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Modern Art,
Part
Two
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We come to a realization that peace
starts from an inner experience of each individual. Instead of
repelling all the irrational and unseen, we should embrace and
cultivate this essence of us, which most likely is the transforming
force that brings us to the higher realm of spirituality where peace
is found. Furthermore, peace will not be attained unless each
individual is allowed and encouraged to express this inner
experience.
~Sarah Cheung
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The Spiritual in Art. Art as an inner
necessity to make the soul vibrate
With the artistic breakthrough of Cubism
and Surrealism in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, painters opened up an unlimited creative possibility
which conceptually speaking helped them consciously or unconsciously
move towards the concept that art is an entity itself and not an
imitation of anything else.
Following from this idea, painters started
to make non-imitative paintings in varied styles. The term abstraction slowly emerged.
However it was an artist named
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
who first came up with a finer visual definition for this new
concept of art.
Kandinsky was born in a time that was ripe
for an art of signs and symbols as the world was growing more
complex day by day. In the attempt to explain this complexity, both
art and technology were working in a parallel mode to find a formula
that fit into this new dynamic. The field included color theory,
emerging in the wake of Newton, light theory, cosmology, and quantum
mechanics and so on. Also, artists were growing more interested in
the investigation of the correspondence between painting and music,
color and sound, as well as the psychological effects that were
induced by these elements.
Despite of the materialist thinking of the
time, Kandinsky saw art as one's spiritual reflection where the
sound of colors is used to strike sensitive chords in the human
soul. Art to him was a tool to reach the transcendental, the
metaphysical, the realm of pure mind. He thought that painting was
just like music but composed with forms and colors. Although such a
process is rational, its source is subconscious. Beautifully, he
brought us to a world within where we can hear and feel colors. It was his ideal to use paintings to make the soul vibrate
and the heart sing. A few examples are:
Composition VI,
Picture with a Black Arch
and
Picture with White Border.
As a matter of fact, I think the
heightened senses that Kandinsky strove to express through his art
could be experienced tangibly and vividly. I have sometimes
experienced smelling emotions when completely relaxed.
Emotion is composed of frequency and
vibration. For Kandinsky it was vital to use painting as a tool to
express this nature which, in his term, is a human's inner
necessity.
Abstraction Hits Reality - The longing for a
new universal order
As the art world advanced, artists came to
the realization that by producing a more beautiful environment we
would further the emergence of a new and more noble type of human
being. Such dreams profoundly influenced architects who were
inspired to think that a new universal order could be established.
A new artistic movement,
Suprematism,
emerged in Russia from 1913
onward, followed by Constructivism as well as the Dutch
movement, De
Stijl. These were artistic and architectural movements
intended for a social purpose, with the goal of establishing an
infinite social system and collective universal order.
In these movements, art was
applied in the best constructive sense, far removed from all
individualism and subjectivity. The idea provided the foundation
concept for modern architecture and graphic design, where art was
used to organize subject matter in the most functional, universal
and collective manner. Perhaps the simper term for all these
definitions is: Art used to design.
Kasimir Malevich and
El Lissitzky were among the
most Avant
garde artists for this innovative artistic period. Malevich focused on the non-objective geometric pattern in his art
where the key was to explore the relationship between our physical
environment and the most basic artistic elements such as shapes,
forms, colors and lines. Examples of his works are:
Black Circle,
Supremus No. 56,
and
Suprematist Composition.
El Lissitzky, on the other hand,
utilized a
number of methods, ideas and movements that had a large and
significant impact on
contemporary art
specially in
the fields of graphic design, exhibition design and architecture. He
was also the principle innovator for book design, photomontage and
typography. Due to his constant experimentation with many different
mediums and styles, he is highly regard by many critics and
historians as the most important
figure of the Russian avant garde. The advent of World War I also
encouraged him to include political elements in many of his works,
such as the
Beat the Whites with the
Red Wedge.
Other works include
Proun 19D, ( c. 1922)
and the book
design
Russische Ausstellung.
Although similar in spirit to both
Suprematism and Constructivism, De Stijl takes one step further to
elevate the symbol of the superiority of the human mind in ordering
the spirit of the force of nature. Developed in 1917, at the peak of
the European horror, World War I, De Stijl reflected a longing for
peace. Peace, harmony and discipline were the characteristics of
this art. Among all the De Stijl artists,
Piet Mondrian was the most
well-known.
