Meanwhile, I want to wish everyone a happy Christmas - or whatever you may be celebrating - and a New Year that brings you all you wish for, and a little extra.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
SEASONAL GREETINGS
For some unknown reason, I haven't been able to upload a new post to my main Blaugustine blog (link at MORE below). If you too are unable to open it, please let me know in comments here.
Meanwhile, I want to wish everyone a happy Christmas - or whatever you may be celebrating - and a New Year that brings you all you wish for, and a little extra.
MORE
Meanwhile, I want to wish everyone a happy Christmas - or whatever you may be celebrating - and a New Year that brings you all you wish for, and a little extra.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
ETERNAL RETURN
It took me almost
the whole of December to make this very short video and
what I've learned is that I want to go back to painting.
I started with
a desire to express feelings of nostalgia,
sadness and mystery about my
Russian ancestry, my father and his relatives,
known and unknown, and bewilderment
about the impermanence of life and the tenacity
of personality, of family resemblance, of faces fusing
into other faces.
I wanted to make a video
that would be like a painting but with gentle movement
taking place at various distances from the spectator.
I built a kind of mini stage-set out of three
cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with windows cut
out of the back, roof and sides. I painted the inside
of the boxes so that when lights were placed between
them, you could see the colours of rooms behind rooms.
On sheets of acetate I printed (digitally, through
ink-jet printer) small photos of my Russian relatives,
cut them out, then hung them on gold threads from wooden
bars and from the ceilings of two front boxes. What I didn't take into consideration
was that the camera and the naked eye are two altogether
different species. The depth that my
naked eye perceived was completely lost when the camcorder
was pointed in the same direction.
Here is the final version, after discarding about
seven others. It's a compromise but I don't dislike
it. I borrowed one of Alexander
Vertinsky's songs for the soundtrack because
he fits the mood so well and because my father liked
him so much. I couldn't find a clip of his particular
favourite, which started with (pardon my phonetics
- I don't speak Russian but understand
a few words): Ti
sidish adinoke....(You sit alone, staring
at the flames....) There are lots of Vertinsky songs
on YouTube and if you like the nostalgic chansonnier style, look him up.
Here's the permalink from
VIMEO (it's a bigger screen over there) if you can't see it below.
Labels:
1920s,
Alexander Vertinsky,
ancestors,
chansonnier,
depth of field,
DNA,
family,
genealogy,
heritage,
nostalgia,
relatives,
Russian
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
A MOVING POEM
My blogging report card this month
is shameful. I'm standing in the corner, dunce
cap on my head, red-faced and staring at the floor.
Digressed
again, off-piste again, 7ism resolutions postponed
again. I don't have a valid excuse except
that I really have been thinking a lot and trying
to see where I'm at, as they say.
But I couldn't let November end
without a modest ode to falling leaves and darker days
and the melancholy of approaching winter. Another
rough experimental animation, started yesterday afternoon
and finished at about six o'clock this morning, without
a break.
I didn't choose the music beforehand
but as soon as I watched the silent video I remembered
Bachianas Brasileiras, by Heitor Villa-Lobos,
sung by the extraordinary soprano Bidù Sayao.
I've only used a short extract from Number 5 - if you've
never heard the whole thing, it's definitely worth looking
up. There are many recordings of it but Sayao's interpretation
is my absolute favourite.
This is the VIMEO permalink in
case you don't see the video here.
Monday, November 14, 2011
AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY...
Today, the seventh day of my
first 7ism work,
herewith my report and results.
Decided to start with something
small and insignificant so I chose to make an improved
version of my stop-motion animation NOT a celebrity, the
first rough cut of which I posted here last
month. Since I declared then that I was definitely
going to improve it, this seemed like a good way to test
the 7ism movement's
effectiveness.
My usual approach is to declare
that I am going to do something, then put whatever it
is on the shelf (virtual or literal) with all the other
things I have declared I am going to do in the immediate
future. In my vocabulary, the word immediate is
elastic and infinitely stretchable. Unfortunately, reality
doesn't understand my vocabulary. Hence the pile-up of
broken declarations, which 7ism is going to fix.
