Jan Pieter van den Bos - idiosyncratic Groningen artist - hand-colored E. A. Etching - signed - Sold

• hand-colored etching and aquatint on laid paper
• Dating: 2006
• Numbered: EA copy
• Signed: in pencil
• In very good condition
• untitled
• placed in a recessed passepartout

Presocratic philosophy
I conduct research on thought and art, on the logos, or exposition, handed down in the so-called "fragments," of the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, who lived in 500 BC. He was a king without subjects and the first user of the term "philosophy" in ancient Asia Minor. Heraclitus is known for his pronouncement, "It is impossible to step twice in the same river" (fr. 91), "War is the father of all and the king of all" (fr. 53), and characterizations such as "the coincidence of opposites," "hidden harmony," "the one wise man," and the well-known, but Platonic, "panta rhei." My goal is to visualize and comment on what Heraclitus has to say in his logos, his way of thinking and acting. I want to demonstrate the potential of visual art for conveying knowledge and insight, where feeling and thought content are inextricably interwoven with the outward form of the artwork. Furthermore, in my research on the Heraclitean logos, I demonstrate that the image itself, understood as a symbol, can become accessible to the thinking eye. What connects people in their experience of reality is the underlying unity of nature, the world, and the cosmos, the unification of all opposing principles where mortality and immortality are reconciled—that is what the Heraclitean logos attempts to express. The war of opposites, cosmic fire, divine wisdom as a framework within which life and death, war and peace, day and night can be understood as a unity. This logos is also inherent in the nature of language, in the structure of the psyche, and in the universal principle by which all things are as they are. Yet, the primary focus of my research is not the physical world, but the human condition, the reality of our mortality, which we bear through participation in an eternal life cycle and the capacity to understand things cognitively. While our language is aimed at clarity, at clarity of expression, my research, like the prose of Heraclitus, inevitably expresses itself allusively and indirectly, and, hoping to entice some minds to reflective thought, focuses on paradox, enigma, and multiplicity, on imagery. Like the Delphic oracle, which did not explain, did not conceal, but gave a sign (Fr. 93). The Greek underworld rivers serve as an important leitmotif and metaphor for the research program, not depicted as barriers crossed by people who have faded into shadows, but by living flesh and blood, the very embodiment of "deathlessness" and eternal passing. For me, it's a way to, as it were, look from a circle toward the center, constantly shifting perspectives, forcing entrances, establishing viewpoints, and thereby letting the logos of Heraclitus "flow," bringing it to life. The image as a source of language, and... eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears. (Fr. 101)