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the future of painting – exhibit statementm. girón the future of painting artist’s statement
To make a succinct statement: the future of painting is its past. Well… mostly. After many years of debilitating struggle against those nagging concerns about the environment, sustainability, politics and the general social state of slothfulness (perhaps only my perception or projection), I recalled, with renewed urgency, those magic words spoken to me by Randall (the apparently wiser): “How arrogant! How arrogant are you to think that the world is not good enough for you to create the art of which you are capable!” Thanks. Instead of making more art, as I have in the past couple of years, which deal with the psycho-spiritual mysteries of the self and transformation, or that celebrate diversity, or are simply “art-for-art’s sake”, I decided to pick up the strand of work that directly addresses those anxieties regarding the future of our kind – and hence, the purpose of making art at all. Following a pet approach, even the most unappealing and socially unacceptable subjects are delivered via attractive presentation. It is likely to be an uncomfortable gallery experience for many, bu One model of Art is that it reflects Life. As many a historian has proselytized: to guess at the future, one must know one’s past – else be doomed to repeat [the less desirable parts]. Looking through the historical record that is Painting, there is a plentitude of less desirable parts that echo into contemporary experience. The major panels in this exhibit explore those echoes. A couple of the works are on auction to raise funds for select aid programs. Please contribute and take home fine artwork. The placard next to each explains their thematic relationship. All of the works, but one, are oil on masonite. A series of smaller paintings imagine what paintings in the future might be like. They are described en group in the “Future Paintings” section at the end of the following:
Major works, the Future of Painting:
Señor, Señor, can you tell me where we’re headin’? Admittedly, the inclusion of this painting in the show is a stretch. I do like the comparison, however, of the speaker in Bob Dylan’s song to “the story of Don Quijote, as seen from the perspective of his servant, Sancho Panza; the poor man following the rich man, doing what he’s told although he never learns exactly why and doesn’t understand that his master is, in fact, mad.” (Thanks “Beer Good”, whoever you are; songmeanings.net) $300
The Future of Painting, 2009-2010 The centerpiece and namesake for the exhibition, this painting hones-in on a plein air painter somewhere in our – hopefully distant – future. It follows the same urge of Thomas Cole, who, from 1833-36, painted a series called The Course of Empire. His progression follows as thus: The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation of Empire, The Destruction of Empire and, finally, Desolation. This glimpse into the aftermath of our civilization is not without hope. Sunset may be near, but it is not dark yet and the robin and the painter still move with the sun. Both will make do with whatever is available. The painter will see and preserve something of the experiences to come. Perhaps, like the revolutionary campesinos in Orozco’s fresco, the Destruction of the Old Order, the charge to reform the purpose of society will renew. The smaller works on exhibit, the Future Paintings series, represent an imagining of the possible endeavors of artists, like this one, working in this imagined time-period. Auction: Starting Bid $1500 40% of the proceeds from the auction of this painting, The Future of Painting, will be applied to the National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to address the imminent impact of the recent Gulf Coast oil spill on the Louisiana coastal environment. Visit http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Threats-to-Wildlife/Oil-Spill.aspx (Auction ends at 5pm, May 2nd)
Las Nuovas Sabinas, 2010 One frequently visited scene of violence, outside of general warfare, in Western art history, is the “Rape of the Sabine Women”. In Baroque terms, as most famously rendered by Peter Paul Rubens, the scene is sensual, soft, almost romantic, and perhaps even erotic. Without wanting to apply a similar treatment to the unfortunate women and girls of Darfur, Sudan, who have been targeted for sexual assault in overwhelming numbers by the “janjaweed” and other competing militias, this painting applies a bolder, more contrasting color scheme and aggressive application of brushstroke, inspired by Cezanne’s “The Abduction”. To learn more about the now-seven-year conflict and genocide, and about how you can help, visit www.savedarfur.org. 40% of the proceeds from the auction of the featured painting, les porcs sont des hommes (the Sleepers), will benefit this organization’s efforts to assist the displaced peoples of Sudan. (Auction ends at 5pm, May 2nd) $350 Les porcs sont des hommes (Courbet’s The Sleepers of 1866), 2009-10 All doom-and-gloom makes a gallery-goer a dull boy or girl. The idea of