The Sublime

The Introduction

"The essential claim of the sublime is that man can, in feeling and speech, transcend the human.  What, if anything, likes beyond the human - God or the gods, the daemon or nature - is matter for treat disagreement. (Thomas Weiskel. The Romantic Sublime: Studies in the Structure and Psychology of Transcendence. 1976.)

Sublime in 18th century: "The concept of the sublime . . . was applied in relation to the art to describe aspects of nature that instill awe and wonder, such as mountains, avalanches, waterfalls, story seas or the infinity vault of the starry sky."(12)

Today:"The incredible power of technology is more likely to supply the raw material for what can be terms a characteristically contemporary sublime." (12)

Rosenblum, Robert. "The Abstract Sublime" 1961

Among all the articles under "Nature," I was most interested in Rosenblum's "The Abstract Sublime" as it deals with Turner's work.  He quotes Kant's definition by saying the Sublime is to be found in a formless and boundless object.  Then Rosenblum discusses James Ward and Clyfford Still's art.  Both of them portrayed nature in large canvases; the one described in his article is 131x166 cm by Ward and 113x159 by Still.  These are representative of sublime landscape which portrayed awe, terror, boundlessness and divinity during 18th and early 19th centrury; as a result the viewers were often awed by the void in such boundless and vast nature.

Turner, however, expresses Sublime by filling the void with cosmic energy such as steam, wind, water, snow and fire.  The author continues to discull Turner's contemporary, John Martin (1789-1854).  Then the author brings Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) as the third master of the Abstract Sublime. "That brink is again reached when we stand before a perpetuum mobile of Jackson Pollock, whose gyrating labyrinths re-create in the metaphorical language of abstraction the superhuman turbulence depicted more literary, in Turner and Martin." (111)

AS the fourth master of the Abstract Sublime, the works of Barnett Newman (1905-1970) are introduced.  He explored "a realm of sublimity so perilous that it defies comparison with even the most adventurous Romantic exploration into sublime natioe."  Newman drew "Vir Hericus Sublimis," which is 114.5 inches. 

Honestly speaking, I have not seen the real works by Martin or Newman; it is impossible to capture the impression of paintings which are just several colors of red and a line.  But I try to picture a huge painting with only a few colors in front of me, I will just feel lost in its simplicity.


Marley Simon. Ed. The Sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery. 2010.