In the process of writing my last update, which wrapped up look at Romanticism and the Hudson River school, I was forced, naturally, to look a lot more closely at the movement which almost completely usurped this 19th century phenomena. Modernism, an eclectic and widespread worldview, proved a lot more interesting than I’d ever imagined. I have also come to realize just how much modernist influences have effected the way I see the world and conceive my work. It was inevitable, I suppose, that time spent in Paris, home of the modernist movement, would eventually lead to a more in depth exploration of the subject. After all, the Eiffel tower itself, that most famous of Parisian landmarks, is an Icon of modernism.
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Modernism Continued...
Before leaving for Paris late last year a friend sent me a list of hotels near Place de la Bastille, I eventually chose to stay, quite unwittingly, at the Hotel Baudelaire Bastille. Charles Pierre Baudelaire, it turns out, was one of the first modernist writers and it was this serendipitous discovery that lead me, that same week, to the work of F.T. (Fillipo Tommaso) Marinetti (Italian poet 1876-1944). In 1909 he published the first Manifesto of Futurism. Ayn Rand’s objectivist treatise on art, The Romantic Manifesto, was, in part, an answer to this work. Both books are absolute must-reads for any one involved with or having an interest in the arts. I found this early modernist work unusually beautiful; in fact, it was the poetry of Marinetti’s writing that emboldened me to tackle a collection of completely different paintings, mostly figurative, for an exhibition this fall: |
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Just recently I was listening to TVO’s lecture series, “Big Ideas” whilst working on a couple of paintings for an upcoming show in Yorkville (More on that show later). Philip Ball, professor of Chemistry and science writer from the UK, was talking about his book Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Colour. In it he examines the way art and chemistry have evolved hand-in-hand over the years. In the middle ages and renaissance art was actually the driving force for exploration and innovation in chemistry. In the conclusion of his commentary |
he brought up a few points that related back to ideas I hinted at in my last update. “Painting today”, he stated, “is an outmoded art form”. If one wants to be taken seriously as an artist” he goes on to say “it is advisable to become a sculptor or an installation artist, any student that majors in painting today risks receiving lower grades”. A case in point, perhaps, the fact that this years turner prize was awarded to a painter; reluctantly, it seemed, when less traditional forms of artistic “exploration” appeared exhausted (Read a little more about last year's Turner prize in the previous update). |
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Interestingly, a recent expedition of British Artist’s to the arctic further illustrates this point. Unlike Arctic Quest’s group of 25 painters, of the UK artists only three were even listed as “painters”. Of those three, one created photographic images, another constructs neon light installations and the last, stylized works with titles such as “Hermaphrodite polar bear” - a rendering, as the title would suggest, of the genitalia of a hermaphroditic polar bear! Painting, in the traditional sense, really does seem relegated to the fringes. |
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As this was happening however, an exhibition opened at the National Gallery for the Canadian realist painter Tim Gardner. I could hardly believe my eyes, when I saw his work in the Globe and Mail’s Review section. How was it possible that these beautiful, highly photo-realistic watercolours were being received such high-profile attention in the climate of London’s present day art scene? I promptly went online to see a further selection of his work, one piece in particularly grabbed me, a small painting of snow covered mountain peaks in |
crisp morning sunlight – a “beautiful” painting. Upon closer inspection of the enlarged image, almost unnoticeable at first along the lower edge of the composition, was a baldheaded character tipping back a can of beer. Though, somewhat disillusioned at first, I couldn’t help but appreciate the statement being made. It really was quite brilliant!
The majority of Gardner’s work is figurative in nature, in particular a series of self-portraits copied, apparently, from school photographs and the pages of high school yearbooks. Though very literal on the surface, these exquisitely detailed, realistic renderings were creative, not so much in their interpretation of the subject as in the universal experience they evoke. In presenting this most subjective of subjects, an essentially modern characteristic, a much wider statement is being made, one to which we can all relate and which reflects a wide spread phenomenon of the day: In this “Me generation” era, a fascination with the self and the individual. Certainly, there has been a building interest with the minutia of everyday life of everyday people, from reality TV and Myspace to various forms of interactive information. With Time magazine voting “You” as the person of the year in 2006 has this egocentric phenomena, perhaps, reached it’s Zenith? It seems unlikely, though a danger exists, while searching for that true universal, of getting lost in the chatter - in a flood of subjective, individual opinion.
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Another notable commentary was a review of this year’s Toronto Art Expo in the Toronto Star. Though, distinctly unflattering on-the-whole it did concede that “many worthy artists” were to be found. Most interesting was the image, apparently chosen as representative of the more “promising” work on display. It was a wonderfully impressionistic, and beautifully executed, oil painting by Peter Adams. Although a sunlit forest scene occupied virtually all of the background the artist himself, position in the immediate foreground, dominates the scene. |
Gazing pensively off to one side, chin rested on the backs of his hands, the artist’s personal experience in, and of, this moment becomes the sole concern of this painting. The work suggests, because of the way it is composed, that the meaning can only be understood through knowing what is on the artist’s mind; it is his experience of this world that matters. I don’t suppose we can never know what that is, exactly, unless the work is explained. This work borders on magic realism and, like abstraction, needs to be interpreted for the viewer if it is to be fully understood. That’s a whole other discussion though, what I found interesting here was the similarity in conception of this piece to the works of Tim Gardner, currently being shown in London. |
These are all wonderful paintings and my commentary here is by no means a critique; it is an attempt to get beneath the surface of this mysterious and ever changing world of high-art. Is this phenomenon a resurgence of work in the same vein as Alex Collville or Andrew Wyeth? Is it that “painting”, once again, is movingto the forefront? If so, I think it unlikely we’ll see a quantum leap. The art establishment currently appears to be guiding public attention to this more modernistic variation of realism. Next to surrealism, magic realism is the most subjective interpretation of reality and, as such, conforms nicely to the art world’s existing worldview. |
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Speaking of magic, after a long gray (or should I say, off white) winter, my head is filled with “magic” images of another kind. There is a selection of pictures (with minimal text) posted in the special area of my site. As you’ll have recognized from many of my paintings, I have a particular passion for water. I’ve certainly been indulging that interests but I’ve also been playing with some different ways of looking at things. Most have a very definite modernist feeling to them and reflect different design characteristics of this many-faceted movement. Just for fun, some holiday snaps with a difference: Bermuda |
“The conception and reproduction of truth and beauty are the first object of a poet; so should it be with a painter.” - Thomas Cole.
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