impressions in the upper atmosphere

images collected of the work of josé antonio sistiaga

inspired by last nights screening of
ere erera baleibu icik subua aruaren - 1970
impressions in the upper atmosphere - 1989

(one of the big influences on the art of memory)
(first seen at articulated light: the emergence of abstract film in america
curated by bruce posner)

abstraktes bild

stan brakhage - love song - 2001

stan brakhage - stellar - 1993
collaboration with sam bush

gerhard richter - watorcolours

it is breathed by stars

sb: have you seen my last hymn to the night: novalis?

pt: no, i haven’t.

sb: that’s a short film, maybe four and a half minutes, where i scratched sections of that poem onto the film, so the words appear as electrical fires interwoven with paint. the other version i made this past year, pulling out from under all this awful cancer treatment i’ve been through. i tried to imagine what novalis’ last hymn to the night might have been, when he’d be beyond language. it’s a twenty-five minute film, the most elaborate hand-painted film i’ve made. *


the universally gladdening light... as inmost soul... it is breathed by stars... by stone... i seek to blend with ashes **


... night became the mighty womb of revelations - the gods drew back into it - and fell asleep, only to go out in new and more splendid forms over the changed world ... the new world appeared with features never seen before... ***


* philip taaffe: composite nature - peter blum edition - 1998
** david e. james (edited) - stan brakhage: filmmaker - temple university press - 2005
specifically - r. bruce elder - brakhage - poesis (text used in film)
*** novalis - hymns to the night - 1800 - translation dick higgins

yggdrasill whose roots are stars in the human mind

stan brakhage
yggdrasill whose roots are stars in the human mind - 1997

brakhage and landscape art
images from fred camper's site

the stars are clear sounds; the sun a magnificent silence; the moon?...whispers that are almost sounds in the undulating wave of noise the universe is

cracks in stan brakhage's dog star man - prelude - 1964

painting in dog star man - prelude

painting and some scratching in dog star man, part 3.

- related work -

jackson pollock - triad - 1948

jackson pollock - number 22a, 1948 - 1948

jackson pollock - untitled ca. 1950 (detail)

jackson pollock - one: number 31 - 1950

jackson pollock

barnett newman - untitled - 1961

clyfford still - painting - 1951-52

clyfford still - untitled (ph-58) - 1951 - detail
(one of my favourite paintings in the sfmoma)

robert motherwell - untitled - 1967

robert motherwell - octavio paz, three poems 8 - 1987

robert motherwell - in plato's cave

robert rauschenberg - untitled (glossy black painting) - ca. 1951

alberto burri - cretto - 1973

lucio fontana - concetto spaziale - 1952

(title from brakhage's the stars are beautiful)