Richard Von White

Von is an artist who is a Jamaican that studied art in London England and found inspiration from the Sage Lao Tsu from ancient China. "The utility of the empty bowl is the space within". Lao Tsu, an older contemporary of Confucius, was keeper of the imperial archives at Loyang in the province of Honan in the 6th century B.C.[6] All his life Lao Tsu taught that "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"; but, according to ancient legend, as he was riding off into the desert to die - sick at heart at the ways of men - he was persuaded by a gatekeeper in northwestern China to write down his teaching for posterity. This book is called the Tao Te Ching.

The essence of Taoism is contained in the eighty-one chapters of the book- roughly 5,000 words- which have for 2,500 years provided one of the major underlying influences in Chinese thought and culture, emerging also in proverbs and folklore.[7] Whereas Confucianism is concerned with day-to-day rules of conduct, Taoism is concerned with a more spiritual level of being.

Poem ONE [8]

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within Darkness. The gate to all mystery.

The goal of an artist is to create art, to be creative. As the Taoist see it: Only Tao, mother of all things, is invisible and unfathomable, but it is through her manifestations, nevertheless, that all things are created. Alfred North Whitehead expressed his central concept thus: "In the philosophy of organism this ultimate is termed 'creativity' and God is its primordial, non-temporal accident.".[9] The Taoist, says that this ultimate is creativity, that creativity is Tao. Since Tao is inexpressible, explaining it in terms of the process of creativity is merely resorting to a verbal convenience, or, more precisely, a verbal inconvenience. Lao Tsu, of course, faced the same difficulty. In one place he turns to the use of numbers in attempting to describe the process of creativity. But his use of numbers is entirely without conventional meaning. In Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching we read:

Poem Forty Two [7]

From the Tao, the One is created; From the One, Two; From the Two, Three; From the Three, Ten Thousand Things.

The numbers as used here are simply intended to suggest the need for an intuitive awareness of the process of differentiation from nondifferentiation, the realization that the multiple diversities of existence emanate from the unity of the absolute realm of Tao. The numbers symbolize what our intellect is unable to explain. The same thing is true of the word process as is used here to try to explain it. Here obliged to resort to such a word in attempting to explain Tao intellectually. Actual creativity requires no intellectual explanation in terms of process. It is, rather, a mere intuitive reflection of things [10]

Von the artist and student of the Tao in his academic thesis explored a subtle comparison of Taoist views and picture making. The first chapters had not dealt with any given technique or style of painting. As is reviewed in the next section (On The Masters). For it is his view that different styles of expression are merely different directions or roads leading to the same light or oneness. As an artist and a poet Von appreciated Lao Tsu's views. Taking into consideration the idea that the artist's mind is the ultimate mirror. For he is the individual who is capable of reflecting the here and now of creation literally onto canvas.[10]

The style of art found in paintings by Von is primarily influenced by three masters. Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Georgia O'Keeffe. This is seen through a strong relationship with some aspects of the styles of these three masters of the visual arts. In Von's work there is a similarity in the flat shapes, hard-edged colours of Pablo Picasso, as well as a similarity in the inventiveness of their abstraction.[11][12] There are also similarities in Pablo Picasso's distortions of female body in some of his work with some of Von's work.[13]

It was said that when Paul Gauguin first went to Tahiti he was amazed at the colours he was painting with, so much brighter due to the strong tropical light as opposed to France where he was formerly.[14] The tropical light and bright colours are also a strong feature of the works of Von. Beautiful women are likewise an inspiration to Von and the study of the female form.[15]

Georgia O'Keeffe shows an open spatial awareness, and positive link with nature and her surroundings. This can be attributed to the time she spent living in New Mexico.[16] This connection to nature and open spatial arrangement of work can be seen in Von's work as he has also been influenced by O'Keeffe.

Von was born on an island and has interpreted everything in his own way from the time of the impressionists to the present, and invented his own style of painting trying to break new ground and be original in his own way. This style is termed tropical modernism i.e. von Tropic Mod.

"The Tao is Elusive and Intangible. Oh it is intangible and Elusive, and yet within is image. Oh elusive and intangible and yet within is form. Oh it is dim and dark and yet within is essence." Lao Tsu finally says "thus I perceive the creation." This verse encompasses that mystic unity of the physical and the metaphysical. The verse suggests that link with space and what is within the space if they complement each other. Just as how light complements darkness, some given thing, a source of material therefore an image complements nothing or emptiness, a void. To narrow this aspect of thought let us suggest that this material is our world complementary to outer space which it is within.[10]

Now the terms nature and super nature include everything which has already been reckoned with. Through the study of our visible surroundings, Cezanne came to the conclusion that everything is based on the sphere, the cone and the cylinder.[17] In this statement he did not include the cube which literally means a box, for nothing in nature is constructed from a box. Except perhaps an few seascape cliffs in remote paths for example the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The cube or the box is a man made form and Cezanne was the first to introduce a slanting of basically rectangular patches of colour in various directions achieving three dimensional solidity and depth. This style of painting he used in landscape breaking up a natural environment. A good example is his paintings on Mont Sainte-Victoire. Sure this was a revolutionary way in seeing and out of it later came cubism, with father of modern art Picasso and Braque. They took this to its ultimate, including African sculpture as inspiration; but the cube or the box is a man-made form totally alien to natural construction unlike the sphere cone and cylinder.

So her in Western society and civilisation i.e. the "western tradition", one looks out the window and there is a city to the horizon with millions of straight lines and boxes. Cubism has even influenced modern architecture. An infinity of boxes within boxes within boxes with people living within boxes. A shape which some African tribes to the day cannot accept, a shape certain American Indian tribes could not accept. Some of their buildings are the adobes of New Mexico. A shape which was uncommon in the splendid Eastern and Middle Eastern architecture. Von has been inspired by ancient Chinese Taoist thought and teaching which holds fast to the core within without losing touch with nature and therefore transcends nature into super nature. In other words, encompassing the mystic unity between the mystical and the metaphysical.[18]

"Oh it is elusive and intangible and yet within is image and form." [6]

1977 Olympia Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica 1979 Bolivar Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 1981 Diplomat Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 1982 Harmony Hall, Ocho Rios, Jamaica 1983 Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 1987 Gallery Makonde, Wyndham Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica 1998 New Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica 2004 Grosvenor Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica

1978 Tom Redcam Library, Kingston, Jamaica 1974 London Hilton, England (In Honour of Lord Pitt) 1978–present Annual National Exhibition, National Gallery of Jamaica