In all ages like our own of immense dynamics, social and moral upheaval, arise a seemingly chaos of variant ideas and cultural directions. As in the past even more so in our own century it is the poet who holds the guiding torch forging a unity, a sense of rhythm, and who sees in advance of time its direction, and shapes it into a language of comprehension. To grasp the “spirit” of an age does not necessarily emply to take on its outer “style”, though these may also be incorporated as a means of expression, rather to delve into the inner and most profound pulse of the present. This may at first glance seem to be out of place when related to its surrounding impulses, but so will everything appear that breathes with a “timeless pulse”,. As is written in the great Indian religious classic “The Upanisads”. “Spirit is better than hope. As the spokes of a wheel hold to the nave, so do all things hold to spirit. That spirit moves by spirit, it gives spirit to spirit. Father means spirit, mother means spirit, brother means spirit, sister means spirit, Brahmana is spirit.”
And what is the vital force of Art in every age if not spirit? Art “The Poet” carries from one epoch to the next his precious gift, his most valuable discovery – Spirit!
Arne Pjedsted Salomonsen a long time friend and artistic inspiration. Expresses with the best of his canvases just this spirit of – The Timeless Poet -. At first glance his paintings can appear out of place in this age of Conflict. But at a much closer look one will find an artist with a deep understanding of contemporary social and artistic movements. His style is not a mere copy of some prevalent schools, but a form forged by a man with profound understanding of the problems of his age, and by an Artist who has chosen rather than a simple literal depiction of those problems a far more complicated, the timeless undercurrent of poetic beauty.
One is at once struck by the freedom of line and space, colour contrasts and surface depth. Much is reminiscent of the past masters op Japanese dry brush painting where a single line alone in space takes on the immense spiritual strength and intellectual discipline of its creator. Also in his depiction of humoristic figures, placed on the same level with his other more “mystical” motives, reminds one of the great comic sketches of the Japanese master Hokusai. It would be enough to see the care and love Mr Salomonsen uses in placing his seemingly limitless pallet of colours on his canvases, but to forget his maybe even greater achievement of creating a superbly “personal expression” would be to see his work in a kind of half light.
To understand the Poet one must read with care his lines, - the Poet is everywhere to be read - even in a time of war.
Randall Myers – composer
Copenhagen, July, 1985.