I’ve been a painter for many years. From the youthful confusion of my first paintings and the many attempts to find my voice, to my present work, what has become apparent to me is that painting can only be done instinctively. One does not have to understand all of today’s inane art theory to be able to paint. I have also discovered that painting can be done for pure pleasure. So, for me, Wilhelm Reich’s paintings are a clear and direct vision, and are a welcome relief from today’s overly conceptualized painting.

Reich’s daughter Eva gave him an oil paint set for Christmas in 1950, and he started to paint with his usual intensity. Reich articulates very clearly in a series of diary entries his response to his first attempts at painting. It is surprising that for someone who is just beginning, this clearly shows what a painter really feels:

Jan. 26, 1951 – “I began to paint yesterday. The form and color streams right out of my fingers onto the canvas.”

Jan. 30, 1951 – “I discovered through Eva PAINTING – what a way of expressing oneself.”

February 1, 1951 – “I continue painting. There is usually only a core of an idea. Around this core the colors and forms group themselves quite on their own. This is true self-regulation.

“Last night, from 1-5 h, I painted very slowly…young girl resting on a meadow under a tree. There is an urge to paint, even against distractions or intentions to the contrary.”

Feb. 8, 1951 – “I am painting one picture after another. I discovered a new way of expression. A good way, a way of seeing. I paint from memory, from what I have seen over the years. The orgone did not come through fully. It will, in due time. I am waiting for SPRING”

Feb 11, 1951 – 4 a.m.: “Painting…here are some of the things important enough to be written down:

“Painting came upon me, or, rather, began to pour out of myself, quite unexpectedly but also quite logically. I am a “visual” type. Everything goes into me and out of me through the eyes…I love to look at things, to let them sink in, as it were.

“Eyes and hands, especially fingers, unite and ‘it pours’ from them when I paint. Somehow, memories of landscapes seen and traveled through long ago are still alive with special sharpness. Those images emerge wit formation of shapes and harmonic integration of color. I am, of course, no learned artist, but I feel I can do…I let the form just stream out…

“Emotionally, painting became a major experience. I am discovering my “seeing,” so to speak. I can find out now what I see true and what false and whether I see things correctly at all. And I love to paint. It is something so visible…

“Paintings of Orgone phenomena will, if I acquire the technical skill, save me a lot of writing.”

June 7, 1951 (from a letter to A. S. Neill)
“…I have painted some two dozen paintings in oil over the past three months…I just enjoy painting tremendously. It teaches me a lot about our miserable failure to see nature correctly.”

It is not easy when one first starts painting. Artists’ oil paint is one of the most difficult materials to master. It is thick, sticky, and stubborn. To get the paint to flow in an easy manner does take time. If one mixes the colors too much (which most people do), one ends up with gradations of mud. An artist also needs to decide what kind of surface to paint on: canvas, linen, or paper, smooth or coarse. How should one approach the whiteness of the surface, with opaque or transparent colors? And what brushes to use: thick, stiff, long or soft?

To paint from memory or imagination is also difficult. A painter has to let go and react instinctively to each stroke. It is easier to look at a model or still life for inspiration than it is to paint from memory.

Despite these difficulties with oil painting, Reich took to painting very quickly. His deep concentration and his openness to experience made it natural for him. What is obvious with Reich is that he had something to express. What most beginning painters struggle with is something to say. But Reich’s emotional contact with life was very fluid and thus translated easily into painting. Reich’s work in general was not only about seeing and discovering. There was a natural creativity that came from his contact with life. He had a need to show physically his many discoveries. He created the orgone accumulator, orgone motor, cloudbuster, and many other devices to demonstrate physically the existence of orgone energy.

Reich’s expression was physical as well as conceptual. So a physical tool like painting would come naturally to him. Painting is a means for an artist not only to see clearly, but to experience physically what is before him. As Reich said in his diary:

“Eyes and hands, especially fingers, unite and ‘it pours’ from them when I paint.”

