Most people want to dominate. They fear the worst. But you can’t control anything in the least. You must surrender. It is only to the extent that one accepts the worst that one has anything relevant to say. But the more intensely inner reality is seen, the less possible its expression becomes.
— Bram van Velde (tr. Tweed and Roman)
Posted in Bram van Velde
Sometimes, it is necessary to abandon all hope. To be nothing. Simply nothing. To remain totally alone, defenseless, it’s horrifying. You need the courage of a madman. But this approach is obviously something sacred.
The most incredible thing is that so much happens outside of the will. You can’t will anything. Not even solitude is an act of will. You simply endure it. You must hold on until the very end, without weakening. You can do nothing else. But you must not believe that because you accept being nothing, you are anyone special.
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There is a moment when the task is no longer an effort. When this exhausting work is no longer tiring.
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Perhaps somewhere, there is also joy; somewhere, the satisfaction of not allowing oneself to be defeated.
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It is terrible to be bound to life. Each second is a struggle.
— Bram van Velde (tr. Tweed and Roman, pensum press)
Posted in Bram van Velde
I cannot paint a ‘Bram’. I don’t know how to. A ‘Bram’ emerges and surprises me every time. It’s not a utility, it’s the contrary of a product.
— Bran van Velde (tr. Tweed and Roman)
Posted in Bram van Velde
We have waited a long time for an artist who is brave enough, is at ease enough with the great tornadoes of intuition, to grasp that the break with the outside world entails the break with the inside world, that there are no replacement relations for naive relations, that what are called outside and inside are one and the same.
— Beckett on Bram van Velde (via here)
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Posted in Beckett, Bram van Velde, John Banville
He is suffering from his isolation. He has talked about it several times. As always during the winter, he has been unable to work. He has seen nobody. He goes out walking or sits for hours in his armchair, entirely given over to what is taking shape inside him. He talks frequently about the unknown, of what emerges when all desire, all will and self-regard have spontaneously vanished and the being becomes purely passive. It is to the extent that he has the audacity and courage to welcome the unknown that the painter can engender something new and produce paintings which are each an effective encounter with life. ‘Painting’, he says, ‘is attempting to reach a point where it is impossible to remain’.
Juliet on Bram van Velde, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde
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Posted in Bram van Velde, Charles Juliet
Journaliste: Est-ce que vous avez été un, un homme de nature à aimer rester dans la nature à la regarder?
Bram Van Velde: Oh je crois que je vois pas grand chose, je vois… Je vois vraiment peu…
Journaliste: C’est curieux pour un peintre de dire: je vois peu.
Bram Van Velde: Non, c’est pas, c’est que… le réel m’intéresse très peu.. Ça n’a presque pas d’importance, seulement je me trouve bien ou pas bien. D’être assis, je me sens bien, parce que il y a quelque chose qui vous calme, surtout y a pas la bruit. Le bruit me fait terriblement souffrir… Et puis évidemment je… J’ai fait un tel effort dans la peinture… Au fond, c’est un effort vers le invisible, qui me quitte jamais, et seulement le tableau me fait voir… C’est le moment où on vit, vous voyez. A tel point le tableau qui voit a vraiment sorti de vide, on n’a pas besoin de refaire un autre tableau, ça peut guérir le mort avant qu’on a de nouveau besoin. C’est comme ça que j’arrive parfois à faire une seul tableau… Qui me fait vivre, je n’ai qu’à y penser et je suis, rempli vie… On joue un peu sa vie avec la peinture.
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Posted in Bram van Velde
‘If these gouaches live at all, it is because they are true, they derive from life. They are born of the unknown – and not of habit, or know-how, or intention, or of some recipe.’
Echoing what I have just told him about my work:
‘There comes a time when serious work is no longer an effort. When demanding work of that kind no longer tires you.
‘You just have to give back what you have received.
‘Sometimes, you work, you do your best, but there is no reward. The thing escapes you, you can’t get inside it.
‘Too many artists play it safe and keep within the bounds of the possible.
‘Above all, never affirm.
‘It’s important to see that my paintings are ultimately stimulating. They are not at all the kind of thing that inspires despair.’
— Bram van Velde, in Juliet’s Conversations with Samuel Becket and Bran van Velde
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Posted in Beckett, Bram van Velde, Charles Juliet
Notes from a Room 