Reduction in Art and Brain Science, by Eric Kandel, page 130, Zettel 129

As (Agnes) Martin put it, Rothko “reached zero so that nothing could stand in the way of truth.”....As Rothko was to say about these later works, “A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is an experience.” - Reduction in Art and Brain Science, by Eric Kandel, page 130, Zettel 129

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, by Erick Kandel page 130, Zettel 128

In focusing on color, Rothko was searching for a new style of abstraction that would link modern art forms that reach out to the infinite. To achieve this, he abandoned figuration and focused exclusively on the expressive power of large fields of color. His experiments inspired a number of artists to follow his lead, to free color from objective contexts, inhibit access to figurative associations, and make it a subject of its own.  In a way, Rothko succeeded in achieving what biologists, including biologists of perception and memory, try to do with reductionist science. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, by Erick Kandel page 130, Zettel 128

John Rohrbach, preface of “In the American West” Richard Avedon, Zettel 125

…Instead of the staged explorations of artifice delivered by Cindy Sherman, he delivers the results of a heartfelt improvised dance between photographer and sitter where landscape comes projected through clothing and time is revealed in every blemish and fold of skin….Together, the photographer and his subjects had succeeded in delivering piercing looks at the wear of life’s struggles. - John Rohrbach, preface of “In the American West” Richard Avedon, Zettel 125

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, by Erick Kandel, page 126, Zettel 124

Rothko saw such reductionism as necessary: “The familiar identity of things has to be pulverized in order to destroy the finite associations with which our society increasingly enshrouds every aspect of our environment” (ROss 1991). Only by pushing the limits of color, abstraction, and reduction, he argued, can the artist create an image that librates us from conventional associations with color and form and allows our brain to form new ideas, associations, and relationships - and new emotional responses to them. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, by Erick Kandel, page 126, Zettel 124

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science” by Erick Kandel, page 115, Zettel 123

Thus what abstract artists contend - and abstract art itself bears out - is that an impression, a sensory stimulation of the retina, is merely a spark for associative recall. The abstract painter does not attempt to provide pictorial detail, but rather to create conditions that enable the viewer to complete the picture based on his or her own unique experience. Legend has it that upon viewing a sunset painted by Turner, a young woman remarked, “I never saw a sunset like that, Mr. Turner,” to which Turner replied, “Don’t you wish you could, madam?”  - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science” by Erick Kandel, page 115, Zettel 123

Dostoevsky, A Writer in His Time, Joseph Frank page 57, Zettel 136

“To know nature, the soul, god, love … These are known by the heart, not the mind.” Dostoevskey argues that thought cannot unriddle the mystery of creation because “mind is a material faculty,” and as such is not in touch with transcendental truth. “Mind is an instrument, a machine, moved by the fire of the soul.” It is the soul that is the true medium for attaining the highest knowledge, for ”if the goal of knowledge is love and nature, this opens up a clear field for the heart.” Poetry is thus just as much a medium of knowledge as philosophy because “ the pet in the transport of inspiration, unriddles god.” - Dostoevsky, A Writer in HIs Time, Joseph Frank page 57, Zettel 136

Reductionism in Art and Brina Science, Eric Kandel, pg 101, Zettel 120

..it was Pollock who, according to even to de Kooning, “really broke the ice.” Pollock proved to be by far, the strongest personality of his generation. As de Kooning put it: “Every so often, a painter has to destroy painting. Cezanne dd it. Picasso did it with Cubism. Then Pollock did it. He busted our idea of a picture all to hell. Then there could be new paintings again. (Galenson 2009) - Reductionism in Art and Brina Science, Eric Kandel, pg 101, Zettel 120

Reductionism in Art and Brina Science, Eric Kandel, pg 99, Zettel 118

Despite the abstract nature of these paintings, de Kooning later insisted that he was not interested in “abstracting” - taking things out and reducing his paintings to form line, or color. Rather he often painted in what appeared to others to be an abstract form because the reduction of figuration allowed him to put more emotional and conceptual components into the painting: anger, pain, love, his ideas about space. - Reductionism in Art and Brina Science, Eric Kandel, pg 99, Zettel 118

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric Kandel, pg 90 & 91, Zettel 117

