Martine Vaugel: Survivor, Worshiper, Fool

Transcription of a lecture given by Martine Vaugel at the Foundation for the Advancement of Art Conference at the Pierre Hotel, New York on October 6th, 2003

The Purpose of Art: Creation and Inspiration

It's an honor to be here today among these other distinguished speakers, speaking about what's closest to me, art. I always knew as an artist, the purpose of my life was to create art. This year, I discovered something amazing when I realized the purpose of art to me was to create artists. It was a really phenomenal moment for me.

If it wasn't for the great artists of the past, I would not be able to be who I am today. It's the truth of the art of the past, added to our personal innovation and perspective, that creates the art of the present and then the art of the future. My having looked into Rembrandt's eyes at the Met as a child and seeing the pain and suffering in those great paintings was, for me, the beginning of my life as an artist. I would never have been able to take all the trials of my life as an artist if it were not for knowing that even someone as great as he had to go through that suffering.

Inspiration from Past Masters

One of the ways in which society deals with innovators is to keep them outside. So as an outsider, I would like to say that when I look at Rembrandt, he keeps me going. When I look at Rodin and Van Gogh, anyone who really knew the suffering and showed it in their work, I get to feel like it's okay. I can deal with it. So I realized that the purpose of the art of the past was to inspire and create the artists of the future. Artists in every generation are forward thinkers who have the possibility of speaking the truth, and they can have a deep significance in every age. I believe in this transmission and the chain of information that it reflects.

I believe in leaving my work for future generations to understand what it was to be born a woman in the last half of the 20th century, and this is what I believe in for the future. I also believe in inspiring people. I believe in allowing people to listen and create from their own inner source of personal truth and clarity without qualifying themselves in terms of the fashions of the moment. I hope that my life will be an example of that—the beauty of the art that I've dedicated my life to creating, and the world of art that I live in, which is not the world of art that you live in. You live in a different room, but the purpose of my art is to inspire, and that's the purpose that I believe in.

I believe also in evolution and the inevitability of it to cast aside narcissism, which is what I see as what's really plaguing our planet. Somehow, we the artists—the worst offenders, the self-absorbed naval navigators (that's a funny thing)—have been anointed for generations with the grace to see things that the movers and shakers miss in the rocky world of the moment. I believe artists are evolutionary warriors out to slay the dragons of nihilism. That's why we're a danger to all governments, to all bureaucratic demagogues who would control culture through blackmail—the blackmail of rejection and through bribery of financial security. And that's okay.

The Passionist Movement

In 1991, at the Global Arts Forum conference in Utah, I labeled myself a passionist. Everyone was trying to label me something, and I finally decided to label myself, so I declared myself a passionist, and I opened the passionist movement in that public forum. I didn't fit the description of a realist because, as you'll see from my slides, I sculpt the spirit in material form and sometimes sculpt my personal view of the angelic mythology as well. I believe in the synthesis of the spirit and the body, as opposed to the late 19th-century Victorian ideas of the impurity of the flesh or the early 20th-century deification of the body.

I believe the latter half of the 20th century will be viewed in retrospect as a time when the spiritual consciousness of mankind expanded from religious doctrine into a partnership incorporating the validity and beauty of the body with the essential presence of a personal relationship to a higher plane of consciousness. That's where I come from. That's where my work comes from. And I believe eventually that will be what people will see as the importance of my time. I believe the visual artists, as well as thinkers and creators who see the truth and evolutionary necessity of this union, are the true innovators in line with the next transformation and evolution in our culture and our planet.

When I was younger, everyone told me I would grow out of the figure. I believe, instead, I went through the figure. I combine it with a spirit and create a visible relationship between the two. This, to me, is a modern doctrine, and just like in every age, the writers, scientists, and artists work towards the same end through a different form. I'm a visual artist creating sculptures that break the traditional figurative guidelines and use abstract concepts and geometric dynamism to create a new modern figurative model.

As you'll see in some of my pieces, some figures occupy the same space. I combine Body and Soul visually. I believe I was even born a woman to add a little spice to the equation. Sculpting is predominantly a male-dominated genre, and I'm sculpting from a female perspective. As I see it, the passionist movement is not simply about art but about people telling the truth, coming from what is real for them, whatever gives them their passion, and exploring and expressing themselves in their forms, such as all the speakers here today: scientists, philosophers, and artists.

The Role of Artists in Society

This conference, to me, is about creative passion and the future, as well as understanding and placing ourselves in a historical context. I've been asked to represent to you what makes my work viable in the context of this conference. So please allow me to explain that although I'm a figurative artist, I use abstract geometric relationships to move the viewer with my creative intentions. Most of my sculptures are created with a spiritual concept that is realized in very concrete and material form to transmit an evolutionary moment to the viewer. If I touch upon a universal truth, it's usually after the fact and a surprise. But if I do, then the ramifications become mythic, and I find myself creating a modern mythology, at which point I dance around my studio, thankfully, feeling justified in my existence.

I'll now show you some examples of my work and hope to leave the room dancing.

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Note: This transcription was generated using voice-to-text technology.