As far as the possibility of painting as a useful tool to him, Reich said:

“Painting of orgone phenomena will, if I acquire the technical skill, save me a lot of writing.”

When a person decides to paint, what lessons should he learn? Should he succumb to the academic’s mantra, “Learn to paint like the masters first”? Not really. Basically, you just do it. As your hand moves with feeling, new ideas flow out. Experience usually is the only lesson. But for most painters, their doubts and self-consciousness cloud their vision and make the task seem difficult. Every stroke is questioned. Their doubts squash the natural impulse.

Reich didn’t have this problem. He felt life deeply, could express himself unself-consciously, and had the energy that fed his curiosity about everything. Reich was always sketching to express himself more clearly. Even in his student days, there are drawings in his diaries. Many of his books have diagrams, and he created a symbol as a clearer way to express how orgone energy governs our lives. As Reich wrote:

“I am a ‘visual’ type. Everything goes into me and out of me through the eyes.”

I don’t know how much he was influenced by other artists. He owned prints by Kathe Kollwitz and Edvard Munch, many art books, and reproductions’ of masters’ works. I think his curiosity drew him to everything. A man who felt that deeply would have a natural passion for the arts, for the arts are about passion. He wrote very powerful and poetic prose. He liked to improvise on his organ and was passionate about music. Expression of deep feeling was so much a part of his life. For Reich, the call to paint was probably unavoidable.

Reich was truly a Renaissance man. His work touched many subjects through many mediums. For the Renaissance man, the scope of his work and passion cannot be defined by one discipline. His energy is hard to contain. If you look at the lives of some of the most powerful artists in history, you will see similarities.

Michelangelo sculpted, painted, designed churches, and wrote beautiful poetry and prose. Underlying this creativity was a deep passion for life. He called it “god,” but it was more that the icon that we have to accept. God, to Michelangelo, was not a man, but a deep emotional and physical feeling. Picasso also sculpted, painted, drew, made prints and ceramics, wrote poetry and prose. Like Reich and Michelangelo, he felt life intensely and his excitement pored through his fingers into his art. His work is about the emotional beauty of everyday life.

For Reich and these artists, the meaning of life is evident. They immersed themselves in the flow of emotional energy, without holding back. We should try to experience this passion in our own small way. We need to savor each moment, to block out the obscene noise of the age of information, and experience life simply. Creativity is in all of us.

The artist William Steig, in his notes about art inspired by Wilhelm Reich, writes:

“Life is creation—the ceaseless movement of cosmic creative energy weaving the universe. We, being nothing but vessels of cosmic orgone energy, continually, inevitably create—or die. We create pies, gestures, chairs, houses, thoughts, songs, pictures, ourselves, our societies—and when we create without impediment, we feel the wonder that always accompanies flowing creation.”

I recommend that people approach the viewing of paintings with openness and curiosity. It’s more fun that way. Peel away the thousands of words that explain art and feel what you really feel. To some, Reich’s paintings may seem raw and technically unpolished. But if you remain open to them, you will discover that they are original, personal, and alive with color.

One Fall weekend several years ago, a photographer friend and I came to Orgonon to make a photographic inventory of Reich’s oil paintings. Rangeley was beautiful with Fall colors, the days were cloudy and gray and a little melancholy. While setting up Reich’s paintings for the camera, an unsettling feeling came over me. Maybe the physical contact with the paintings made things more real for me. Or maybe it was being alone in the rooms of the Observatory. I felt this great loss.

The second floor of the Observatory is much the way it was when Reich was taken away, as if he had just left to go into town for a few minutes. Every inch of the building is filled with the striving of a man intently at work, searching. Paintings, sculptures, desk with typewriter, hundreds of books, photograph and favorite records, a bust of Beethoven, organ and music that he composed, a painting studio with easel and paints still on the palette, and an observatory. On the south side is a bedroom with Reich’s painting on the wall and reproductions of Rodin and other masters.

What a loss, I thought; such creative energy. It is tragic that this man was destroyed for something as innocent as creativity.

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