Committee of Sleep

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From CHAPTER ONE In the Gallery of the Night: Painting and Sculpture from Dreams Born in South Carolina during the Depression, Jasper Johns's artistic aspirations led him to New York, where he painted for several years without finding a unique voice. In 1954 he resolved to "stop becoming and be an artist." His inspiration was a dream in which he saw himself painting a large American flag, and the next day he began exactly that project, later titled simply Flag. A lengthy series of flag pictures followed, which established Johns as a major artist. His work continued with other simple, bold paintings that highlighted the design artistry of commonplace objects. He disavowed all his paintings that preceded Flag destroying those still in his possession and purchasing and shredding any that came to his attention later. "Since he has never shown anything drawn before this," wrote one biographer, "the extraordinary initial impact of the image and the authority with which it is painted give the impression of a finished artist suddenly sprung from nowhere." (1) Johns later told an interviewer, "I have not dreamed of any other painting. I must be grateful for such a dream!" He laughed. "The unconscious thought was accepted by the conscious gratefully." (2) Dreams have played a role in visual art since mankind began to represent the world. The astonishing images of the night have always inspired artists. A bird-staff and other fantastic elements, believed to represent prehistoric dreams, appear on the walls of caves in Lascaux, France. This earliest known human art, produced between 40,000 and 10,000 B.C.E., caused Pablo Picasso to exclaim, "We have invented nothing!" Scholars know more about the strikingly similar cave art of California's Ojai Valley, or "Valley of the Moon." The earliest works found there date to 1000 a.d., but legends associated with them survived when missionaries arrived in the late 1700s. These rock paintings were done by the 'atiswinic -- a type of shaman whose title literally means "dreamer" or "having a dream." The 'atiswinic drew fantastic animals and horned anthropomorphs set against geometric grids. We have no texts for most of the paintings and can't know exactly which ones spring from dreams. But a few were told to the missionaries as dream accounts. One of these depicts the nose of a coyote growing after he chased girls around, begging for a kiss. A second shows a man capturing the retreating sun with a stick. In yet another, a swordfish tosses a whale around, juggling his outsized adversary as though he were lighter than air. (3) Other tribes around the world routinely use dreams as a basis for visual arts. The Chippewa of North America weave their dream images into the patterns of their banners and beadwork, and the Saroa of India paint their dreams on the walls of their houses. Australian Aborigines have long depicted the events of their Dreamtime -- a complex concept that includes nocturnal dreaming -- with distinctive dot paintings on bark. In Europe there was no mandate for dream art, but artists nevertheless often portrayed nighttime visions. When religious themes dominated -- and the Church was its chief patron -- artists commonly depicted the great dreams of the Bible. The scriptures dictated the content; the dreams of Jacob, Mary, and Pharaoh were popular subjects. But artists conveyed the state of dreaming according to their own nocturnal world. Figures faded into mist for one, hung suspended in midair for another. Some painted their own dreams directly. Albrecht D'rer's 1525 watercolor of a savage storm bears the following inscription: I saw this image in my sleep, how many great waters poured from heaven . . . drowning the whole land. . . . The deluge fell with such frightening swiftness, wind, and roaring that when I awoke, my whole body trembled; for a