ORIGINS: An Introduction
Whether you make art, study it, or—like so many of us—simply love to look at it, you may have noticed a change in how art is approached.
Art in the service of ideology has become the order of the day in our universities and major museums. The contemporary establishment presses art into the service of ideology by defining it as an intellectual and, quite often, political exercise. Grounded in grievance, this postmodern view demands that art can only be understood fully when mediated through the lens of ideas—ideas related to the “systemic oppression” present in areas of race, gender, class, sexuality and power.
Quality, formal excellence and the pursuit of beauty are commonly ignored as arbitrary, subjective opinions—the result of “bourgeois” conditioning—the remnant of an oppressive past.
It is indisputable: the art world is engaged in A Crisis of Meaning.
ORIGINS offers an alternative vision of art that is guided by a common-sense, formalist approach.
We maintain that art is a visual medium, and the only thing needed to access its meaning is the sense of sight. Formalism, therefore, concentrates on the art object and its formal elements: line, color, texture, composition, to name just a few. It is specifically interested in how the arrangement of these elements create resonant expression. We hold that primary to art is the profoundly emotional and transcendent experience a viewer enjoys when confronting directly a highly expressive, formal composition.
Ideas can only have a presence in art when they are given material shape. The conceptual idea must be transformed into the perceptual art object. This is The Shape of Ideas. The central truth of art is that the human brain’s initial and decisive engagement with a work is embedded in its sensual, formal qualities; everything else builds upon that foundation or fails for lack of it.
Recent advances in neuroaesthetics provide empirical evidence of what we believe. This relatively new science utilizes brain imaging to trace how the brain processes a work of art. The brain evaluates form first, and if the brain finds a composition compelling, reward systems are engaged. This judgment of form arrives in about one-third the time it takes to blink, before conscious thought can construe ideas and subject matter.
The brain ranks the significance of form ahead of ideas.
If the complexity of a work of art holds the brain’s attention, networks ordinarily given to inward thought and self-reflection remain in play—a result scientists did not anticipate. The brain does not consider a great work of art to be a mere object in a room, like a piece of furniture. The brain takes an art object’s formal structure into the viewer’s inner life, as something profoundly meaningful, deeply satisfying and worthy of prolonged contemplation. That deepening of the art experience is what the eminent art historian Lorenz Eitner described as the object’s "power to rouse our senses to a state of responsive happiness which communicates itself to our whole being.”
Quality, formal excellence—even beauty—are not empty words, and they are not subjective opinions. They describe something in the object: a highly expressive organization of form that does not come and go with fashion. The brain is built to recognize that organization. When the formal composition of a work is strong and compelling, the brain responds, and that capacity to react to highly expressive form is part of our biological origins. Our innate ability to recognize and react to expressive form—the beauty of an object—is a critical part of what defines us as human. The Brain on Art proves it.
Ideas, biography, historical context, political theory and ideology are all values that attach to art. This is where universities and museums incorrectly concentrate their attention to the exclusion of form. Are ideas worthy of study? Absolutely, but they do not create the power of the art experience—form does.
ORIGINS asks only that the viewer be allowed to encounter a work of art in a way that is natural to the human being. What any museum owes the viewer is the chance to look without being instructed. If the object is formally compelling, the response will come—involuntarily, deeply felt, and personal. That is not naïveté. It is placing trust in a capacity we possess innately.
The Biology of Form is real. Because it is, we do not have to be told what to feel or think when viewing art. We just have to let the experience happen.
That’s easy, and it’s natural—it’s in our origins.
ORIGINS is new, and it is dedicated to the teaching, advocacy and exhibition of a tradition-based, formalist approach to art. We publish and lecture on the topic extensively. Neuroaesthetics is foundational to our mission—it shapes how we write about art, advocate for art, and design exhibitions.
Neuroaesthetics is also guiding the design and construction of the New ORIGINS Museum. Our museum—we call it a “sanctuary”—will be designed as a “Cultural Village” and will possess all the innovations we have developed to make the encounter with the form of art profoundly rewarding.
The “Cultural Village” concept of the new ORIGINS museum.
We are currently recruiting members to our Board of Trustees, an international body that provides governance and direction to ORIGINS. If you have an interest or any questions, please contact us at this email address: Founder@origins.institute.
A prototype of a pavilion in our new museum. (by Kengo Kuma & Associates)
Simply click on this link, and you will receive a free subscription to our newsletter: Contact ORIGINS. You will stay informed of all our activities and events. We include articles about exhibitions and collections around the world related to formalism. We also provide a forum for ideas and opinions related to our mission: to promote formalism in art.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Index of the ORIGINS Website:
Our New Museum
The new ORIGINS museum will be a cultural village of small pavilions and gardens, built so that a few masterpieces can be encountered without fatigue, ideology, or haste.
Introduction Formalism has been nearly abandoned in museums and universities in favor of ideology. Origins demonstrates that this is a misunderstanding of how the human brain innately evaluates art—it prioritizes form over ideas.
I. The Shape of Ideas
Ideas depend on form for expression; form does not depend on a great idea. A slight subject, masterfully made, can become a masterpiece—hence Cezanne’s Apples and van Gogh’s Chair. Even the most significant and relevant content cannot rescue a weak formal composition.
II. A Crisis of Meaning
Universities and museums have redefined art as an intellectual and political exercise. Counter to this is the tradition of formalism, which places the primary emphasis on the viewer’s transcendent experience of an object’s formal design.
III, The Biology of Form
From early hominin collecting to Neanderthal marks, childhood scribbling, and Paleolithic cave painting, the evidence converges: the human instinct to create, evaluate and appreciate form is an innate part of us and our biology.
IV. The Brain on Art—Neuroaesthetics Neuroaesthetics traces the brain’s response to an encounter with a “compelling” formal composition. Form is judged in a fraction of a second; and reward follows before subject matter can be evaluated. When the work is strong enough, inward reflection stays in play, and the object is absorbed into the viewer’s inner life.
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Founder Meet our founder—Dr. Michael DeMarsche