I hope.
I began at about 2:30 pm on
Tuesday, November 8th. The first requirement was to devise
a more efficient arrangement to hold the
camcorder.
A book I have (Get
Started in Animation)
includes a diagram for building a simple copy-stand with
camera mount. While the plan is perfectly feasible, I
didn't want to spend too much time on this so I opted
for improvisation, my favourite modus operandi.
An old portable easel was
given a new function which you can see in the photos
below. I pushed the normally vertical canvas-supporting
arm into horizontal position, adjusted the legs to the
needed height and tightened all the bolts. Then (here's
the clever bit) I took one of those tiny tripods available
in any camera shop, put its legs together flatly and
taped it down firmly to one end of the easel's
horizontal bar. The camcorder could then be screwed into
the reclining mini- tripod, allowing the camera lens
to point straight down. I attached
a cable to connect camera to power socket and a Firewire
to link my Mac to the camera (I'm using iStopMotion software).
The above photos were taken in
the downstairs study where I ended up making the third
and final version, but I first set up the rig in my upstairs
studio. By the time I was ready to shoot, daylight was
gone and I had a lot of trouble positioning lamps
even when using daylight bulbs. Version Two
was a big headache (literally) for many reasons but I
learned a useful lesson.
When something doesn't work because
I haven't prepared well enough, my usual tendency is
to keep nagging away at the
faulty item until I've knocked it into some kind of unsatisfactory
order, even though a much more effective solution would
be to start from scratch.
I went through my old routine in the second version and
wasted several days painstakingly re-drawing frame
after frame of a whole sequence because I'd filmed
it too close and some of it was out of frame. The obvious
answer was to re-shoot it. But no, I had to be the masochist.
However, because this was a 7ism project
and I was committed to it, I then threw
out all those files I had so obsessively been re-doing,
re-uploading and... well, you don't want to know every
twist and turn of that winding road....decided to do
a third version. That's when I moved everything downstairs.
Finally here are the two versions
of NOT
a celebrity my seven days produced. The animation
is still not even close to perfect but I'm satisfied
with this particular project and pronounce 7ism a
success in enabling me to finish something I probably
would have abandoned.
All comments/criticisms etc. are
welcome.
Labels:
animation,
anonymity,
camcorder,
celebrity,
easel,
fame,
paper puppets,
publicity,
rostrum,
self-promotion,
stop-motion,
video
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
NEW ART MOVEMENT BORN HERE AND NOW!
Heh. I've just created a new art
movement.
So far I'm the only member. I don't
mind if I remain the only member but in case anyone
wants to join, here is the manifesto. If I,
the founder, should fail to stick to it, then the
movement will automatically self-destruct. Dissolve like
sugar in hot coffee.
7ism
MANIFESTO
I
hereby announce the birth of a new art movement.
I name it 7ism.
The
aim of 7ism is the creation of Complete and
Wonderful artworks, in any medium, within the time
frame of seven days, no less and no more, in a continuous
procession of seven day periods, ad infinitum.
Complete
= Finished to the best of the creator's ability.
Wonderful=
Full of Wonder. Unexpected.
To
Wonder= Not know. Reflect upon.
The
reasonable objection that Wonderful artworks cannot
always be created in seven days is not relevant because
this movement does not pretend to address all art
and all artists but only those multi-faceted, undisciplined
ones who, like myself, find it very difficult to:
a)
Finish within a reasonable time what I start .
b)
Choose which of my many projects and interests to
prioritise.
c)
Avoid the frustration and guilt of accumulating un-achieved
goals.
Setting
short fixed time-frames will encourage sustained
attention to one goal at a time, provide the satisfaction
of seeing it achieved, and the motivation for moving
on immediately to the next (perhaps similar, perhaps
very different) seven-day goal.
Joining
the 7ism movement requires members to note
the day and time they will have to complete the first
task they've chosen.
I
will embark
on my first 7istic slice tomorrow and will report
on my progress.
