Bill +

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Oscar,

My middle son has studied Gestalt psychology for quite some time but never
manages to convey what it is simply enough for me to get enough of a handle
on it to get interested, your few words of explanation have got me very
inquisitive.

Especially the idea that it is useful IN MAKING MEANING to closely consider
the OBVIOUS. The fact that Art has not dared to consider the obvious may
easily be one of its current problems.

I know I've found myself re-asking many of the last century's Art questions
only to realise that the answers that they came up with in those days would
not be the ones that we would give today. Now I find this hugely liberating
but often sense that my answers closely resemble the rather obvious general
public views. I don't mind this but given the need to underpin opinion in
art on rather more scholarly theory maybe Gestalt psychology could help a
great deal. The problem is how do we get a sound general understanding of it
without having to read the almost unintelligible formal writings.

I'm not sure that I really agree with your next points as I feel that stone
carvers often suffer from exactly the same problems as every other kind of
artists.

It is my belief that you can only make different art (and therefore by
implication new art) if you think differently.

I'd love a Gestalt psychology response to this observation.

You cannot have abstract sculpture as it is a contradiction in terms, you
cannot bump into something that is abstract (just an idea). My guess is that
the theory would agree with the suggestion.

Best regards Clive

Sculptor Clive Murray-White
Web: www.cowwarr.com