Remodernism

Commentary: The Phoenix Remodernist Manifesto

Richard Bledsoe Artwork, Commentary, Remodernism, Richard Bledsoe

Richard Bledsoe “Rider” Acrylic on canvas 18″ x 18″

After being exposed to the Remodernist manifesto of Charles Thomson/Billy Childish, I was compelled to write down my own ideas. This statement was introduced in the original Phoenix Remodernist exhibit “The Soul on Earth” in September 2010 at Deus Ex Machina Gallery; a revised version was produced for the Trunk Space Gallery “A Young City in An Ancient Land” in January 2012. Although used as a curator’s statement for these shows, the ideas are general enough to serve as a manifesto for the Phoenix Remodernist movement.

No one should be surprised, because it’s the same old story. The era of dissolution has come around again.

Civilization is seething, crumbling the carefully constructed but carelessly maintained social structures which have been taken for granted. This breakdown is global in scale, and it is accelerating; for millions of people, life will never be the same. It is the end times. But more importantly, it is also a new beginning.

As this turmoil unfolds, challenging our most basic assumptions, artists in Phoenix are contributing to the latest chapter of the ongoing story of art. There’s still plenty of groupthink Postmodern work getting made: redundant formalism, paint-by-numbers pop, and insubstantial conceptualism. Detached and irrelevant, these modes of art do capture something of the spirit of this era, as a time of decay. Invested in the old order, a cozy cocoon of crony capitalism, the creators of these works are provisioning a tomb with mummified ideas and simulated treasures.

However, there are artists who reject the futile remake/sequel dynamic that has come to dominate the establishment. All throughout the Valley of the Sun there are artists whose work is not contrived to fit existing art templates, but is an organic outgrowth of their own experiences and personalities. These artists work in a variety of styles and mediums, and no one label would fit them all.

Among all this diverse creativity, some artists, while following their individual visions, have arrived at common ground. Phoenix Remodernism has grown into a recognizable movement.

Our work is appropriate for a young city in an ancient land. With the wonder of youth, we wander in the ruins of fossilized civilization. With our own hands, we assemble from the debris affectionate homages to the human condition, works afflicted with humor and humbled by grace. We don’t care about impressing the gatekeepers, we want to interact with everyone. We are story tellers. We love where we’ve come from, and we preserve that love for the future to see. We invoke an eerie nostalgia for the past, for we accept we will be joining that infinite regression. We are the latest iteration of the American character: ordinary people working as explorers and inventors, self-reliant and productive. We make a complex art for complex times.

Remodernism began in London in 1999, founded by punk rock Renaissance man Billy Childish and painter Charles Thomson as a protest against elitist art world politics. Remodernism recognizes art making as an inclusive, spiritual activity, and encourages a DIY mentality.

Remoderism is the return of art as a revelation. We are showing things about ourselves that can also be universally recognized. Our art symbolically represents flawed, searching humanity participating in birth, existence and death. It is mysterious and moving, comic and tragic, clumsy and elegant. It is a celebration of the beauty and weirdness of life.

-Richard Bledsoe

Quotes: Networking

Richard Bledsoe Commentary, Quotes, Remodernism

“It’s very true that an artist who networks well will have better opportunities than one who doesn’t network well. But great networking skills without great art won’t change art history.”

-Mark Kostabi

 

Remodernism does not accept the current philosophy so prevalent in the art world-that who you know is more important than what you do. The establishment has been pushing art that does not rely on skill or vision, because that allows them to favor cronies whose work does not have artistic merit. To join in this dynamic, the only talent that matters is the art of sucking up. Short term success, at best. Artists should understand their role in the mighty continuum of art, and make works that aim for the ages, instead of trying to be in sync with fashionable trends. If our scene is to improve, our artists need to be themselves, working obsessively at their unique visions.

Commentary: The Remodernist Manifesto

Richard Bledsoe Commentary, Remodernism

I discovered the art movement Remodernism when I came across the online posting of the manifesto written by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish. Here were some artists who articulated what I was feeling, identifying problems in the art world and describing the way forward. This was what first made me realize I was not alone in my frustration and disgust, that others around the world felt the same way I did-and what’s more, they were doing something about it.

