Cyre de TOGGENBURG pursues freedom in his abstract art.

Cyre de TOGGENBURG began his search for freedom in the colors of Turner, after viewing Turner’s paintings at Tate Modern. “He is for me the beginning of abstraction,” said Cyre.

For years, the artist kept this sentence written on his studio wall: Not concerning yourself with the result of an action favors the acquisition of the mastery.

 “There was a long period of de-constructing the learning and domestication of my ego,” the artist said.

“To experience at first hand the sense of abstraction I looked to understand the art of Zen. The technique of Zen archery has been crucial to my understanding.

The released arrow follows a trajectory. It does not worry about the target (“Not concerning yourself with the result of an action”). The target is just one step on its path. The arrow is free.”

“If I do not paint with my body, (no rhythm, no movement), if I do not paint with my emotions (I feel nothing, I’m not trying to express emotions, or even to be felt), if I do not paint with my mind (I do not build it with knowledge, intentions for composition, form, balance, state of the art …).

Nonetheless I paint!

So with what do I paint?

Who paints?

I am free like the arrow.

My artistic object is to reach the observer in his spirituality.

My thought process is to invoke the sacred dimension as part of each of us, regardless of whether we subscribe to an institutional affiliation or not.”

Cyre de Toggenburg

http://www.cyredetoggenburg.com/