Madjana Geusen, Ed. Man's Holy Grail is Woman
Paintings, drawings and texts by Dieter Duhm.
Translated from the German by Sten Linnander
„There is the world, that we create, and there is the world, that has created us. These two worlds must come together.That is the goal of our journey.”
(Dieter Duhm)
The book deals with the emergence of a new concept of art, with love, revolutionary liberation and peace amongst human beings. It wants to find again the original oneness between human being and creation as it has existed in pre-patriarchal times on our planet. Art and cult have then been one and the same act for the celebration of the greatness of Creation. Art, as we see it, is an acknowledgement, a revolt of creativity against the norms of society, a way to awareness:
The deeper we enter into art, the more we sense how Creation operates. Circling, oscillating and yet unerring, unspecific and yet precise, full of concentration and yet without effort, approaching the Eastern principle of “Wu-Wei”, doing by not doing. These are universal processes of life flowing through you and forming the work.
Who is painting, when I paint?
Who is thinking, when I think?
Have we ever been in awe of the miracle of our own existence?
The paintings, drawings and texts reflect the work of a man who has left behind individual vanity and personal style. After growing up at the end of World War II and having been confronted with violence early on in life, Dieter Duhm, dedicates his life to overcoming fear and violence on a global level. He, the artist, had to become a political human being who accompanies his radical life with painting so as to express the beauty on earth despite its predicaments. Art is his doorway to that other reality of love which nourishes his political projects and gives direction to them. To Dieter Duhm, painting is not about art for art`s sake but depicts another, new way of cohabitation amongst human beings – that of peace, absence of fear, presence of sensuality, truth between man and woman, between all human beings and fellow creatures.
Participants of the art courses offered by Dieter Duhm have repeatedly experienced aspects of this vision of a new life. The book contains various texts which originated during such times and convey some of this spirit: “A rare kind of humour and joy of life arises out of a group of people who are jointly producing art. When “it” happens, then this becomes a very special healing experience for all those involved. It is something unusual they discover together and obviously quite hilarious. This “something” should not be given a label too soon, although there is no doubt that it exists. It signifies the finding of a childlike jubilation through art which we know from being in love.”
Such experience must be transported into life itself and made fully conscious. Finding the logic of love again through the medium of art and then realising it amongst people - this book is evidence of this kind of work and of an imperturbable commitment to truth amongst people and a great love of life. It is a foretaste of another way of being which already appears to be within close reach.
Sample Chapter: About the title "Man's Holy Grail Is Woman"
