ABSTRACT
The passing away of Mark Tobey puts forward an additional case for a biography of the artist, because his impartial and detached art, advocating objective discourse as the ultimate ideal, is in need of a biography in order to at least frame it by points of reference, if not to explicate it. Tobey has been in search of vibration as a sign and manifestation of microcosmic energy to be found in the positive appearance of nature but also in trivial manifestations, from concentrated Broadway parades to the succession of reflections on water. Tobey pursues the vibration of the multitude , but the multitude is seen as an expression of community, where individual techniques of existence are ruled out. The top international prize Tobey received at the 1958 Venice Biennale triggered an avalanche of classifications: he was compared to Pollock and, as far as the latter was concerned, positioned as the originator of American Gestural painting.
