I decided to put my Masters Thesis here since I don’t think anyone will scroll all the way back to read it. 2 of the figures are missing. I deleted page numbers so it is just a continuous scroll. the numbers scattered throughout are footnotes. FYI, it was written with Lotus works so I was limited in formatting choices. I tried to make it single space and to widen the right margin but no luck. Anyway, here it is.
Abstract:
At the beginning of the 20th century, it is my understanding that some artists moved away from representation towards an abstract style searching for an essence or spirituality in art. There has been an on-going dialogue between abstraction and representation throughout the century. My work is concerned with this dialogue. Its focus is on the moment when the physicality of materials transcends into a non-materiality or spiritual realm. This moment becomes a metaphor for the spiritual and physical aspects of human nature. My work is a meditation and metaphor for this moment where the spiritual and physical meet.
Introduction:
An idea begins to form in the mind much like brush strokes
begin to form an image on the canvas. The raw materials of thoughts
such as memories, emotions, or conversations, all gradually coalesce
and distill into an idea that is communicated in some fashion. The
painter does something similar when he or she uses the raw material
of paint, the colors or brush strokes etc., to “fashion” an image.
At what point does paint stop being merely paint and become a
representation of something recognizable in the ordinary world? Where
is that moment? These two questions lie at the heart of my work.
They are the force behind what I do and why I do it. These questions
deal not only with formal issues but also hold a deeper meaning for
me. The formal issues become a metaphor for human nature pointing
to both the physical and spiritual side of human kind. I can think
of no more important exploration than that of our identity as human
beings.
My work is a visual representation of the meeting of the
spiritual and physical realms. By spiritual, I mean non-materiality
or non-physicality to include thought processes, emotions, etc. I use
the word in its broadest possible sense: “the thinking, motivating,
feeling part of humans, often distinguished from the body.” 1
I accomplish this by exploring the processes of painting, formal
elements as well as expressive use of brush stroke and color.
“Thinking about painting and in reverse, painting about thinking…
moving to the rhythms of the painting [is] a demonstrable sign, a
souvenir of the process, its metaphor.” ¯2
Antonio Damascio in his book Descartes¯Error®):¯ states that
“feelings are the base for what humans have described for millennia
as the human soul or spirit.” 3¯ Susanne Langer defines a work of art
as “an expressive form created for our perception through sense or
imagination and what it expresses is human feeling.” She goes on to
assert that the work of art “formulates the appearance of feeling, of
subjective experience, the character of so-called ‘inner life,’ which
discourse-the normal use of words-is peculiarly unable to articulate
and which therefore we can only refer to in a general and quite
superficial way.” She includes all works of art such as poetry,
dance, music, etc. as well as the visual arts.¯4¯ I use painting as a
specific example only. I would not exclude other works of art in this
discussion. V
I use painting as a
specific example only. I would not exclude other works of art in this
general discussion. It is her insistence on art being concerned with
subjective feelings that relates to my idea of the process of
painting being a metaphor for human nature particularly the non-
material side. If feelings are the basis for our soul or spirit, as
Damascio asserts, and all works of art express those feelings, then
art also points to this spirituality. My focus is on the spiritual
paintings “Transformation”(fig.1) or “Beginnings”(fig.2) some
non-objective shapes fade into the background while others come
forward and assert themselves. Still others are not fully developed
or merge into others. A jumble of shapes or of brush strokes could
reflect a jumble of thoughts or, perhaps, a connection of thoughts
“jumbled” together, grouped and contained. This “jumble” grouped and
contained begins to have a coherence to it in the shape of a circle
or sphere.
I use non-objective shapes because I want to keep
them in the realm of the imagination. I make this distinction in
contrast to other artists who abstracted forms from nature. Artists
such as Arthur Dove, or (early) Wassily Kandinsky used forms found in
nature as the basis or beginning of their work. “Dove’s interest is
the intersection between art and nature, on unifying elements of
light and color.” 5¯ Thomas Messer, in writing about Kandinsky’s
early work, states that “vestiges of recognizable subject matter
often persist in these transformations, which may still be traced to
observation of nature.” 5¯6 I have deliberately sought not to do this
but to work from invention only. Artists of the CoBrA group have
also worked from invented forms particularly Pierre Allenisky and
Agar Jorn 7. There is no overt or deliberate model of nature that I
am referencing. I start with invention and work to the point where
the abstraction starts to refer to something physical. I am most
concerned with this point or moment where the abstraction vibrates
between the two realms. What is common in Dove’s and Kandinsky’s work
and mine is the reflection of this moment where “abstraction and reality meet.”¯8
Discussion of work:
In general, the development of the painting starts
with the white ground and then gestural marks are applied to it.
These marks are used to help facilitate the development of the non-
objective shapes. Sometimes the canvas is stained first with one or
several colors and then the marks are applied. These gestural marks
provide an underlying structure for the paintings. I try to balance
curvilinear with rectilinear lines to form organic and geometric
shapes. Areas of colors are thinly applied initially to start to
define or fill in the particular shapes I see from the marks.
