Paradox abounds as metaphors multiply. The object of painting, according to Paul Klee, is "not to reflect the visible but to make visible." The aim of art, Aristotle agrees, is "not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." Gaughin shuts his eyes in order to see; Man Ray paints what he can't photograph and photographs what he can't paint. "The closer you approach, the more there is to see;" says Giacometti, "the more you know, the more mysteries there are."
Clement Greenberg says, "All profoundly original art looks ugly at first," and Francis Bacon concurs, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
The paradox can lean toward the positive, as in the case of Albert Camus, who remarks, "In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer." It can lean toward the negative, as with Bob Dylan, who laments, "I made shoes for everyone and I still go barefoot."
Invisibility presents an interesting contradiction. When considered by Ralph Ellison in Invisible Man, one of major Black rage texts, it has a very negative meaning. But invisibility is also a power owned by gods and pop culture superheroes, and coveted by mortal men. Since ancient times, the idea of possessing a spell, potion, cloak or whatever which would render one invisible has fascinated the human imagination. To be a middle-aged woman is to be, for practical purposes, invisible, as reported by one who finds that she can walk around town without being ogled as a sexual target or eyed speculatively as a feeble potential mugging victim. "They just don't give you a second glance."
to Vision 9
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