Heiner Bastian – Die Argonauten erreichen das offene Meer und beraten den Fortgang ihrer Erzählung

The essays in this volume, notes, however successful they may be, have been written by someone concerned with poetry and with images, someone who attempts to write poems himself and to speak about works of art. There is little more to be said about me here, except to note that the reader will discover the absence of any stringent art-historical discourse in these texts. For is it not true that our talk about works of art all too often becomes a form of estranged philology? Certainly, there are the many passionate and magnificent exceptions!

I continue to see paintings as poetry beyond their art-historical references, beyond the isms and their structures. The attempt, to win over the spector to a work of ark through allegory and the play of language, is essential to me. As William Butler Yeats told us: »I have no speech, only images, analogies, symbols«.

Perhaps the most striking feature of these texts is their dedication to only a handful of artists. They are the artists whose work inspired me early on, long before they achieved international renown, whose passion and friendship I came to share, and continue to share.

Heiner Bastian