is a topic I’ve been contemplating, researching and, well, intuitively exploring for the last 25 years...
[“so...why? why even bother wasting your time...?”]
35:03
I’ve got so much more to say about it...
and I will...
but for now, getting back to the subject of this podcast...
using my intuition doesn’t seem to have gotten me much closer to figuring out what our inscrutable Señor Tápies is actually saying with his art...
[“oh crap!”]
35:25
and that’s beginning to frustrate the hell outta me...
[“no, no, no...that’s very bad...”]
35:30
but since I know that you can’t rush your intuition...
and you certainly can’t predict what it’s gonna come up with...
🎶 outro music 🎶
35:40
let’s give it a little more space and time see how things play out in Part 2 of this episode...
for now, let me just say...
thanks for listening...
so if you dig the show, why not share it...?
and please do subscribe, whether that’s on the website, kristo.art or on whatever podcast app that floats your boat...
and if you’ve got any questions or just want to say hi...
shoot me an email...
there are links for that all over the website...
alrighty then...!
ciao a tutti...
Music Credits
bongo music and jazzy bass transitions courtesy of freeware loops by Beyonda
some percussion sounds: freeware courtesy of stayonbeat.com freeware loops
🎶 outro music 🎶 A River of Doubt, by Skip Peck
kristo's Peanut Gallery
"Why, why, why...?" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin
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“I don't think so (girl)” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811
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“oh yeah” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas
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"ooh-la-la" courtesy of Timbre
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"couple of people booing" courtesy of jayfrosting
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“roger that” courtesy of theuncertainman
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“maybe” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811
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“nooo...!” courtesy of Junuxx
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“damn...!” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas
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“what?” courtesy of Roses1401
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”what's that?” courtesy of balloonhead
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"interesting..." courtesy of Reitanna Seishin
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"hmm..." courtesy of agent vivid
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"ooh..." courtesy of brunchik
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"really...?" courtesy of juror2
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"you better..." courtesy of pyro13djt
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"uh-oh" courtesy of DWOBoyle
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”what? (guy)” courtesy of balloonhead
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"do you give up now?" courtesy of pyro13djt
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"no way (guy)" courtesy of kathid
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[“it's all complicated”]
"...it’s all complicated” courtesy of Roses1401
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"that’s bad" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin
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"all I can see is the end" courtesy of thatjeffcarter
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"dark laughter" courtesy of StudioOneBeatMakers
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🎶 drum roll 🎶 courtesy of StudioOneBeatMakers
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"ta da!" courtesy of isabellaquintero97
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"it’s locked" courtesy of Thegamemakerqueen
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"aaargh!" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin
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a group "oooh" courtesy of TeamMasaka
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"anyone see a starbucks?" courtesy of Jman88s
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"I see these things now..." courtesy of AlienXXX
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“it’s really terrible” courtesy of clivew
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“move!” courtesy of theuncertainman
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“you can’t do that!” courtesy of R_mac
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“an exasperated, “oh boy... oh boy...” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
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“belch” courtesy of jppi_Stu
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“no sir!” courtesy of theuncertainman
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“aargh!” courtesy of Mickael_Leroi
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"ew!" courtesy of isabellaquintero97
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"well, then..." courtesy of Reitanna Seishin
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“ugh, that is so not cool...” courtesy of LittleRainySeasons
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"please, don’t do that" courtesy of girlhurl
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“what seems to be the problem?” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
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🎶 mystery of the dark forest 🎶 courtesy of ipodpierwsza
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"that’s nice" courtesy of LG
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“uhh, excuse you..." courtesy of Alivvie
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"hmm" courtesy of esperar
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oh, crap! courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
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"oh well" courtesy of jhillam
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"I heard that" courtesy of Coral_Island_Studios
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“what...?? (girl)" courtesy of Alivvie
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"whatever..." courtesy of pörnill
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"blah, blah, blah" courtesy of unfa
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"lip buzzing" courtesy of Andrew Roselund of Sangwha Communications
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"oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh..." courtesy of shawshank73
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“no way” courtesy of kathid
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“crowd booing” courtesy of Tim Kahn
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"so...why? why even bother wasting your time...?" courtesy of soundsofscience
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“no, no, no that’s very bad” courtesy of Greencouch
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