Paul Hartal (born 1936) is a Canadian painter and poet, born in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He has created the term "Lyrical Conceptualism" to characterize his style in both painting and poetry, attempting to unite the scientific with the creative, or intuitive.

Lyco art: Hartal's art theory

''Lyco art'', or ''lyrical conceptualism'', is a term coined by Hartal. In 1975, Hartal published ''A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism'', introducing Lycoism as a new art idea on the "periodic table of art." In this work, Hartal proposes a

theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

which runs contrary to what he claims is the traditional belief, that emotion and intellect are at odds with each other. Hartal proposes the idea that artists should be allowed to contribute to the emotional and intellectual development of society as scientists do. In 1975 the Lyrical Conceptualism Society was established in Canada, directed by Hartal. In ''Mazes for the Mind'', Clifford Pickover draws attention to Hartal's view that we need the

imagination Imagination is the production of sensations, feelings and thoughts informing oneself. These experiences can be re-creations of past experiences, such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes ...

, the

insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

, and the lateral reasoning faculty, as well as human

values In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live ( normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different a ...

, which are excluded from the rigid

methodology of science The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The ...

but are intrinsic to art: "The present human condition calls for the rise of a new, inclusive form of

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

in which art should play a most prominent role." However, in introducing the notion of Lycoism, Hartal did not intend to form a new post-conceptualist splinter-trend; instead, his intention was the creation of a new

philosophy of art Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

in which the tearing down of the boundaries between art and science, the interlacement of the intuitive and the exact, and incorporation of the lyrical and the geometrical play a central role.

Concepts and ideals of Lyco art

Arguably, Lyco art identifies the meaning of art with its life-serving purpose. Concerning itself with cultural transformation and the

human condition The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered ...

, it seeks to expand the boundaries of

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

. Lyco art proposes to create a conscious bridge between the impulsive, intuitional, and planned elements of the creative process, thereby moving along the whole continuum of formative energies. This creative process represents the interaction of emotion and intellect, wherein the passion of logic and the logic of passion are inexorably interwoven through the voyage of aesthetic

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

. Hartal's poetry was described as balancing "...dreamy emotion and discerning intellect..." Lycoism combines "geometric elements representing logic, shapeless forms symbolizing the creative process, and warm and cold colors indicating feelings." In addition, since

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

impact so much of modern lifestyle during the electronic age, Lycoism views the relationship of art, science, and technology as a pivotal concern. Lycoism refuses to polarize science and art; instead, it seeks to unify

and

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

in works which involve the use of science and technology by the artist in the creation of beauty. In accordance with these premises, Hartal formed The Centre for Art, Science and Technology in Montreal during the 1980s. The Centre has implemented a variety of interdisciplinary projects exploring the connections between several branches of arts and sciences, including

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

, and

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

Early life

Hartal relays that as a student in Szeged he participated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and that a few months later he burned all his poems and papers and escaped to freedom.The Writers' Union of Canada. Member Profile.
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Gallery

File:Château; 1976.jpg, Chateau – Oil on canvas, 76 cm x 92 cm, 1976 Collection: Musee du Chateau Ramezay Museum, Montreal File:Tree of Life with Six Fingers; 2003 hi-res.jpg, Tree of Life with Six Fingers – Acrylic on canvas, 18" x 24", 2003 Collection of Hanseo University Art Museum, Seoul

References

External links

Book 'Lyco Art', 2023.

Interview: "Portals of the Mind and the Soul"

The Discovery of an Esoteric Message in Pascal’s Triangle, by Paul Hartal.

A poem by Hartal, quoted in Special Relativity and How it Works by Moses Fayngold

Is mathematics a form of ‘religion’?, by Paul Hartal.

Collection poems in Hungarian and English.

A short film adaptation of Hartal's poem 'Subway'.

Homage to a Blue Planet: Aeronautical and Astronomical Artworks (''Leonardo'', Vol. 25, No. 2 (1992), pp. 211-215).

Poem 'The Chestnut Tree (For Anne Frank)', by Hartal.

Lyco Art Explained, by Anat Tour via Youtube

A list of publications.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartal, Paul 1936 births Living people 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 21st-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Expressionist painters Hungarian painters 20th-century Hungarian poets Israeli painters Israeli poets Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Concordia University alumni Columbia Pacific University alumni Jewish Canadian writers Hungarian male poets 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists