Vision, 1964

Benjamin Creme wrote of this painting, which is one of his earliest works exploring a new idiom: “This painting is the result of an inspiration based on a statement by the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh wrote some wonderful letters and, I believe, had he never painted a picture, his letters alone would have earned him a place in the history of man. His letters, in particular to his brother Theo, are some of the most eloquent I have ever read. They convey his love of humanity, his deep inner searching and longing to express the Christ Principle through himself, his actions, his life and, above all, in his work. He came to painting very late, he only had ten years to complete his entire output and worked at an extraordinary intensity. He began to think about the art of the future and as I read what he wrote about it I had an image of the art of the future - and this [painting] was the vision which I saw. In the centre we have the fire of Cosmos, the inner spiritual fire, embodied by the egg-shaped form of the Cosmos, the ‘Cosmic Egg’, over what I take to be an altar shape, as if it is presenting itself to humanity through some agency, perhaps the agency of religion but in this case the agency of art." Text, ©Benjamin Creme, The Esoteric Art of Benjamin Creme, Tara Press