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
Quotes
Genres: CoBrA
After the horrors of World War II, a group of northern Europeans banded together to promote their vision of art with a series of exhibits, publications, and collaborations. As a movement they existed for a few years in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
CoBrA favored expressionist painting techniques, spontaneity and experimentation. Inspired by the art of children, primitives, and the insane, they sought a kind of populism where art was made by and for everyone.
While their methods may leave their art crude and unresolved, their sense of art as a universal form of communication runs counter to the ever-present elitist tendencies that marginalize art in mass culture.
“Creation and revolutionary struggle have the same objective: the realization of life.” – Constant
Quotes: Paul Klee
‘My hand is entirely the implement of a distant sphere. It is not my head that functions but something else, something higher, something somewhere remote. I must have great friends there, dark as well as bright… They are all very kind to me.”
-Paul Klee
This quote reflects my experience of creating art. The sense of being a conduit, as well of the supporting forces of both enlightenment and the shadow side.
Article: Art World Price Fixing
BEN LEWIS: Who Put the “Con” in Contemporary Art?
From a few years, but a good description of some of the dubious practices that fuel the contemporary art market. I do not agree with his observation suggesting regulation is needed (why is more statist intervention the solution for everything?), but more transparency would help.
The money quote: “The art world is dirty, corrupt and immoral, and, if there was a name for such a crime, these people would be charged with perverting the course of art history.”
The art world makes a good microcosm of the real world. A small group of a new aristocracy of the well connected use their influence to line their pockets, their offerings devoid of any real achievement or quality. This is the era of the fall of the “experts.” They’ve squandered their credibility with the terrible results of their schemes and actions.
Remodernism removes power from the hands of corrupt, self-serving elites, and gives it back to the people.
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.
Quotes: Yep.
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
-Will Rogers
The trick is to remember the mistakes and not repeat them. But I find both art and life are very forgiving when you are following the path of your ideals.
Quotes: Myths
“Myths are the world’s dreams. They are archetypal dreams and deal with great human problems. Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realizations of some kind that then have to find expression in symbolic form.”
-Joseph Campbell
Painting is among the greatest of symbolic forms.
Article: Stuckists Picket Turner Prize
BLOOMBERG: The Stuckists Strike Again
The Stuckists continue to provide perspective on Britain’s woeful Turner Prize competition.
Quotes: Henry Miller
“To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest.”
-Henry Miller
Painting is an effective model for existence.
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 