For Mondrian, the elimination of the real
and visible was not only an aesthetic requirement but also a
philosophical principle. De Stijl set out to create a pure art
composed of pure elements, whose man-made order would set against
the wildness of the curving, twisting or interrupted lines of
natural forms.
Mondrian's own words will help our
understanding of this concept:
I believe it is possible
that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with
awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and
brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty,
supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can
become a work of art, as strong as it is true.
Some of Mondrian's famous artworks are:
Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue
(1921),
Composition No. 10.
(1939-42) and
De Stijl art, best known
through the work of Mondrian, continues to influence both
architecture and art, and design arenas such as fashion and interior
design, industrial design and graphic design.
The Individuals - Art as an
unapologetic
personal expression
Meanwhile there was still a
group of people who needed art to be an intimate personal
expression. They were not crazy about using art to change the world
by creating a new universal order like those in De Stijl or
Constructivism. They wanted art to be personal and expressive.
Perhaps it was also a painful realization that art, by itself, is
incapable of changing the world.
Among these artists, I am most
impressed by two female painters, the American artist
Georgia
Oˇ¦Keeffe(1887-1986)
and the Mexican painter
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954).
Although dramatically different in
painting styles and individual temperament, both Georgia and Frida
demonstrated an intense femininity and an intimate portrait of a
woman's inner world through their paintings. Georgia was about
tenderness, female sensuality and the peace of being one with nature
and landscape, while Frida was about a feisty candor in regard to
human relationship, deep and gut-wrenching pain and suffering, and
the bloody revelation of a woman's endless inner struggles and
conflicts. Nevertheless, when you look at the paintings of each of
these women, you will clearly see a woman.
A lot of Georgia's paintings are huge
portraits of flowers, where a deep sensuality is revealed. These
works stimulate us to think of a woman's pelvic area. There is
something about the way she painted. She seemed to have this
capability to totally surrender herself to the painting, which
ultimately transported her sensuality and sexuality to the canvas in
such an effortless manner. It is often a transcendent experience
looking at her paintings.
There is a unique simplicity in her brush
strokes, yet the hand is undeniably intense, affectionate and
profoundly intimate. You will automatically get a fuzzy warm feeling
when you are looking at her paintings, and be moved by such
captivating tenderness and heavenly sensual beauty. Some of these
works are:
Red Canna,
Jack in the Pulpit No. I V
and
Black Iris.
Georgia applied the same attitude and
technique to her landscape paintings. The brush strokes are often
vastly smooth, soft, austere and sensual, such as in
View from My Studio, 1930,
where the mountain is as red as blood with veins like a human heart.
In face of this incomprehensibly deep and austere wilderness,
Georgia found a unique kind of solitude and a profound intimacy with
nature. Perhaps she had an alternative understanding of this
ultimate existential aloneness of human. Instead of being overcome
by the instinctual fear of aloneness like most of us are, Georgia
found oneness in this universal cosmic design.
Frida Kahlo, on the other hand, was a
seriously charismatic, intense and fiery passionate woman, with a
free independent mind. However surprisingly, unlike most people who
are puzzled by her mystery, I find it rather easy to understand her.
Why? Her works are clearly straightforward, demonstrative,
story-telling, desperately honest, wildly emotional and bloody
painful. What is so complicate about that?
In fact, her strangeness and mystery were
most likely her tools to promote and market herself as a female
artist in a very masculine culture. It was her unapologetic and
aggressive way to successfully package herself as an iconic and cult
figure in the art world.
Nevertheless, her physical and
psychological pain was NO mystery. With a car accident that left her
bedridden most of her life, a stormy marriage, and a couple of
miscarriages and suicide attempts, her life was pretty much a
picture of bottomless suffering and sorrow.
It is quite painful to look at Frida's painting. I often think if I were to take one of her paintings home,
I would faint at night right in front of her exaggerated unibrow.
There is a very serious spirit in her self-portraits.
Madonna is one of the famous collectors of
Frida's works. Some of Frida's works are:
The Two Fridas, and
arck majommal,
I
think I particularly like
El Abrazo de Amor del
Universo, la Tierra, and Diego, Yo y el Sr. Xolotl.
The Unknown Becomes Known - in the world of
modern consciousness
Abstract art developed silently. It
survived a number of short deaths, blunt criticism and controversy.
However by the 1950s, with the end of the World Wars, this art
developed underground, was hanging in museums all over the world.