If you are joining,
please say so below and on
your blog if you have one, and in a week report on
the results of your first 7ism experience. Heh!
Labels:
achievement,
art movements,
artwork,
goal,
manifesto,
multi-faceted,
project,
resolution,
seven days,
wonder,
wonderful
Saturday, October 29, 2011
GOD vs MAMMON: the fight continues
I don't mention politics very often
in this space but that isn't because I'm indifferent
to the world outside my imitation ivory
miniature tower. I am aware and I do care, a lot. But
the feelings I have about the injustice, horror, hypocrisy,
deceit, greed, selfishness, violence, insanity and stupidity
of so much that the words 'politics' and 'economics'
embrace are mainly inarticulate anger and outrage. All
I can do is splutter incoherently or cry helplessly so
I prefer to leave it up to more eloquent and knowledgeable
others to write or speak about such things.
But what's happening right here
in London in front of St.Paul's Cathedral, as part
of the current global protests about Mammon's domination
of almost anything you can think of, has made me want
to say my little say.
Whether or not you believe there
is a God or a Mammon is irrelevant. For sure all
the people camped on the steps of St. Paul's are not
believers. But they are certainly convinced that they
belong to a movement which is opposed to a dictatorship:
the powerful dictatorship of money, and those who control
it, over the lives of every person on this planet.
Today's Independent front
page has the headline: God vs Mammon: Britain
takes sides. Interestingly, the debate is now questioning
what the church's role is, what being a Christian
means and whether the clergy, especially those in high-ranking
positions, should take a strong stand (against Mammon)
or sit back and say nothing out of fear of rocking the church
politics boat. So far, two clerics have bravely resigned in protest
against the St.Paul's administration decision to seek a court
injunction for evicting the protesters. There are many letters
from clergy all over the country to newspaper editors,
supporting the protesters and
lamenting St.Paul's Cathedral authorities' attitude. Thus far
the voice which should take the lead - that of Rowan Williams,
Archbishop of Canterbury - has been deafeningly silent.
Surely
this is a golden opportunity for him to define what being
a Christian means and what relevance Christianity
has in this Mammon-led world? If speaking out
in support of the protest will endanger his position
in the church and cause shock waves to ripple
through the halls of hierarchy, well, so be it. Such
a courageous gesture would do more than hundreds of sermons
and conferences to inspire those who have given up on
Christianity for not being Christ-like enough.
El Greco: Christ Drives Merchants
from the Temple
Friday, October 28, 2011
AGGRAVATED AND ANIMATED
Another month has streaked by.
Where have I been all this time? Well, here's my
first excuse:
Persuaded by
dire warnings of ever more virulent types of flu
waiting to attack us this winter if we are not
vaccinated, I went obediently to get the shot. As soon
as I walked out of the local health centre - I'm
not making this up - my throat began to feel prickly.
By the time I got home I was sniffling, sneezing
and limbs ached. The doctors say a reaction may set in
after twenty-four hours and will last only three or
four days. I must have a speedier and more contrary
immune system because my reaction was instantaneous,
has lasted over a week and is still not quite okay. I
may or may not now be resistant to the latest flu virus
but I sure as hell am not getting shot in 2012.
Second excuse: I was making
a stop motion animation. Or rather trying to make a stop
motion animation just because I said
I was going to, didn't I? As everybody knows who has
ever tried, animation, especially stop motion, is
a slow, painstaking process requiring infinite patience
and precise attention to detail. Well, I wanted to see
instant results and so did my usual thing of cutting
corners, lots of corners, and improvising - all the while
sniffling, sneezing etc.
