Melville's Painting

A R T I S T S ’ F O R U M past five decades during which the paintings on the surrounding walls had also been created. Visual artists like to be represented by the art they create more than the words they might say. If, however, you provide them with a forum, they will, inore often than not, surprise themselves as well as their auditors with newfound and freshly-phrased insights, whether about process or inspiration or the inevitable relation between the two. For reproductions of all of the visual artworks that were included in the Conference exhibition, Artists After MobyDick , you may consult the illustrated catalog that was published as the October 2001 issue of Lmiathan. For representations of the words spoken by the artists who did attend the Artists’ Forum, you may read the following statements. They are presented in the order in which each speaking head floated up alongside those pastel heads on the tenth floor: Callahan, Del Tredici, Schlachter. Here, as in the Forum itself, their words are preceded by those of Thanasis Christodoulou, who had sent a written statement from Volos, Greece, to be read in Hempstead, New York, making him, in his words as well as his art, present in spite of his absence. Melville’s Painting A. C. CHRISTODOULOU Volos, Greece T o produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme” writes Melville in Moby-Dick. In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, he confirms that the mighty theme “that impelled” his “book”was “the pervading thought.” If we realize that Melville speaks literally and means exactly what he says, then his words are revealing. He wrote a book not for a whale but for the “pervading thought.” Indeed, I do not doubt that Moby Dick is not a real whale. To use a Melvillean expression, it is “the silliest thing under the sun” for us to believe that Melville wrote a book about whales. Writing his book, he knew well that his whale was a simple concept and not a bulky animal. Also, he knew that a concept is the most elementary form of (human) thought. Consequently, for Melville the mighty theme of Moby-Dick was the Thought in its simplest form; the Concept itself; something unknown, that pervades all things and creatures of the Universe: ships, whales, places, whalers, men, etc. The mighty theme of his book is more accurately, then, the true nature of the Conccpc. And what Melville means by the terms True and Truth is “the tragi5 0 L E V I A T H A N A R T I S T S ’ F O R U M calness of human thought in its unbiased, native, and profounder workings,” not the traditional (false) philosophical, scientific, and psychological “truths.” The explanation of these workings is another story, not easy to read, not easy to understand, which however we have to keep in mind in order to be able to grasp the great and unique meaning of the rare “art”of this absolutely honest and frank artist. I said the crucial word. Yes, the Melville of Moby-Dick is a great artist. When writing his book, he is constantly painting. He loves painting with passion . Robert Wallace showed another form of his extreme love of painting with his excellent studies of the last years. I spent ten years of my life translating this rare and unique book into Greek. I was working four and five hours every day for ten years, all weekends included. I confess that there is not a sentence in it that is not a real picture, a true plate, a stunner. When I would translate a Melville text, first I formed the exact picture in front of my eyes; that is, I painted each phrase in my mind, and then I tried to find the exact conceptual Greek correspondences on a musical basis. Melville, however, is an artist not only because he likes art, but also because all the great art of the past (in contrast to the poor present) was absolutely pictorial and palpable. Melville the American, who dreamed to surpass the great European tradition and to create a new literary tradition...