Minimum amount of brush work is used at this initial stage.
Gradually, the shapes are built up with thicker paint. At the same
time I adjust the position or contour of the shapes, sometimes
painting a shape out completely or sometimes adding a shape that
initially wasn’t there.
The painting “Prototype”(fig.3) done in the Fall of 1997 is
the first successful painting incorporating the invented shapes
with a gestural rendering and a textural surface. Some shapes
have a geometric quality which for me implies an imposed order. Yet,
through gestural application of the paint and the way some shapes are
not clearly defined, I want to imply a “disorder” as well. One
interpretation of this could be that the imposed order is a metaphor
for an idea taking shape in the mind. Yet, the disorder could
reflect all those random thoughts that seem to have no meaning at
all. Some shapes are defined by a heavy black line, and I do this to
negate the three dimensional quality of a shape and to refer
to the line as a mark. This mark, as an example, points to the
painting process itself. A balance is struck between the process of
painting and the rendering of specific objects. This idea of balance
is central to my painting process. It is inspired by the Presocratic
philosopher Heraclitus.
Heraclitus addresses the duality in the world through his
insistence on a uniting or coming together of opposites and,
therefore, the creation of a balance. There is an underlying order of
the world contained in this unity which he calls “the logos.”9
Heraclitus seems to suggest that spirituality should not be separated
from the ordinary world and that a balance has to be found
between the two. Heraclitus’ unity of opposites supports my idea
that the work contains shapes as well as less defined areas
of varying degrees of texture. The balance is achieved at the
moment the spiritual begins to take on form.
I restricted the palette in the painting “Prototype” as I wanted
to concentrate on the shapes and the texture. This limited palette
reflects a kinship to some of Arthur Dove’s works, notably the
paintings titled “The Park” (1927) and “Pine Tree” (1931). Both of
these paintings have a “dark” quality to them from the generous use
of black. Little color is used, and it is mostly beige and green.®10
Susan Rothenburg also used a limited palette in her early paintings
of the horses. Most were black and white with one or two additional
colors. 11
In the painting “Beginnings” there is the thick application of
paint. This application is direct evidence of the process
itself. The brush strokes imply a mark maker or me. The strokes
point to a connection between the transcendence of the paint and the mental processes involved
with this transcendence. In other words, I
am a physical being and with my thoughts I create paintings that
contain evidence of those thoughts. The marks are the evidence.
A shape is developed with brush strokes that come together, a
textural knitting of strokes. This knitting or layering of brush
strokes as units can create order and structure, density and
solidity. Knitting or weaving of strokes creates different textures
that define the shape. Brush strokes or mark making can be a line to
outline a form or the strokes blended into a flat area of color.
Texture can be contained within a shape but can exist independently
of the shape, i.e., the round shapes with short flat strokes inside
them. The thick shorter strokes seem to come forward in space as
though they are on top of the shape. Some strokes suggest energy in
the vigorous application of them. Again, the mark maker is implied.
Susan Rothenburg’s mark making has a similar quality to it. They also
seem to knit together to form an image. 12
In “Beginnings” I began using more color, red and yellow ocher
tones and shades. The ocher worked well with the black and white
and are less intense than pigments such as the cadmium. I
wanted to avoid having the colors overwhelm the brush strokes and the shapes themselves.
An untitled work from the fall 1997 (fig.4) has flat areas that
come forward depending on the color and compete with the individual
strokes. I began to think about the juxtaposition of flat areas
with more textural areas to emphasize the state of flux or movement of certain shapes.
It is this idea of flat areas juxtaposed against textural
organic shapes that I developed in the recent four paintings called
“Four Quartets”.(fig.6,7,8,9,) I used T. S. Eliot’s poem of the same
name as a source of inspiration for these works. (John Walker is
another painter that has used poetry as an inspiration for his
work.) 13 In the poem Eliot writes of things coming together and
breaking apart. One interpretation of the Quartets is that the poem
“seeks to capture those rare moments when eternity ‘intersects’ the
temporal continuum, while treating also the relations between those
moments and the flux of time.” 14 This is another way of thinking
about the spiritual and the material coming together in a moment.
Also, the poems can be read individually or as a group, and I used
this structure to have the paintings function in a similar fashion.
There is a line that runs throughout the four paintings. Yet, each
painting can exist individually.
In these paintings the gestural quality is enhanced by the
surrounding areas of flatter application of paint. I isolated the
one gestural shape by having flatter areas of paint around it. I did
this in order to make it the focal point of the
painting. The brush strokes remain independent of the shape yet are
contained by it. The color of the flatter areas is juxtaposed with
textured areas of greys. This isolation of the shape refers to it
being in a state of flux as opposed to the flatter, more
“quiet” areas.