making the unappealing, the unappetizing, even the unacceptable, look beautiful, appealing, even desirous, is an old favorite ploy of mine. This painting, however – a fair copy of Courbet’s beautiful painting of two women relaxing in the afterglow of lovemaking – applies itself directly to beauty and serves as the counterpoint to the rest of the exhibition. Here, the tangle of bodies is of peaceful, sensual female figures lying in an embrace of contentment that extends beyond the intimacy of their pairing: they suggest the joining of North and South – the former being the fair blonde and the latter, the darker brunette. Hence, there is a bridging of region and culture through total acceptance, even pleasure, of the other. The caption on the footnote banner, “les porcs sont des hommes”, is the French version of a saying that a friend of mine and I like to repeat: (spoken in André Codrescu’s Romanian accent and attitude) “Pigs are men!” When one looks to those ideal strengths of character for which mankind might strive, they are historically embodied in Western Art in the form of female allegorical figures. Think “Patience”, “Grace”, “Charity”… even “Liberty” is a woman. This painting upholds those characteristics to which we might aspire. It also suggests that the mode of behavior that typifies humankind is so self-interested that we could use the balance of “feminine” traits, which tend to give to others. A side-note about Courbet’s painting: I’ve read from more than one source, that the Sleepers is so convincing in its depiction of the women’s flesh, that “you can almost smell them”. I would like to be that good of a painter! Auction: Opening Bid $2500 40% of the proceeds from the auction of this painting, les porcs sont des hommes (the Sleepers), will benefit the organization Save Darfur’s efforts to assist the displaced peoples of Sudan. Visit www.savedarfur.org for more information on how you can help. (Auction ends at 5pm, May 2nd)
Arcadia, 2009-2010 Between 1630 and 1640, Nicholas Poussin painted two works under the topic Et In Arcadia Ego – Latin, translating to “Even here in Paradise, I am”. These words are pictured engraved on a tombstone in a beautiful, idyllic landscape, being deciphered by four shepherds, who presumably live a peaceful, carefree life. The “I” in the statement is, suggestively, Death. In a culture, such as ours, where – unless you are currently unemployed – we take so much for granted: water, energy, transportation; where we have so many distractions: entertainment, technology, a lifestyle shaped by consumerism; where we have so much information available that it is challenging to weed out what is valid and what is not; it seems far easier to just put off any decision-making regarding our future state of being in relationship to our planet’s climate and resources. Yet, In Arcadia Ego. $750
Coke or Cake?, 2010 You’ve heard that the “youth are our future”. Still, we have a way of making our future their future. Perhaps you may have seen the film, The Wall, which depicts the increasingly destructive development of one Pink Floyd. At the end of the film, after the wall, which insulates Pink from the rest of the world he tries to dominate, is “torn down”, children are seen playing amidst the rubble (after WWII air raids). One of them, Pink as a boy, picks up a bottle and sniffs the contents. He sticks his tongue out in disgust and empties out the “valuable” container. What can we extricate from our lives, and for what will we choose to make room? Though the cake of the future child may be Marie Antoinette’s, may their candles blaze and their best wishes all come true. Auction: Starting Bid $500 40% of the proceeds from the auction of this painting, Coke or Cake?, will help fund the Omaha Community Foundation’s awards to benefit children in the local area. (Auction ends at 5pm, May 2nd)
Estragos de la Guerra (after Goya, Disasters of War), 2009 The oldest painting of this exhibit is a rendition of an intaglio print by Francisco de Goya, from his series depicting atrocities occurring during the French invasion of Spain, 1808-1814. The pile of bodies into which the woman is falling might call to mind pictures from 20th Century conflicts. Here, it is best related to the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi (I Dream of Genie) and the rubble that appears throughout the room. Modern artists such as Leon Golub and Fernando Botero express condemnation for the cruelty of torture, whereas photos from Abu Grahib and televised slayings by Iraqi insurgents – not to mention the video capture of the 9-11 attacks – bring the merciless reality of human nature into promontory view. The mere repetition of such imagery in photography and art reflects the constant cycle of barbarity inflicted upon humans by humans. Such was the conclusion of José Clemente Orozco, the Mexican muralist, that: …the struggle and events of history are part of a single conflict in which the possibilities of progress [compete] with the pressing forces of reaction, greed, power and corruption…the instances have changed with time, but the conflict remains the same. (Desmond Rochfort, the Mexican Muralists) With times of peace being outstandingly few, if ever, in world-wide human experience, it is more than likely that this subject will frequent the world of art, especially painting, for the duration of our existence. $550