Two of de Kooning’s paintings were of seminal importance in this period: Excavation and Woman I. Excavation, painted in 1950, is generally considered one of the most important paintings of the twentieth century….In Excavation, de Kooning achieved a magical synthesis of these two modern claims of truth. His powerful, poised style integrated the rigorous detachment of Cubist structure with the personal drive and spontaneity of the moment. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric Kandel, pg 90 & 91, Zettel 117

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric Kandel, pg 87, Zettel 116

The art critic Clement Greenberg divided the abstract Expressionist Painters into two groups (1961,1962): the gestural painters de Kooning and Pollock, and the color-filed painter Rothko, Morris Louis, and Barnett Newman. However, as the art historian Robert Rosenblum points out, this distinction is less important than the artist’s common pursuit of the sublime (1961) - Reductionism in Art and Brina Science, Eric Kandel, pg 87, Zettel 116

Daniel Lewis, The New York Times, Thursday, July 2023 on MILAN KUNDERA, 1929 - 2023

Milan Kundera was born on April 1, 1929, in Brno, in what is now the Czech Republic, the son of Milada Janosikova and Ludvik Kundera. His father, a noted concert pianist and and musicologist, taught him piano, and he considered a career in music before his interests shifted to literature, particularly French.
“From an early age ,” he told an interviewer for the literary journal Salmagundi in 1987, “I read Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Breton, Cocteau, Bataille, Ionesco, and admired French surrealism.” - Daniel Lewis, The New York Times, Thursday, July 2023 on MILAN KUNDERA, 1929 - 2023

Daniel Lewis, The New York Times, Thursday, July 2023 on MILAN KUNDERA, 1929 - 2023

Mr. Kundera told The Paris Review in 1983: “My lifetime ambition has been to unite the utmost seriousness of question with utmost lightness of form. The combination of a frivolous form and a serious subject immediately unmasks the truth about our dramas (those that occur in our beds as well as those that we play out on the great stage of History) and their awful insignificance. We experience the unbearable lightness of being. “ - Daniel Lewis, The New York Times, Thursday, July 2023 on MILAN KUNDERA, 1929 - 2023

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 71

As artists started to move toward abstraction, they began to see analogies between their art and music. Although music has no content and uses abstract elements of sound and division of time, it moves us powerfully. Why, then, does pictorial art have to have content? This question was addressed by the French Poet Charles Baudelaire, who pioneered a new style of prose-poetry and wrote the famous volume of poetry Les Fleurs du mal (The flowers of Evil), in which he described the changing nature of beauty in modern life. Baudelaire argued that even though each of our sense responds to a restricted range of stimuli, all of the senses are connected at a deeper aesthetic level. It is therefore particularly interesting that the earlierst truly abstract painting was achieve by the pioneer of abstract music, Arnold Schoenberg. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 71

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 69

On November 12, 1918, the day after the day after the armistice ending World War I was signed, Monet committed to giving the French government a set of large paintings as a monument to peace. Shortly after his death in 1926 at the age of eighty-six the French government constructed two oval galleries at the Musée de l'Orangerie, …as a permanent home for eight water lily murals…most of the murals do not show the sky; only the infinity of the lily pond. These remarkable works are filled with ambiguity and beauty. We see in them the beginnings of a change from a dialogue between the artist and his subject to a dialogue between the artist and the canvas. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 69

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 44

In us, learning has led to the establishment of a completely new kind of evolution - cultural evolution - which has largely supplanted biological evolution as a means of transmitting knowledge and adaptations across generations. Our capacity for learning is so remarkably developed that human societies change almost exclusively by cultural evolution. In fact there is no strong evidence of any biological change in the size or structures of the human brain since Homo Sapiens appeared in the fossil record some 50,000 years go. All human accomplishments, from antiquity to modern times to modern times, are the product of cultural evolution, and therefore memory. - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 44

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 25

What is so wonderful - indeed, almost magical - about our brain is that we can perceive an object based on incomplete information, and we can perceive it as being the same under strikingly different conditions of lighting and context - Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Eric R. Kandel Page 25

Deepak Chopra, interview by The Diary of a CEO

If you’re not joyful you are wasting your life. The fact that I exist is a perpetual surprise for me. What’s the healthiest emotion? Not love, not compassion, not even joy. It’s All. It’s wonder. Why do we exist? Perpetually surprised, full of wonder and joy. You return to innocence. And what we lost today in this world is the loss of innocence - Deepak Chopra, interview by The Diary of a CEO