I had already made the
Naugustine paper puppet (see October
7th below) but her wire joints weren't holding so
I had to re-do her and hinge her parts with needle
and thread - excruciatingly fiddly! I wrote
a short script and made the Doremy Faxman puppet, hinged
in the same manner. Too impatient to build a proper copy
stand and get proper lights, I set up the camcorder on
a tripod above my desk but couldn't, of course, make
the lens point straight down because the tripod
legs were in the way. For lighting there was only my
desk lamps, so there's a pinkish cast on everything and
the dialogue, written by hand on the white backgrounds,
is barely visible. And when I started moving the puppets,
I didn't do it smoothly or slowly enough. I used iStopMotion Mac
software (bought ages ago and never used until
now so my version is already obsolete) to capture the
frames and put them on my computer. Then began the editing
process: tooth-grindingly, eye-wateringly, repetitive-strain-injuringly
slow and tedious but being obsessive as well as undisciplined,
I stayed up all night, several nights, then did it all
again in iMovie, adding all sorts of effects in attempts
to slow down the jerky action and improve readability,
but then deleted it all after realising that the original
simple rough cut was much better. Imported that rough
version to Garage Band and added an improvised musical
sound track - couldn't add speech because the action
is too fast.
So, here is the very very rough,
very very fast fruit of all that impatient labour. I
will do a smoother, more proficient version by and by,
but have to say I am not entirely displeased with this
amateurish first draft. Because the text flashes by too
dimly and too quickly to be read, here is my script:
NOT A CELEBRITY
Doremy Faxman (Hard-hitting
Media person/interviewer): So,
Naugustine, why are you here?
Naugustine: That is the
question I ask myself every day.
Faxman: Come on! I asked you
why you're on this show and you start waffling on
about the meaning of life!
Naugustine: Sorry, I thought
you meant...
Faxman: I know what you thought
I meant. Just answer the question!
Naugustine: Well, I'm on this
show because I'm not a celebrity and I thought it
might...um...give me some...um...publicity.
Faxman: I'm afraid I have to
terminate this interview, Naugustine.
Naugustine: But why? I haven't
even started!
Faxman: You've
broken the rules of this show . NOT a CELEBRITY
dot com does not permit non-celebrities to seek celebrity
by appearing on this show. This is Doremy Faxman
saying goodnight non-celebrities, wherever you are!
The video is on the main Blaugustine blog, on Vimeo, on YouTube and here:
The video is on the main Blaugustine blog, on Vimeo, on YouTube and here:
Labels:
animation,
celebrity,
chat-shows,
fame,
iMovie,
iStopMotion,
Macintosh,
media,
non-celebrity,
obscurity,
paper cuts,
personalities,
presenters,
puppets,
stop-motion,
television
Thursday, October 13, 2011
REVISITED PAINTINGS
About a year ago...or is it two
years?...my Italian grand-nephew, when asked what
he wanted for his birthday, made a rather unusual request
for a young boy: a painting of my sister and me. He
was thirteen only a few days ago and he and his father
are coming from Rome to see me this weekend.
I started the
painting...whenever that was...but wasn't happy
with it and turned it to the wall for quite a while.
I scraped out and re-started umpteen times until the
canvas acquired a rough textured surface. Unable
to procrastinate any longer, I have finally finished
it. Probably it could still be re-worked but I'm going
to leave it as is and hope Emanuel will like it.
I've called it Two Sisters in
Time and inserted images of ourselves as children
in the faceted background. Dividing a background into vertical
strips of variegated colour is something I have found
myself doing over and over again for a very long
time, going way back to some of my earliest paintings
as a teen-ager. It's not a conscious decision - it
just happens. The feeling behind it, I think, is
a desire to escape from realism into a more abstract
dimension, but not entirely.
Two Sisters in Time Oil
on canvas, 2010-2011
Below is another painting using
vertical facets but I allowed abstraction to
dominate this one. It's from 1994 when I had a SPACE
studio in Hackney - the first photo was taken there.
I had the idiotic idea of using this unstretched painting
as a coffee table covering, folding the edges
down all around. Thus it remained until
a few weeks ago when I suddenly decided that it deserved
to be rescued from a utilitarian role and treated more
like art. I had to cut off the damaged edges,
so the canvas is somewhat smaller than its original version,
but I think it's survived life as a tablecloth pretty
well.