At first, critics accused abstract art of
being an obscure affair, the guiding concept for which was arrogant,
arbitrary and self-serving. Some even saw it as a conspiracy of the
artistic intellectuals who used something so rootless, inhumane and
despairing against the poor and helpless public.
Despite the harsh criticism, it was
inevitable that people would slowly find something real in this unreal. Finally people have found a tool to express the universal
fascination for and anxiety about the unknown. In that regard,
abstract art is mostly spiritually based. Such realization and
understanding did NOT arrive overnight, but only after a long period
of mental struggle and spiritual evolution.
During the World Wars, under the rule of
the Nazis, Stalinists, and to a lesser degree the Italian fascist
terror, art was degraded and suppressed. Art, like religion and
education, has its own governmental power and worshippers. Most
political systems are well aware of its powerful influence on the
human mind and consciousness. During these dark horrific ages of
Europe, artists were prosecuted, hanged, exiled and murdered. The
only type of art that survived was conformist art which was intended
to be used for political marketing purposes. Despite the immense
support of various governments for this conformist art, not a SINGLE
piece of these political propaganda works has remained in the
awareness of the cultured world.
On the other hand, it is always human
nature to rebel and revolt under suppression. This kind of
suppression didn't stop or hinder the development of abstract art,
causing it instead to grow more aggressively underground.
Ironically, the outbreak of each of the
World Wars, despite their horror and cruelty, broke down lots of
ideals and many of the emotional and spiritual boundaries that we
previously had. As much as we were shocked, disbelieving and
burdened by the extremes of this human capacity for
self-destruction, the permanent emotional scar left on us also led
us to a deeper contemplation of human nature, which ultimately paved
the way for us to rethink and reorganize our social, emotional,
psychological and above all spiritual systems.
It turned out that the rationalism in
which emotion, tradition and fashionable beliefs were rejected,
which had guided the European political system during the early 20th
century, fatally led to the most inhuman disasters, World War I
and World War II. As painful as was the cost to us, we also come to
a higher consciousness that allows us to see the truth of peace.
We come to a realization that peace starts
from an inner experience of each individual. Instead of repelling
all the irrational and unseen, we should embrace and cultivate this
essence of us, which most likely is the transforming force that
brings us to the higher realm of spirituality where peace is found.
Furthermore, peace will not be attained unless each individual is
allowed and encouraged to express this inner experience.
Objective paintings, in which a hint of
reality can still be traced regardless of how expressive the work
is, don't seem capable of satisfying this yearning. As difficult as
it is, it is inevitable that painters have to go beyond their
comfort zone and risk surrendering themselves unconditionally to the
process of painting. In this regard, the subject matter become
irrelevant compared to the subjective feeling of the artist.
It is found that in order to fully express
our emotion and feeling, we have to disregard the objective side of
matter, and express the subjective side of it. Despite how obscure
and illogical this sounds at first, we have to first give up the
reality that is seen around us in order to reach the reality that is
unseen inside of us.
Such an understanding liberates us to
paint with absolute originality and authenticity, where our feeling
is the content, the color is the energy, and the brush stroke is the
action of this expression.
Among the numerous abstract artists, I
would like to name three whom I personally find most impressive and
unforgettable.
The first one is a Canadian-born painter,
Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002),
who was a member of
Les Automatistes movement, and
whose companion
Joan Mitchell is also one of my
favorite abstract expressionist artists. Although he started out as
an automatist, Riopelle definitely didn't want to be labeled with
any artistic style. His artwork, whether sculpture or paintings, is
lyrically abstract.
Riopelle developed a vivid personal
style, using spatula and palette-knife to apply thick impasto over
paint brushed or dripped on the canvas to produce textured,
mosaic-like surfaces. Just like Monet's earlier
Water Lilies,
the subjects almost vanished behind the veils of paint, Riopelle's non-objective imagery inadvertently calls up memories of objects.
One good example of this kind of visual effect is his
Ici. la bas (1957), where our experience of nature will
automatically bring us back to nature. The furrows dividing the
color field give many of his painting a sculpted texture, rough and
relief-like surface which I find very appealing, and remind me the
presence of nature more than anything.
What I really love about Riopelle's paintings is the energy they bring forth and the high degree of his gestural expressiveness. There is an exciting passion about his
automatic yet controlled motion. More so, I love his mastery of
color placement which lends his paintings a unique coloristic
quality. Other samples of his exciting works are:
Elle,
Blaine and
Marine.
If one's level of talent equals one's love
of life, then Riopelle expresses this equation pretty well.