-Richard Bledsoe

REMODERNIST MANIFESTO

Through the course of the 20th century Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally toppling into the pit of Postmodern balderdash. At this appropriate time, The Stuckists, the first Remodernist Art Group, announce the birth of Remodernism.

1-Remodernism takes the original principles of Modernism and reapplies them, highlighting vision as opposed to formalism.

2-Remodernism is inclusive rather than exclusive and welcomes artists who endeavor to know themselves and find themselves through art processes that strive to connect and include, rather than alienate and exclude. Remodernism upholds the spiritual vision of the founding fathers of Modernism and respects their bravery and integrity in facing and depicting the travails of the human soul through a new art that was no longer subservient to a religious or political dogma and which sought to give voice to the gamut of the human psyche.

3-Remodernism discards and replaces Post-Modernism because of its failure to answer or address any important issues of being a human being.

4-Remodernism embodies spiritual depth and meaning and brings to an end an age of scientific materialism, nihilism and spiritual bankruptcy.

5-We don’t need more dull, boring, brainless destruction of convention, what we need is not new, but perennial. We need an art that integrates body and soul and recognizes enduring and underlying principles which have sustained wisdom and insight throughout humanity’s history. This is the proper function of tradition.

6-Modernism has never fulfilled its potential. It is futile to be ‘post’ something which has not even ‘been’ properly something in the first place. Remodernism is the rebirth of spiritual art.

7-Spirituality is the journey of the soul on earth. Its first principle is a declaration of intent to face the truth. Truth is what it is, regardless of what we want it to be. Being a spiritual artist means addressing unflinchingly our projections, good and bad, the attractive and the grotesque, our strengths as well as our delusions, in order to know ourselves and thereby our true relationship with others and our connection to the divine.

8-Spiritual art is not about fairyland. It is about taking hold of the rough texture of life. It is about addressing the shadow and making friends with wild dogs. Spirituality is the awareness that everything in life is for a higher purpose.

9-Spiritual art is not religion. Spirituality is humanity’s quest to understand itself and finds its symbology through the clarity and integrity of its artists.

10-The making of true art is man’s desire to communicate with himself, his fellows and his God. Art that fails to address these issues is not art.

11-It should be noted that technique is dictated by, and only necessary to the extent to which it is commensurate with, the vision of the artist.

12-The Remodernist’s job is to bring God back into art but not as God was before. Remodernism is not a religion, but we uphold that it is essential to regain enthusiasm (from the Greek, en theos to be possessed by God).

13-A true art is the visible manifestation, evidence and facilitator of the soul’s journey. Spiritual art does not mean the painting of Madonnas or Buddhas. Spiritual art is the painting of things that touch the soul of the artist. Spiritual art does not often look very spiritual, it looks like everything else because spirituality includes everything.

14-Why do we need a new spirituality in art? Because connecting in a meaningful way is what makes people happy. Being understood and understanding each other makes life enjoyable and worth living.

Summary-It is quite clear to anyone of an uncluttered mental disposition that what is now put forward, quite seriously, as art by the ruling elite, is proof that a seemingly rational development of a body of ideas has gone seriously awry. The principles on which Modernism was based are sound, but the conclusions that have now been reached from it are preposterous. We address this lack of meaning, so that a coherent art can be achieved and this imbalance redressed. Let there be no doubt, there will be a spiritual renaissance in art because there is nowhere else for art to go. Stuckism’s mandate is to initiate that spiritual renaissance now.

-Billy Childish/Charles Thomson 1.3.2000

Commentary: Art and The Bafflement of the Public

Richard Bledsoe Commentary, Quotes, Remodernism

“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.” – Henry Geldzahler

Accurate summation by a notable curator, historian, and critic. As artists we have become guilty by association with masses of meaningless dreck being passed off as art. The audience is baffled because they intuitively recognize art has gone wrong. It’s time to stop all the relativism-the mushy morass of subjectivity that is used like a weapon against quality.

There is Truth, there is Beauty, there is Excellence. Artists above all need to commit to higher standards for themselves and the works their peers. Remodernism is about leaving behind the lax sensibilites of Establishment Art, and making a stand for principles.