Robert N. Reincke

The Minotaur Thinker, combines inspiration from Rodin’s prominent sculptural piece, The Thinker, with newly emerging revelations of ancient wisdom, rediscovery of ancient spiritual art and practices, and my own spiritual contemplations. Contemporary thinking, research and writing has re-established the truthful spiritual nature of what has, since Greek times, been called the “Minotaur.” Ancient cave paintings place this half-man/half bison as a goer-between-worlds or Shaman (many ancient caves contain Shaman or Minotaur paintings and drawings). Analysis reveals that ancient Greeks, in an effort to destroy the culture of defeated Crete, defamed this once-Spiritual figure by denigrating it to something wicked (Dancing at the Edge of Death: The Origins of the Labyrinth in the Paleolithic, Lorimer, 2009). Pagan Roman and then Christian culture continued this wrongful interpretation by placing the Minotaur as a devil in the pit of a labyrinth. The once-spiritual labyrinth design, which is also undergoing a revival (even the Grotto in Portland is building one), became associated with “hell.”

Auguste Rodin created a plaster version of the sculpture entitled “The Thinker” in 1880 for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. His inspiration was The Inferno (Hell) of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Thinker was meant to represent the poet, Dante, contemplating the gates of hell. It, along with other sculptures, were meant to adorn the door and entranceway of the museum. This door was never made and The Thinker, finally cast in bronze in 1902, was first placed in front of Panthéon in 1906 and then in front of the Rodin Museum. Numerous bronze copies have since been recreated and placed in many cities around the world. One sits in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which I saw many times in my youth.

The Minotaur Thinker reinterprets Rodin’s sculpture and repairs the historic significance of the Minotaur. Whereas Rodin was inspired by Dante and Dante’s version of hell, I am inspired by a thoroughly contemporary re-exploration of Shamanic practices (Shamanic studies have re-emerged from an eons long slumber with such notable institutions as the San Francisco based Foundation for Shamanic Studies). Instead of a bull, I use an American bison. Instead of “hell,” I reveal the Labyrinth as a meditative journey where ancient shamans traveled between the worlds of the living and the deceased and unborn. Whereas Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollack (Pasiphaë) re-imagined the Minotaur in painting as a purely sexual beast, I look at the spiritual. By replacing Rodin’s Dante with the Minotaur, I re-empower the ancient Shaman in contemporary sculpture.

This is the first of three nearly-life-size images I drew with Vine and Conte charcoal. Animal figures were glued onto the paper similar to Kiki Smith's work (from whom I took inspiration). All three images are on the same sheet of paper.

This is the second image.

This is the third.

This coin is composed of images created from photocopies of $1, $5, $10, and $100 bills. It is a true Bison Head coin. Like the current Thomas Jefferson coin, the image of the bison is a full head shot with the body at a side angle. Here the bison is given full respect (in a sense, I've truly given his power back).

Painted plaster coins are connected together by a golden thread representing the connection of monetary ideas and currencies throughout time. Plaster—a common, cheap material—begs the question: who dictates what “money” is worth and how much of it is available? Plaster coins and “Tabula Rasa” are strung together in a circle to represent the Native American concept of wampum—a gift presented at the signing of a treaty or agreement. Once corrupted by European conquerors, I place the history of currency back into a Spiritual construct.

This painting was inspired by coins of the early American colonies that depicted trees (aspen, birch, pine and scrub oak) and the Fleur-de-lis of the French Republic. Early colonial attempts to mint currency were thwarted by England, who wanted control and dependence (at the time). The illegality of colonial currency and the resultant economic dependency and recession/depressions helped cause the American Revolution. If it weren’t for loans and shipments of gold by the French Republic to support U.S. forces (that equaled half of what it cost Britain to fight the war), the U.S. could have lost. The Fleur-de-lis was meaningful to several ancient cultures including Egypt, where it represented the heart and tongue of the Sun God Ra.

"Native Americans used wampum—beads made out of clamshells—as a commemorative symbol to solidify the singing of an agreement or the securing of a contract. Europeans ordained that wampum could be used as currency. Native Americans began to accept the European strands for trade of beaver skins and the like. Eventually the British overproduced (counterfeited) these once spiritual symbols, thereby obtaining goods for less and eventually destroying Native American economies. (The British also counterfeited the American “Continentals”—the first U.S. bill—to hurt the Colonial American economy during the Revolution). This painting was begun in Los Angeles and completed in Portland.

Inflatable sculpture. This piece utilizes "Flubber" created from Borax and Elmers Glue and acrylic paint on a piece of wood. Each of the blobs were at one time blown bubble, which later settled to create unique forms. I sprinkles quinces on them as they settled.

This is the third painting in what became my series on the difference between West Hollywood and Portland. This is my new backyard. No noise pollution (yet: a new sewer line was constructed outside my front yard almost immediately thereafter. It's still ongoing and will be for a year). Nonetheless, the image and the town are far more restful.

This is the fourth and final painting in the series I worked on two months before moving from West Hollywood and two months after moving to Portland. Here Spunky sits on the stairwell in our living room. Life is good!

Sculpted from imagination several years ago.

Painted after a shamanic journey and road trip to Sedona Arizona.