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New Epoch Art Notation is a conceptual writing system or visual language for pure visual images. The Notation can be used for any visual media using a 2D 'basic plane'. It describes what to paint, but not how to paint. It is designed to be low tech - all you need is a pen and paper - but it's also designed with the internet in mind.
It was developed by Australian artist Peter Graham between 1964 and 1987. His sons Philip Mitchell Graham and Euan Benjamin Graham have completed his work. Many other artists have contributed to the development of this notation system. Peter called is invention Notation Painting for many years but in 1985 decided to change it to New Epoch Art. The name is a reference to two quotations from Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art: 'To each spiritual epoch corresponds a new spiritual content, which that epoch expresses by forms that are new, unexpected, surprising and in this way aggressive...' 'We are fast approaching the time of reasoned and conscious composition, when the painter will be proud to declare his work constructive. This will be in contrast to the claim of the Impressionists that they could explain nothing, that their art came upon them by inspiration. We have before us the age of conscious creation, and this new spirit in painting is going hand in hand with the spirit of thought towards an epoch of great spirituality'
The Score
A new epoch composition is called a score. The score handles colour, structure and placement. The staff has three parallel lines: the upper definition, the horizon line, and the lower definition line. On the extreme left of the staff are the colour symbols. The notation divides colour into seven distinct 'Primary Instruments': Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Brown, Black and White. Each Primary Instrument is represented by its own ‘Primary Symbol’. Combining these symbols allow you to describe all forms of pigmented colour. The symbols represent the appearance of paint smeared on a white surface. They are not a proportional mixing guide. On the extreme right staff is the 'theme', which represents the structural building blocks of the composition. In the centre of the staff is a diagram of the canvass. Within this diagram is all the necessary notation to direct the act of painting, i.e. looking, direction, proportion etc. To read the score you simply read the colour, read the drawing and follow the diagram. Each staff in a score holds a single ‘turn’ or sequential stage of the painting.
References
Boles, Bernard, Review of Peter’s Notation drawings exhibition, The Nation Review, April 1973 Graham, Peter, Notation Illustrations for The Westernport Bay Symposium, Royal Society of Victoria Proceedings, Vol 87, P1, 21 August 1975 Germaine, Max, Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand, 1979 ISBN 978-9768097026 Beyond the Grave - A Painting Performed, The Australian, 22 April 1988 Litchman, Loy Dr. New Epoch Painting: The ideas of Peter Graham, InterACTA: Journal of the Art Teachers Association of Victoria, No 4, 1988 Graham, Philip Mitchell, New Epoch Art, InterACTA: Journal of the Art Teachers Association of Victoria, No 4, 1990 Mc Culloch, Alan, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, ISBN 978-1871569735 The art of painting in numbers, The Age 25 May 1991 Heathcote, Christopher Dr. Harking back to Romantic spirit, The Age, 6 August 1993 Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Translator). Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publ. (Paperback). 80 pp. ISBN 0-486-23411-8. or: Lightning Source Inc Publ. (Paperback). ISBN 1-4191-1377-1
Primary source material on New Epoch Notation Painting publicly available
There are currently two tape recordings by Peter Graham available at the National Library of Australia, Petherick Oral History Reading Room. Unfortunately they are incorrectly cataloged at this time: Call Number: ORAL TRC 2490 (please quote to locate catalogue entry) Record ID: 2069617 Graham, Cynthia, Interview with Cynthia Graham [sound recording] / interviewer: Barbara Blackman. Published: 13 July 1989 Description: 2 sound cassettes. Notes: Has transcript. In fact one of these recordings is as follows: Interview with Peter Graham by Paul Davis et all, 5 June 1977 Details information on his notation research
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