ART AS A MEANS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATION'
Tanja Perskaja's objective is to show the spiritual patterns which are created by God; to understand these patterns is to better understand God. Many religions and philosophies have a concept of these patterns: Plato called them forms; Jung called them archetypes; even the scientific community is beginning to note their existence. Perskaja believes it is best to describe these abstract structures with abstract art. Abstract art has the ability to show us something beyond the physical, because it is not unique to anyone physical environment, nor to anyone set of symbols tied to a religion or people. Because of this, the artist believes abstract art will soon become very important to communication.
Perskaja's Background
Perskaja was born in Moscow in 1947. She studied at Moscow's University of Art and Architecture, which was originally grounded in the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky's ideas. In 1977 she moved to Sweden. Perskaja has exhibited in Cologne, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, and Singapore, among other places.
Some of the earliest works Perskaja painted were published as illustrations of the ideas of Soviet scientists in the magazine Knowledge is Power. During this period she began developing a language of symbols and colors. In these illustrations, as in many of her later works, the subject matter is the interaction of various forces on various levels in the universe. These forces include natural forces, spiritual forces, and personal forces. Her paintings generally depict structures or forms: visual representations which seek to aid the viewers' understanding of God's patterns.
In a recent interview, Perskaja explained that growing up and beginning her career in the former Soviet Union meant that the prominent perspectives were philosophical, psychological, or scientific, rather than religious. Although religion is now a very important aspect of her life and work, Perskaja is still sceptical of dogmas. This is the main reason she doesn't belong to any specific sect. Perskaja likes to look at all religions and not to deny any of them. As she explains it, she takes from the place "where all religions belong together." She also feels that religion and science are very connected. She believes that the greatest scientists are spiritual and the greatest spiritual visionaries (such as Swedenborg) are scientists.
Perskaja also doesn't feel that she belongs to any particular school of art. In general Perskaja likes what was happening in the art world from the turn of the century until the 1920' s. She appreciates how artists from that era were searching for truth and the way the universe works. However, while Constructivist artists from that time, like Pieter Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich, sought to break the universe down to its barest geometric essentials through the process of abstraction, as Perskaja puts it, "like a child breaks a toy to see how it works," she is more interested in gathering these bits and pieces back together. They came from a philosophical perspective. She comes from a religious perspective. She believes God is prime reality.
Kandinsky and Mondrian based a lot of their works on the spiritual concepts of theosophists, like Helena Blavatsky, Rudolph Steiner, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater. Perskaja has read Blavatsky but is particularly interested in Besant and Leadbeater's book entitled Thought Forms. As the book explains, thought forms move through the spiritual atmosphere and can exert influence on people. They can be projected from one person to another, or from a painting to its beholder. According to Leadbeater and Besant, the quality of a thought and the emotion related to it determine its color, while the nature of the thought determines its structure.
Various American artists of the 1960's were interested in creating tantric diagrams, much like mandalas, which have been described as "potent images of divinity that can only be conceived of in abstract forms." Perskaja says she doesn't consciously try to create mandalas, but she can see that her work has much in common with them.
Perskaja's Artistic Intentions
Perskaja's Johnny Appleseed Series, exhibited at the Swedenborg Library in 1993, seems a cross between the scientific diagrams she began her career with, and mandalas. Perskaja dedicated this series to Swedenborg because the Writings were her primary source of ideas for the paintings, but she also explained she's seen many of these same ideas in other ideologies. It is in the Johnny Appleseed Series, that she first uses the concept of the three levels, which would become a prominent subject and device in much of her later work as well. These three levels are the spiritual level, the natural level, and the middle level of interaction.
In the case of the painting entitled The Land of the Lord (see picture) the three levels are present. In the upper spiritual level the sphere representing the Lord as the sun is located. On the natural-level the sun or sphere is not as bright; the Lord created the natural world with his reflection in it. Man and the world were created in God's image. On the left side of the painting the feminine is represented with curves, while the right hand side-the masculine side-is brighter and more angular. The triangles in this work represent actual power. The triangle pointing downward represents God striving towards mankind, and the triangle pointing upward represents humankind striving towards God. At the point where the two triangles of-the divine and humankind meet, something new is born. At the point where the opposites of male and female meet, something new is born as well. The ultramarine blue used in this painting refers to spirituality. As with each work in the series, a burnt fragment of the Arcana Celestia is included. The fragment in this piece concerns the promises of the Lord to Abraham in Genesis.
