HOWARD NEUFELD, artist

Imaginative Perception and the Cave Paintings of Europe:

National Geographic Magazine; January, 2015 edition; pp. 32-57

"The First Artists", by Chip Walter, photographs by Stephen Alvarez

The article refers to the cave paintings in Southern France and Spain such as Tito Bustillo in Northern Spain; El Castillo on Monte Castillo; France's Lascaux, Grotte du Renne, and Chalet.

"Perhaps the explosion of creativity we see on the walls of these caves was inspired in part by their sheer depth and darkness - or rather, the interplay of light and dark. Illuminated by the flickering light from fires or stone lamps burning animal grease, such as the lamps found in Lascaux, the bumps and crevices in the rock walls might suggest natural shapes, the way passing clouds can to an imaginative child. In Altamira, in Northers Spain, the painters responsible for the famous Bison incorporated the humps and bulges of the rock to give their image more life and dimension. Chalet features a panel of four horse heads drawn over subtle curves and folds in a wall of receding rock, accentuating the animal's snouts and foreheads. Their appearance changes according to your perspective: One view presents perfect profiles, but from another angle the horse's noses and necks seem to strain, as if they are running away from you. In a different chamber a rendering of cave lions seems to emerge from a cut in the wall, accentuating the hunch in one animal's back and shoulder as it stalks its unseen prey. It is almost as if some animals were already in the rock, waiting to be revealed by the artist's charcoal and paint."

Imaginative perception is something our species has been using for an awfully long time. I believe it was imaginative perception or something very close to it, that played an important role in the cave paintings of Southern France and Spain created some 30,000 years ago. We can see that the artist or artists recognized an image when looking at the irregular facets on the cave's wall, no doubt enhanced with the aid of shadows provided by torch or some kind of fire. With ash charcoal and mineral and plant colors, they clarified what they saw in the rock formation for everyone else to see - something that already existed and was discovered, recognized and revealed as an image - a very special kind of perceptual process and experience.

I relate to this so completely, it seems so naturally familiar to me. Like the cave paintings, I create a surrogate "cave wall" complete with facets by using the Phi ratio as a natural structure-forming element. Until this Structure is completely built, I have no intentions of or for the painting that will interact with its surface. I sit and stare at the Structure until I feel something or discover something within the different lines, shapes, facets, and their many combinations. I stay open and receptive, remaining as unintentional as I can. Then I apply what I call a Process, to see what will happen on the painting's surface, responding to what I recognize in the Structure and continue as both Structure and Chaos, via Process, combine to develop an illusion.