Aesthetic Realism: A New Understanding of
Art and Life / Lynette Abel
Here I
write about what I have learned from Aesthetic Realism, the
education founded by the American
philosopher, poet, and scholar Eli Siegel.
In articles,
and in papers presented to the public, I
have written about personal and national
concerns, and their relation, based on what
I have learned. And here, too, are
important articleswritten
by friends and colleagues explaining issues
affecting America and the world today.
I live in New York City and love
it here. When I was 23, I began to study the
education I write of on this website.
For instance, how a person is related to
everything else—and the place of art in
understanding this—is outlined in the
principle "The world, art, and self explain
each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of
opposites."
For more about
this, see the Aesthetic Realism Foundation Online Library and
biographical information about Eli Siegel. A current
schedule of seminar classes can be found on
the Foundation's Calendar. And
information about how to audit particular
classes is available too.
It was the
greatest pleasure and richest life
experience to have attended Aesthetic Realism classes
given by Mr. Siegel in the
years from 1973 to 1978. Included here are
selected reports I gave of some
of those classes of scholarly, humorous,
moving talks he gave on a wide diversity of
subjects—on literature, music, the social
sciences, national ethics, economics, the
human self, and so much more.
Today, my
education continues in professional classes
taught each week by Aesthetic Realism Chair
of Education, Ellen Reiss, whom I
love and respect for her honesty,
scholarship, and great kindness.
_________________________________
Newly published
on the Aesthetic Realism
Foundation's Online
Library is:
I recently read this issue of The
Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known,
with a commentary by Chair of Education, Ellen
Reiss. While it was written some
years ago, it has tremendous meaning and
relevance today! It is about the honest,
beautiful ethics upon which America
stands. She writes:
Dear Unknown
Friends:
What it means
to love America, really to
love America, is an urgent matter. I
have written on it recently and continue
to, because Aesthetic Realism explains
that love for country is a matter of
ethics and aesthetics—in keeping with
this Aesthetic Realism principle: “All
beauty is a making one of opposites, and
the making one of opposites is what we
are going after in ourselves.” The great
1968 lecture we are serializing has that
principle at its basis. In It and
Self, Eli Siegel shows what no
one before him saw: the central likeness
between art and science. Both, he shows,
put opposites together. Chiefly, both
art and science are a oneness of a self
and an it—of a person
expressing what he or she is by being
fair to an instance of the outside
world.
We
need to give to America the justice
which both science and art give. And so
I am going to comment on a statement
which has been felt to stand for
American patriotism: the Pledge of
Allegiance, recited in the classrooms of
the land and at other gatherings of
Americans. I am not discussing the
controversies around the Pledge, though
they are important: There is the
question of whether it should indeed be
a school fixture, with every child
compelled to proclaim his or her loyalty
each day. There is the phrase “under
God,” inserted during the McCarthy
era—in violation, many believe, of the
First Amendment and of the separation
between religion and state so crucial to
American democracy. What I look at here
are the words of the Pledge, because
doing so provides a chance to ask how we
should see our nation.
And, I'm glad to refer you to a
moving, important paper about the life of
the American abolitionist and activist,
Sojourner Truth by Aesthetic Realism
consultant and poet, Karen
Van Outryve. You can read it here.
This website is great in terms of art and
culture. It contains prints, paintings,
and writings of these important 20th
century artists, Chaim
& Dorothy Koppelman. As I read
what they wrote about the Aesthetic
Realism of Eli
Siegel, I was stirred to my depths
by the honesty, beauty, and originality of
their expression. See it here.
Kevin
Fennell—one of
the best rock 'n' roll writers and critics
today— has
written about Stevie Wonder's great "Fingertips,
Part
II." It's such an exciting paper,
with musical examples throughout. In
it, Mr. Fennell shows powerfully, through
his Aesthetic Realism education, how art
and life are in a dynamic, inextricable
relation. "Anyone
Who
Had a Heart" by Burt Bachrach and
Hal David, is sung by Carrie
Wilson. I'm proud to be one of the
backup singers, along with Meryl
Nietsch-Cooperman, & Ann
Richards.
It was a
tremendous experience to study and see how
the intimate and the wide are in the
Beatles' great song "I
Saw Her Standing There," originally presented as part of
an Aesthetic Realism Music seminar.
To hear "Carol
of the Drum" or "Little Drummer Boy"
by Harry Simeone, Katherine K. Davis, and
Henry Onorati, performed December 2011 by
the Aesthetic Realism Theatre
Company as part of the Special Event
"The Beauty and Urgency of Justice," click
here.
A
wonderful seminar paper
by my colleague, Leila
Rosen, is on this very
important subject: What
in
a Woman Herself, Interferes with Love? from
an Aesthetic Realism seminar, with a
discussion of Neil Simon's 1977 film The Goodbye Girl.
I love
this important essay, The
Ordinary Doom, in which
Eli Siegel explains two large matters: 1.
Why people feel unexpressed and, 2. Why
people feel not understood.
In 1946, Paul Abel began his
career as an airline pilot. Several
years later in 1949, Mr. Abel received
his Master's degree in Music at Syracuse
University, where he was on the faculty
and taught voice. Then in 1969, he began
to study Aesthetic Realism in New York
City in classes with Eli
Siegel. In 1975 he taught voice,
using the Aesthetic
Realism point of view. This is the
point of view of the essay presented
here. What Mr. Abel sees about Verdi'sRigoletto,
I believe, adds importantly to its
beauty and value.
--Editor