Len Bernstein -- Photographic Education --An approach to art and life based on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel

I want to call your attention to a web site I respect very much. Len Bernstein -- Photographic Education --An approach to art and life based on the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel. Len Bernstein states in his opening paragraph:

When I began to photograph 30 years ago, I felt I found a way of expressing myself that met something so deep inside me that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Walking with my camera, the city streets seemed transformed--friendlier, more interesting--and I spent hours searching for dramatic situations, trying to capture the right moment. Looking through the viewfinder, what I saw had new value for me, boredom and loneliness seemed to vanish, and I wished I could feel that way all the time. And hoping to learn what made a photograph successful, I avidly studied the history and technique of photography.

My hopes were met when I first heard this principle stated by Eli Siegel, the American critic and founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” I've had the thrill of testing this principle in thousands of instances, from the first known photograph taken by Nicéphore Niépce around 1826 to the most modern work of today.

Special Event Sunday, October 23rd, 2:30 pm

Come to this great musical and ethical event!

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company proudly presents

THE GREAT FIGHT OF EGO vs. TRUTH Songs about Love, Justice,& Everybody's Feelings!

IN THIS MATINEE, entertainment, knowledge, and ethics are together in a way new in history!

You'll hear, through songs—including some of the most popular and beautiful songs—what the biggest fight is within every person and America herself. Eli Siegel, the great American critic, philosopher, and poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism, explained it. It's the fight between contempt for the world and respect for it. It's the fight of Ego—lying about the world to suit yourself—vs. Truth.

Rock 'n roll, ballads, musical comedy, & more! for announcement, click here

Absurdity in a Dukedom; or, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night--& Everyone's Trouble about Love!

Sunday, AUGUST 7, 2:30pm Special Event at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012 212 777-4490

for announcement click here

ABSURDITY IN A DUKEDOM; or, SHAKESPEARE'S TWELFTH NIGHT—& EVERYONE'S TROUBLE ABOUT LOVE!
A Dramatic Presentation of Eli Siegel's Great 1951 Lecture
with scenes from the play

Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night has both delighted and baffled people for centuries. What does it have to do with men and women now, trying to make sense of love and our lives? The answer is in this matinee!

Cast: CAROL McCLUER • TIMOTHY LYNCH • ANNE FIELDING • BENNETT COOPERMAN • KAREN VAN OUTRYVE • DEREK MALI • CARRIE WILSON • KEVIN FENNELL

With an overture by Edward Green performed by Mr. Green (piano) and Barbara Allen (flute)

Come to this stirring matinee!

A Dramatic Reading of Selections from GWE Young Man of New Guinea by Arnold Perey, Anthropologist & Aesthetic Realism Consultant

Sunday JUNE 12, 2:30pm
Special Event at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation:

A Dramatic Reading of Selections from
GWE Young Man of New Guinea
—a novel against racism —
by Arnold Perey, PhD, Anthropologist,
Aesthetic Realism Consultant

—with slides and music—

See Aesthetic Realism a New Perspective for Anthropology.
For announcement, click here.

Terrain Gallery 50th Anniversary Exhibition Opening / Aesthetic Realism Foundation

In 1955, the Terrain Gallery opened. I remember the New York art scene was filled with lively discussions about art. Beauty, it was felt, couldn't be defined. Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, asked: Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? Since then--1955--the Terrain Gallery has had shows of many different styles of painting, sculpture, mixed media--with artists participating in discussions. These exhibitions have been of the highest calibre, showing that whatever style of art was popular, what Eli Siegel saw and explained about the meaning of beauty is true. He saw that beauty is the making one of opposites--and at the same time, he showed the value of art in our everyday lives--how it explains how we want to be.

This 50th Anniversary Exhibition Opening is important in the history of art. Be there!

Saturday, MAY 7, 2005

Terrain Gallery's 50th Anniversary Exhibition Opening

Announcement

Highlights from 50 Years at the Terrain Gallery

Aesthetic Realism and the Drama by Eli Siegel

Everyone who is interested in the drama, will want to attend this great event at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene Street, in SoHo—next month!