The paintings of the Johnny Appleseed Series with their clean water colors, resemble luminescent stained glass windows. They have an elevated intellectual atmosphere. The Grail Legend Series retains the same simplicity, but its works have a warm earthy appearance. This is due to the pieces' soft painterly forms and muted colors, as well as their medium of oil rather than watercolor. The style of this set of works has been compared to those of the Expressionist Marc Chagall.
Perskaja says the primary purpose of this series is to illustrate the various roles in human life. Her Rune Cards are connected to the Grail Legend Series (see picture). Each card refers to an archetype (or role) in the Grail legend. One card displays an up arrow which represents Excalibur. A card displaying a cross represents Guinevere. Perskaja says that God created forces, powers within humanity. One can call these forces heroes. She feels Swedenborg talked about these archetypal forces a lot, although he explained them in a more complicated manner.
Perskaja strives to create quietness in her paintings. This is one of the reasons she can't belong to a specific school of art. With Kandinsky's Surrealism, Mondrian's Constructivism, and Chagall's Expressionism, there is a busyness she doesn't wish to have in her own work. She feels Kandinsky tried to work with too many images at the same time, Mondrian dealt with too much intellect, and Chagall with too much emotion.
Perskaja also strives to create harmony and universality in her paintings; she seeks to portray the feeling that we all belong to the same God and the same universe. To Perskaja, abstraction is the universal scientific language of the future. The abstraction in her Rune Cards combines numerous spiritual languages, including the Tarot, I Ching, the Grail Legend, and the Kabalah. The artist explains that speaking with people of many different religious perspectives makes one's work stronger, because more people can understand it. When speaking to people in Bryn Athyn, Perskaja used the Johnny Appleseed Series' Swedenborgian ideas. When she did a series of works for a gallery in a university city set up by Martin Luther, she used Luther's writings to connect to her viewers.
Perskaja and the Post-Modern Art World
When asked how critics generally react to her work, Tanja Perskaja said she has rarely had bad reviews because critics often feel her work is beyond their understanding, so they are unable to judge it. Galleries and critics in the Post-Modem art world are often afraid of art with a spiritual meaning, partially because they think that not everyone can understand it. The Post-Modem era which began in the art world in the 1970's, saw a shift in the artistic mind set. Artistic autonomy, heroism and beauty are no longer easy to find. As Perskaja describes it, galleries now tend to like art that is "dirty and crazy." A piece of art's subject matter is now determined much less by the artist and much more by the viewer's decision on what i.t is about. Art with an absolute message is discouraged. Perskaja goes against the times in that she deals with high idealistic subject matter with a definite message. She also goes against the grain in feeling that an artist ought to push themselves aside and become an instrument, allowing spiritual ideas to flow in.
Another interesting matter to note, in relation to the critics' reaction to Perskaja, is that they tend to be surprised or even frustrated to find that she is a woman. Some people have been so shocked as to leave an exhibit. When asked why her gender was so astounding to some, she explained that it is because her works are very "big" in their subject matter and very intellectual. Most well known female artists today tend to deal with subjects like body image, women's rights, and feminine spirituality. In general their art tends to be very grounded in cultural and social baggage. They commonly use the media or notions of text, meat, boudoirs, clothing, and their own bodies to express their ideas. Perskaja's use of the traditional media of oil and watercolor and her idealistic, intellectual approach are rather unusual. The critics who do review her work compliment her courage.
Perskaja's work does fit the Post-Modem world, in that its language comes from many sources and its style varies. The fact that some of her works, such as her Rune Cards, have direct practical applications also classifies her as "Post Modern" artist. She believes that abstraction will become a means of universal communication, and that as time goes on more and more people will understand it.
Perskaja is indeed a difficult artist to classify under one school or time period. Early twentieth century artists didn't use many symbols. Perskaja takes a more holistic approach than these artists, in her abundant use of symbols from various sources, and in her willingness to accept practical and personally variable applications of her art. In this way she is more of a Post-Modem artist. However, while Post-Modem art derives its meaning from viewer interpretation, Perskaja' s structures have one universal, spiritual meaning, regardless of the outward form they take in the individual viewer's life. Finally, what sets Perskaja apart from her contemporaries is that instead of offering only questions, she is offering answers.
Jenny McMaster
Jenny graduated from Ottawa's Canterbury Arts Program in 1992. She spent a year at York University in Toronto, a/so majoring in art. She then attended the Academy College for a year, during which she was an intern at Glencairn. This article was written as part of her internship.
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