I Dream of Genie, the Tale of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, 2010; latex on flex This image is inspired by the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, “the only officially recognized survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings” (National Public Radio, 1-16-2010). One of the most striking instances of Mr. Yamaguchi’s harrowing experience, is when, in an effort to catch a train from a nearby town so that he could warn his friends and family back home in Nagasaki about the A-bomb’s power, he came up to a river. The bridge was downed, and so he ventured across the expanse on a raft of bloated human corpses washed downstream. An image, in the story of painting, that might come to mind, is Théodore Géricault’s giant, 16×25’ painting, the Raft of the Medusa of 1818–19, in which a squirming mass of doomed sailors struggle in vain against the elements to flag down a distant ship. What an echo! It seems there was a certain amount of public outrage regarding this event. I doubt that I am alone in viewing warfare as a waste of human potential and a serious flaw in our overall character which makes so obvious our animal nature. In most objective view of nature, the only positive outcome is population control. Its moral statement and consequences are another matter. Another influential experience behind this painting was that of my observations of a raft made by dozens of baby spiders, surviving for days in a glass half-filled with water. My daughter had tried to drown them, but their survival instinct is much too strong to go down so easily. Mr. Yamaguchi became an advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons. He died at the beginning of 2010 at the age of 93. Future Paintings, 2010 This series of smaller paintings represent the work that could possibly be created in the future, in the aftermath of the collapse of our civilization. The sparseness of materials that might be encountered is demonstrated through the limited palettes, sometimes thin films, and reductive methods. Note that the use of contemporary paint, substrates and varnishes are not married to this concept and approach taken to the painting processes. I see this group as a seed for the idea, with the evolution leading to painting with non-art materials on whatever surfaces which may, by happenstance, prove useful. The Future Paintings are grouped by personae that I “took on” while painting them. I would “act-out” each of what came to be four main artists with distinctly different technical approaches, styles and attitudes towards subject matter. I also came to pretend that they know, or know of, each other, akin to a mini school of painters, like the Hudson School or the Canadian “Group of Seven”. Two of these imagined artists used a similar sgraffito technique, coating a surface with a film of some-sort and scratching into it the way we do now with pre-fabricated scratchboards.
One of these sgraffito artists follows a minimalist aesthetic, allowing areas of the surface to remain unscratched and concentrating the image area into a band where depicted scenes simply fall off at the edges. The typical theme of this artist is that of survivalists. The Gleaners spotlights those who raise small farming patches and communities. It echoes Millet’s painting of the same name and others like it by 19th Century Social Realists. Indeed, those who have such knowledge will be indispensable in such a situation. Haves and Have-Nots (Scavengers) points to the dangers spawned by scarcity and still existent inequities regarding resources. The Fishers is another hopeful image in that it suggests that aquatic populations might experience resurgence, in contrast to our present-day over-fishing.
The other sgraffito artist is a bit more jovial. The Venice “painting” combines stories the artist heard of the Venus de Milo and the City of Venice. The model for the male figure (Poseidon?) is the same for Linnaeus (see below). Another portrait, Desert Woman, suggests that those who have not strayed far from traditional and/or indigenous ways of living are well equipped for survival in this “new world”.
Another artist using a reductive method, decided to wield some sort of brush to move and remove the wet material, rather than a stylus. The Flower Study and portrait (Linnaeus) are this more academic painter’s attempts to record the world. Through Ruin to Grace, however, seems to be a fantasy of transcendence, similar to religious images familiar to the Baroque and to the architectural etchings of Giovanni Piranesi. The only artist here using a truly additive method uses motor oil and oxides of rust to paint the portrait of Langely. Portraiture seems to be a likely subject in a post-photographic age. Finally, the Nesting Dove echoes that sign of hope and renewal that appears in the story of Noah |
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