Lea_Art List

*The Spectator and his Participation in a Work of Art*
Looking at a work of art is not merely an action of the eyes. The eyes are merely the instrument by which the heart and the soul may be reached, where deposits of sensations and associations are stored. All of these differ from one person to another, depending on his character, disposition, experience and way of life. Thus when the forms and colors of a work of art are perceived by the fibers and nerves of the viewer, his individual storehouse of memories and sensations will be stimulated, giving each person his own personal response to the work of art. Tears and laughter can dwell together. A man slips in the street — one person may be amused and another alarmed. In the same way, people can have opposing reactions to a work of art.
Lea Majaro-Mintz

Or consider the colors black and white. Some see in black an expression of solemnity or formality, while others see in it sorrow and mourning. Some see white as the symbol of purity and innocence, while some are reminded of shrouds. Some may see black and white as symbols of opposing elements; some may be reminded of the struggle between races. For these reasons, artists are often reluctant to provide "explanations" of their art. They feel that by doing so they may sever the link which they expect to develop between the work of art and the individual responses of the viewer.
Lea Majaro-Mintz

*On Beauty and Ugliness*
We are told that youth is beautiful and that old age is ugly. Yet when I try to translate youth into the language of forms, I am forced to restrict myself to the simple, the smooth and the shallow: the features of the face and the figure are round and tight — no protrusions, no moles, no wrinkles. All is reduced to simple functional forms, common to all people.
On the other hand, the swollen belly is a form far richer than the flat. The swollen belly contains mysteries; it is the cradle of new life. The folds of the stomach themselves suggest creative forces. If we see a flat stretch of land, don't our eyes seek for some curve to break the monotony?
Lea Majaro-Mintz

The masses support the idea of spreading knowledge for the good of all, but failing this they languish in a state of mental numbness. They purport to create communication between people, but achieve only the destruction of the individual and his dissolution into the crowd.
Lea Majaro-Mintz

*On Competitions*
When I watch a competition on television, I feel as though I'm being transported back to the Roman arena where gladiators fought wild animals to the death and the crowd applauded and cheered.In today's competitive events we don't see the blood, but it is flowing nonetheless as internal hemorrhages in the trembling bodies of the losers. Their faces turn pale, their souls writhe — and the crowd cheers on.
Lea Majaro-Mintz

*I'm Not Alone in the World*
I happened to be in Kenya on the eve of that country's independence. Masses of people had come together to demonstrate, to cheer, to show solidarity. Everyone looked exceedingly strange, wearing a common face, without individual identity.
That's how I discovered it — that the masses populating the continents and filling the world to the brim actually rule their leaders. Leaders lose their own identities and reflect only the masses who put them in power. The masses in turn move like a giant mechanical monster, powerless to control its own fate, wearing its system of laws like a yoke around its neck.
Lea Majaro-Mintz