Another abstract artist that I admire so
much is the American artist
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956).
One thing about Pollock's painting is that it is absolutely
IMPOSSIBLE to make a forgery of his painting. The abstract painter
is widely known for his spectacular, wall-sized paintings, which
typically feature a combination of swirling drips, bright splotches,
and bold, rhythmic streaks. The unique thing about Jackson Pollock
was that he abandoned using the brush on canvas and actually dripped
the paint.
It is impossible to make a forgery of
Pollock's painting not only because his painting has no trace of
objective illustration but even more because it is simply humanly
impossible to imitate the dance of a human spirit. It is this liberation of the human spirit that drove him to express his
feeling directly onto the painting, instead of to illustrate it.
In his early action paintings, Pollock
tended to use dark monochromatic colors, such as brown, black and
grey, and occasionally a bit of intense colors like yellow and red.
These pieces are thick in texture and arouse an intensely violent
and angry atmosphere. Perhaps they are revealing Pollock's melancholy, dark and painful feeling towards the shadows left by the
Second World War, or were his way of releasing his demons and
madness. He was a miserable and troubled man who was tormented by
depression and alcoholism. Some good examples of his paintings in
this stage are:
Eyes in the Heat (1946),
Convergence
and
Blue Pole.
Regardless of
how chaotic and immensely free his strokes are, the way he painted,
although governed by chance and randomness, couldn't have sustained
such esthetic quality without a high level of a seemingly
non-existent control which flowed freely with his intuition and
awareness. There is a breathless beauty when we paint our spirit.
In his later
years, Pollock started experimenting with painting in lighter and
clearer colors. These paintings are very obviously pretty and
romantic. The one I love the most is
Galaxy, which is simply too
beautiful to look at. I also love
Composition mit Blau.
I personally tried this kind of drip
painting several times on fairly small canvas. It is the funnest
thing to do indeed. One thing I find is that I can't lose contact
with the painting itself, or the picture turns out to be a mess.
There is a process of surrendering the spirit.
Nevertheless, the most remarkable
contribution Pollock gave to American art is that he single-handedly
brought it to the world's attention and helped initiate the Paris
to New York shift where American art finally gained the leadership
of the cultural world after many years of European dominance. His
works are so unique, so independent and so powerful that American
art became the leader of Abstract Expressionism.
The last Abstract Expressionist artist
that I would like to mention is
Mark Rothko (1903-1970). I
would say it is difficult to comment on his works. Rothko himself
thought his art to be largely misunderstood. Despite the immense
career success he gained in his later years, he was unhappy and felt
more and more misinterpreted. Battling with depression, drugs and
divorce, or perhaps tired of being misunderstood, he committed
suicide in 1970. In the end, Rothko remained his own person.
Rothko cared nothing about flattering
complements. However he did want to use his painting as a
transcendent vehicle to communicate with us the spiritual experience
he had, something with a depth beyond the canvas. For Rothko,
tragedy is the source of art, which provides redemption, and our
existence is a frail
boat on the stormy seas of chaos.
In his own words:
The fact that people break
down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can
communicate those basic human emotions, the people who weep before
my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when
painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color
relationships then you miss the point.
So I decide to talk about his work purely
based on how I feel about it, sincerely, truly and deeply. In some
mysterious, inexplicable ways, I feel like I have known this person
for very long. Beauty is a timeless thing. If I can experience a
beauty that makes my muscles shiver while I am looking at his
paintings, I am so sure that I have known this person all along.
What I am most familiar with is his
colors. It is painful and crazy to say this: I AM those colors. I
immediately feel home in his colors. It is strange; why I am so
overcome by these unframed large canvases filled with nothing but a
few big blotches of color? It is a mystery to me that remains
unsolved. What I know for sure is that his paintings bring me to a
higher place where the fear of nothingness is gone and one's ego
disappears. Is this Rothko's version of the invisible God, or the
dreams that I once had where there is this seemingly endless space,
in which among the void of earth and mist, I suddenly realize I am
gone?
Perhaps I do understand Rothko. We both
experienced the same feeling, a feeling that we never forgot.
Here are a few samples of his work.
Please just feel them.
Blue Green and Brown,
White Center, 1950 and
Yellow and Gold.
I would like to end this chapter with a
few words from a song dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh. However, I
would like to dedicate it to all the artists, who have taught me so
much.
For they could not love you, but still
your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night
You took your life as lovers often do,
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you
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