Hackney studio 1994
Music and Love Oil
on canvas, 1994
Labels:
abstract art,
art,
canvas,
grand-nephew,
Hackney,
love,
music,
oil painting,
sisters,
SPACE studio
Friday, October 07, 2011
VISITORS AND A PUPPET SELF
It
was my great pleasure to welcome Beth/cassandra and
Jonathan to my home on several occasions during their
séjour in London and a few of us UK blogger friends,
including Dick/patteran
pages, met
for lunch at a pub in my neighbourhood on Sept.28th.
Here are a few photos of that occasion, not including
the camera-shy and the camera-phobic.
Beth and Jonathan chez moi.
Beth and Jonathan chez moi.
Dick
Jones chez moi.
At the pub.
You must visit Beth's blog to
get the full flavour of London seen through her eyes.
Jonathan's photos will also, I hope, appear on his site
at some stage - it doesn't seem to be online at the moment.
Enthralled by the clive
hicks-jenkins maquettes
and by his idea of having an online exhibition of some
made by blogger friends, inspired by his example,
I decided to try my hand at articulating paper
figures. What emerged was a creature
who is an amalgam of Natalie and Augustine, somewhat
flattering both of them. I haven't got the hang of making
smooth joints between the articulated parts yet so it's
very rough but I like it anyway. I love the possibility
of making Naugustine move and am considering doing some
video animation experiments with her.
Labels:
animation,
articulated paper,
bloggers,
Cassandra,
Clive Hicks-Jenkins,
London,
maquettes,
Patteran Pages,
pub,
puppets,
visitors
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
CAN IT REALLY BE THE END OF SEPTEMBER ALREADY?
And I've been absent from
blogging all this time! My excuse is that I was too
busy making order in my messy studio to attend
to blogging business. The truth, in a more
analytical kind of way, is probably that
anything which requires regular attendance in a disciplined
manner over a long period usually brings out my delayed
adolescent rebellion. Well,
anyway, I really did spend a long time organising my
studio, getting rid of stuff etc. and here are some
pictures to prove it.
For example, a couple of
big paintings were cluttering up the floor space so
I had the great idea of hanging them (with essential
help from dear friend Nuala) on the sloping attic ceiling.
Above the tools, a painting of
rocks I painted in Paraguay when dinosaurs were still
roaming the earth.
And I found a
practical use for one of my scarves (a Mondrian-ish
one) as a curtain to hide ugly cables below some bookshelves
in the living room.
To atone
for my blogging absence (if anyone noticed!)
here is
the most wondrous version of a jazz classic, played Indian-style.
You have to see as well as hear this to get the full
flavour. Thanks to Dominic
Rivron for this
terrific link.
Tomorrow is a special day: a
few of us UK blogger-friends are getting together to
celebrate the presence in London of Beth, the wonderful
cassandra,
and her husband Jonathan, the wonderful photographer.
They've been here a week and are leaving, all too soon,
in another few days. I hope I'll have some photos of
this occasion to post.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
BORN FROM SCARVES
This African spirit emerged from digitally painting over one of my scarves photos. There may be more.
MORE
Labels:
African spirit,
apparitions,
art,
digital painting,
ghosts,
graphics,
scarves
EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY
Everything visible, no matter how
familiar and ordinary, can suddenly seem miraculous
when the eyes and consciousness home in and absorb a
scene, drinking it in like a bee feasting on nectar.
Astonishment - better expressed in French as emerveillement (making
marvellous) is the key to creativity and
maybe even to eternal youth. Forever amazed - that's
my motto and goal.
The movie option on my
new camera gives me a perfect tool for
recording random glimpses of activity that delight
me by their rhythms and patterns. Here is a video-collage,
combining the rain walkers in Trafalgar Square, a street
performer below the National Gallery, and a magic instant
in Salisbury Cathedral a few days ago.
