Roberto Matta, a late addition to the Surrealist group.
Mysterious murky depths and illuminations in his space age paintings.
“I am interested only in the unknown and I work for my own astonishment.”
-Matta
Influences
Influences: Francis Bacon
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
-Francis Bacon
A video depicting many paintings.
English painter Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992) used painterly distortion to express the existential angst and shock of the 20th century. The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC had an impressive collection of his works on display which I saw as a child, before I had any sense of what modern art was all about. His intense narratives and mysterious atmospheres haunt me to this day.
Genres: The Ashcan School
Described as America’s first true avant-garde.
The Ashcan School of the early 1900’s favored an anti-academic art of the people, like Remodernism does today.
Genres: Symbolism
An overview of Symbolist Art
Before I found a contemporary guiding philosophy in Remodernism, I recognized in my work shared concerns with the Symbolist painters of the late 1800s-early 1900s.
The spiritual aspects of light, darkness and color. Acceptance of gods, monsters and the grotesque as worthy explorations for art. A mystical sense of purpose. Deep order. Intense emotions. All these elements continue in my work.
Remodernism as a force of integration of all previous eras of modern art supports my continued explorations.
Influences: Albert Pinkham Ryder
Self taught American visionary
Albert Pinkham Ryder unfortunately did not use sound painting techniques. At the time of their creation his works were described as glowing like jewels, filled with inner light. Most of them now only hint towards their original presence.
Using kerosene and bacon fat as mediums is not advisable. He would glaze over wet paint and then paint back over the glaze. Many of his works have turned black, cracked beyond repair, even slowly slid off their canvas backings.
Hailed as a precursor of modern art, Ryder was one of the few Americans exhibited in the infamous 1913 Armory Show, which introduced new European ideas of art of an incredulous American public.
I was fortunate enough to be exposed to several key Ryder paintings in Washington DC museums while I was growing up. His luminosity haunts my paintings to this day.
Influences: Henri Rousseau
“…by re-introducing the values of the imaginary into the art of his period, he went beyond one of the needs of his time – and ours.”
–from Henrirousseau.net
A prototype for the Remodernist artist. Rousseau cultivated his own idiosyncratic vision into playful and profound statements on reality.
Michele and I were extremely fortunate to see a Rousseau retrospective in Washington DC. We could get right up close to all the works, see the little details and flaws (you can always tell a painter in a museum. They are the ones looking at the paintings from 3 inches away). The paintings were so simple yet powerful.
remodernamerica.com 