SATURDAY, APRIL 23 8PM

We celebrate Shakespeare's birthday with

AESTHETIC REALISM & THE DRAMA by Eli Siegel—including scenes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and John Banks' 1728 play The Earl of Essex: A Tragedy

“In the drama, there has to be some feeling of fight, however faint; but the fight is never of strangers. There is always, when drama is most dramatic, a fight of people who are for each other…. Romeo and Juliet is about two families fighting. And two people are together, knowing something also wants them apart.”

“SCIENCE IS LOVABLE” from The Aesthetic Nature of the World by Eli Siegel

—and more

......................................................
And if you want to read honest accounts of Aesthetic Realism classes given by Eli Siegel, of which the Shakespeare lecture is one, instead of misrepresentations, go to this link Lectures by Eli Siegel

"All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." --Eli Siegel

NEWS


On Saturday, February 26, 2005, at 8:00 pm, the Terrain Gallery in New York City will celebrate its 50th Anniversary.

Eli Siegel's definitive Fifteen Questions: "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?" presented by Dorothy Koppelman, Chaim Koppelman, Carrie Wilson.

Also: AESTHETIC REALISM SHOWS WHAT'S GOING ON IN AMERICAN REALIST ART & IN OURSELVES

This talk by Marcia Rackow and Donita Ellison, first presented at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, looks at works by Jacob Lawrence, Alex Katz, Chuck Close, Duane Hanson, and others. The speakers say:

"Central in all realist art is the seeing that the commonplace also has grandeur....And one of its great values is that it is critical, through form, of the ways we can lessen reality, divide it, be disproportionate."

Here is the announcement

The Terrain Gallery / Aesthetic Realism Foundation is located in SoHo, at 141 Greene Street, off Houston, New York, NY. Telephone: 212 777-4490.

Some history: "The Terrain Gallery is the first gallery to be based on a philosophic way of seeing reality itself, including art--Aesthetic Realism. It opened in New York City in 1955, with artist Dorothy Koppelman as director, publishing in its first announcement, the now historic 15 Questions, "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?" by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism. In continuous exhibitions of contemporary art, as well as notable discussions on the art of the world, the criterion for beauty presented in these questions has been shown to be true about art of every style, time, and place." --Alma Vincent

Following you will find links to articles about some of the great art of the world:


Sargent's Madame X; or, Assertion and retreat in Woman—Explained by Aesthetic Realism by Lynette Abel

In "A Woman Is the Oneness of Aesthetic Opposites" Eli Siegel writes about 15 pairs of opposites in women. And this is what he writes about Advancing: Recessive: "Towards something is in the feminine mind importantly.... But how much retreat is in woman, too, the unseen sinking, the leaving for a previously chosen background." I think Sargent's Madame X is an opportunity to study these opposites, which all women have.

Gerritt Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair, and What Learned about Rest and Motion in Myself by Anthony C. Romeo, AIA

In 1918, the architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld designed a chair that affected not only furniture design, but the history of architecture. Rietveld's "Red and Blue" chair is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and it is a chair I love....

Our Selves Are Aesthetic! by Ruth Oron

About Claude Monet's Autumn Effect at Argenteuil and Aesthetic Realism Consultations

"Can We Be Expansive and Contained Like Van Gogh's Starry Night?" by Miriam Mondlin

"I learned the reason I loved this painting, and why it has stirred people for more than 100 years: what makes this painting beautiful is the way it puts opposites together, and these are the same opposites we are trying to put together in our lives.

MORE TO COME

EVIL SEEN BEAUTIFULLY! or, VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE—

I want to tell you about a great production taking place on:

Sunday FEBRUARY 13, 2:30 PM

THE AESTHETIC REALISM THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS—

EVIL SEEN BEAUTIFULLY! or, VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE—

A dramatic production of Eli Siegel's great 1951 lecture

—with scenes from the novel—and Incidental Music
on Flute & Harpsichord
announcement

Writer Mike Palmer Learns from Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism

While surfing the web lately, I saw this important page on Mike Palmer's website that I wanted to share with you.

Palmer gives an honest picture of an Aesthetic Realism class, as Ellen Reiss taught him. It is brief, but accurate.

On this page you will see the kindness and education that I have experienced myself. I am sure there will be more online.

More later. Meanwhile, here's the link: The Fight between Justice and Ego in an Artist

This is the conclusion of a paper he presented at an Aesthetic Realism seminar: "Ego or Justice?—the Raging Fight in Every Man" (with commentary on John Sloan).