I had a dental appointment in Salisbury
last Thursday - why, you may well ask, make an
hour and a half train journey to a dentist in another
town when there are so many dentists in London? The
reason is too boringly dentally technical to go into
but anyway, I've never been to Salisbury. So, after my
dentist appointment, I wandered through the charming
town, ending up at the deservedly famous
cathedral. Its serene
majesty is enhanced by the tranquil bucolic surroundings
in which it stands. The giant spire (123 metres/404
feet) is like an arrow straining to
break free from the ground and zoom up to the stars.
Astonishing to me were the
contemporary figures by Sean
Henry unexpectedly scattered outside
and inside the cathedral. This is a temporary event
titled Conflux, a
union of the sacred and the anonymous. I didn't
know anything about his work and was impressed with
it, although the shiny plasticky varnish that most
of the sculptures are coated with is offputting.
I took a few photos but there are better ones here.
MORE
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
SCARFED
I love scarves. I was cleaning
out a drawer and realised just how many I have, far
too many, the picture is only a small selection. I buy
them on impulse, seduced by some gorgeous colour, pattern
or texture and then only ever wear the same three or
four. I took the whole lot out and hung them on a
clothesline, wondering what could be made out of them.
Ideas, anyone? The more unusual
the better.
And below I am in Middle Eastern/ancient
Egyptian mode.
MORE
Labels:
Ancient Egypt,
colours,
headscarf,
Middle East,
patterns,
scarves,
silk,
textures
Thursday, August 18, 2011
CHAPELLE LAFITTE IMAGINED
I had trouble drawing the
chapel built by Père Lafitte and Susan without
some kind of model so after many false starts, I made
a very rough cardboard structure loosely based on
the idea of a hollow tree trunk. Of course I didn't go
as far as working out how many plastic bottles
and other junk would be needed to build such
a thing but I thought it would be fairly small, more
or less human-sized.
Below is the cardboard idea and
you can see how it developed in the illustration below which
is now inserted at the end of installment 18 of La Vie en Rosé.
There's another new image at the start of this episode as well. I hope to finish
the rest of the missing illustrations pretty soon.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
TOO MANY WORDS
Not writing about the riots because
thousands of words are being written and
spoken about the situation and I don't have anything
useful to add. Those who have said the most useful
things are not politicians or pundits but people whose
actions are better than words, people like Camila
Batmanghelidh. Or like the man in the street who
had served time in jail and told a reporter that
instead of wasting money and time to lock young mayhem-makers
in jail for a few months, they should be put to work
clearing up the mess and making amends to the communities,
and individuals they have damaged. And though I'm certainly
not a Daily Telegraph reader, this article
also hit some nails squarely on the head.
I had no intention of making a
word-painting and the image below evolved like this:
first I covered a large sheet of paper with splashy
abstract shapes of the gestural kind. Then I decided
to do a splashy self-portrait over the top. Then I painted
over it with a grid of heavy white brushstrokes. Then
I wanted some abstract shapes to fill each rectangle
of the grid. Then I saw that letters made the best shapes.
Then the words emerged.
Greenyellowbluered Acrylic and
ink on paper
The next picture is not relevant
to anything and I regret falling into the cat-blogging
trap once more but Pushkine (she is female) dropped in
again and is just too photogenic to resist.
Sunday, August 07, 2011
BIRTHDAY
Here it is again, turning up regularly
on the same day at the same time, midnight, every year.
I wish that it would forget
to turn up and then I could stay whatever age
I was when it stopped coming round.
But since something must be done
to mark this date and since it's all about
identity, leaving one's handprint on the cave walls of
time, I've gathered photos
of a few of the self-portraits I painted over the years
- many many years. They're arranged more or less chronologically
but the actual dates are probably lost in prehistoric
mists. I must say that seeing these portraits together
makes me realise that I could be quite a good painter one
day. Must get back on track. A renaissance is due.
All the actual paintings are in
colour. Apart from No.3 and 4, I still have these
and they are for sale, if anyone's interested. By
the way, in real life I don't have a long neck, unfortunately.
More recent ones, including the digital series, are here and here .
MORE
Friday, August 05, 2011
GHOSTS
There's been a very lively response
to Dave's
post about ghosts, inviting poems on the subject.
I've just added my own, here it is. I made
a videopoem for it and have posted it to Vimeo as well as the main Blaugustine.
HYPNAGOGIA
HYPNAGOGIA
just not here
not now
the way to see them
is to wait
for that moment
before sleep
when your eyes are closed
but you’re still conscious
I forgot what it’s called
never mind
that’s the moment.
a little window opens
as if you’re in a cave
looking out
to brilliant sunlight
and there they are
not pale zombies
but ordinary people
tiny figures moving about.
I saw them last night.
Some of them I recognised.
Labels:
apparitions,
cave,
consciousness,
ghosts,
sleeping,
visions,
zombies
Thursday, July 28, 2011
ABSTRACT versus FIGURATIVE? IS THAT THE QUESTION?
A demonstration
Imagine that one day, as you're
in the middle of painting yet another of the realistic
pictures you're known for and are good at,
you suddenly stop, put down your brush,
and say:
Enough! I've had enough of this!
Why must I go on endlessly
depicting what I see? Music doesn't
have to tell a story or imitate familiar sounds - why
shouldn't I too break free from representation?
So you take
some blank canvases and papers and boards and
paints and solvents and you
start exploring ways of creating a visual
art which doesn't describe or interpret known objects
but is its
own reality.
Immediately you become aware that
certain options are open to you. Gradually,
depending on your tastes, moods, influences and the random
effects which the materials themselves provide, you
choose to pursue one or more of those options. Having
put aside the figurative content which previously dominated
your attention, you now focus on process, invention and
concept.
1. STAINED
Free-flowing, transparent or dense, indeterminately-edged, ethereal. Bissier, Frankenthaler, Still
2. BUILT
with informal blocks of interlocked shapes, creating perspectiveless depth by colour and texture. De Stael, Hodgkin, Diebenkorn
3. GESTURED
with brush, charcoal, fingers, etc. A spontaneous calligraphic means of creating form. Kline, Blow, Hitchens
4. GEOMETRICIZED
Devising and obeying invented rules, proportions, concepts, hard-edged, rigorous. Mondrian, Nicholson, Malevich
5. PATTERNED
Over-all, edgeless, whether patiently drawn or made by controlling random processes. Pollock, Tobey Davie
6. FIGMENTED
fragments of imagination and chance. Shapes invented or loosely based on remembered objects. Mirò, Gorky, Friedlaender
7. SCRIBBLED
Linear signs, perhaps words or hieroglyphs, on smooth or rough surfaces, coloured or plain. Klee, Twombly, Tàpies
8. FILLED
Large empty fields of intense colour, atmospheric, enveloping. Rothko, Olitski, Newman
That's my over-simplified
but fairly accurate summing-up of some of the paths
taken by any painter who sets out on a journey away from
representation. 'Art for art's sake' makes sense when
perceived as a desire to escape from the prison
of the seen - or rather, the scene - in order
to paint something other. How do you get to that otherness and
still remain a painter? The eight processes shown above
are possible ways to get there which have been
explored and elaborated by most of the abstract and semi-abstract
painters of our time.
However, they are not exclusive
to modern times or to abstract art. If you isolate
details from well-known figurative paintings of any period,
it's very clear that those
modes crop up everywhere and that they
play a role in shaping the styles of individual
artists, whatever their subject. What was new
about some modern abstract art is that it made
process become the master, the subject, rather than remaining
merely technique, the servant.
But ABSTRACT versus
FIGURATIVE is a false dichotomy. Great figurative
art of any period never re-presents reality as
we know it so it's already abstraction. But
it does offer startling new ways to see the familiar
and, sometimes, shows us things that are completely unfamiliar.
The fragments I've selected merely show examples of the eight abstract modes in the handling of paint or the composition of these particular figurative paintings. I don't mean to imply that these artists' work can be categorised under such labels.
Links to the full pictures from which the details are taken:
1. Watteau
2. El Greco
3. John Singer Sargent
4. Vermeer
5. Klimt
6. Bruegel
7. Rembrandt
8. De La Tour
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