My color choices tend towards the use of compliments or of the
primary colors in some fashion. With the painting “Prototype,” I
deliberately chose to limit my color choices in order to investigate
those choices more carefully. I chose the ochers, in part, because
they refer to the earth rather than living or organic systems. This
helps avoid figurative references. The ochers are also less intense
than colors such as cadmium red or yellow. No area of color was more
or less intense because of its hue. Even with this limited palette I
was able to create tones and shades of varying degrees and allow the
brush strokes equal depiction with neither element overwhelming the
other. A degree of balance was achieved by doing this.
In “Transformation” and “Transformation II”(fig.5) I used the
color blue in addition to the ochers and black and white. Blue for
me is associated with the sky and water as the ochers refer to
earth. This decision was also formal in that blue along with yellow
and red are the primary colors. The blue I used was a combination of
cobalt and French Ultramarine blue. Its intensity was inherently
stronger than the ochers. In “Transformation” I used lighter,
flatter areas of blue juxtaposed against the more textural, less
intense areas of ochers. For me, both areas vibrate on the same plane
and this vibration creates a tension which is deliberate. It suggests
a balance but a tenuous one. In “Transformation II” less blue is
used. The blue areas were more intense and textured but the areas
were smaller in size so as not to overwhelm the other areas of the
paintings. It is interesting to note here that some Presocratic
philosophers believed that earth, air and water along with fire were
the “elements” that made up all things, an oblique reference
to Heraclitus. 15
The colors in “Four Quartets” are all from the ochers, black and
white with the exception of the purple. (The green is made by
combining yellow and black.) The purple areas remain flat in contrast
to the textured areas much like the blue areas in Transformation.
The grey areas are flat or textured depending on surrounding areas. I
was able to keep the purple areas flat in part because there was a
limited number and smaller areas as opposed to the grey areas that
have varying degrees of texture to them. The decision
to have more or less texture in an area had to do with balancing
these areas against each other.
In three of the paintings, the oval or “peanut” shape has the
most texture . This texture helps make these shapes the focal point
or points of the paintings. In earlier paintings, because of the
overall texture, it was necessary to use a black line to isolate the
shapes. But for these later paintings, contrasting colors and varying
degrees of texture achieved the isolation.
During this time, I had created some monoprints that consisted
of abstract shapes. I called them “Conversations with
Myself”(fig.10) to refer to thought processes. I began to examine
what made these prints successful and what I could incorporate into
my paintings. I liked the abstract biomorphic\geometric shapes and the undefined space.
The prints contain areas of color with cut out shapes
superimposed on them. The colors in my prints are
intense due in part to the inks themselves. I also thought they
would be a good contrast for my paintings. In the prints I was able
to explore the relationship between a ground of color and
invented shapes. The shapes are cut out of brown paper,inked and
then placed on top of this color ground. Some shapes are free
floating, others are connected, and some appear as shadows. These
shapes have reinforced my use of non-objective shapes in my
paintings. Texture is created by the uneven rolling of the inks and
by the use of fabric or other material cut into shapes i.e., the lace
or mesh shapes.
Initially, the prints operated on two levels, that of a colored,
textured ground and shapes superimposed over the
ground. I experimented with gestural, wiggly marks in the ground to
add another layer or level to these prints. In some prints there is
a combination of all these elements, but in others I eliminated the
shapes all together or allowed them to remain as shadows or
ghost images for added variety.
In my paintings I have limited intense colors;
the prints celebrate them. There is still a juxtaposition of flat
areas of colors vs. textured areas but in the prints, for the most
part, the textured areas are not contained but form the whole ground.
In other prints the flat shapes are eliminated and there are just
areas of color with mark making reminiscent of Cy Twombly’s work.16¯
Evolution of my work:
In past work, I used the female figure to convey some of the
ideas concerning the non-objective\representational issue of modern
art. I was using the human form as an underlying structure for my
painting, a guide, so to speak, to help me place my brush strokes and
color. I realized, however, that my concern was not rendering the
body or using this form to convey some kind of meaning . The human
figure has strong associations with it (sexual issues, etc.), and I
found it detracted from the exploration of the painting process.
This is the main reason why eventually I abandoned the use of the
female body as a figurative reference. The non-objective shapes became
a substitute for the figure.
During graduate school I did explore other possible solutions
using the figure as this underlying guide. I looked at Susan
Rothenberg’s hand and fist paintings and her distortions of the body
and developed several paintings along that theme. I abandoned most
of my color in favor of black and white, and also at times I
distorted the hands into abstract shapes. Both of these qualities I
have retained in my current work. I think it was
necessary to do this if only to exhaust all the possibilities of the
use of the figure and also to help me reexamine my color choices. I
also felt that these paintings carried an emotional content to them
without the overkill of my earlier, colorful paintings of the female
figure. They were a step along the way in my exploration, and they
were useful to me in finding the path I needed to take.
In prior paintings, I used saturated primary colors and white
with a more frenzied type of brush stroke. Black was never used in
those paintings. The reason for using those intense colors was to
show an intensity of emotion, although I didn’t think of them as
representing specific emotions but just to emphasize “intensity” in
general. One problem I encountered is that the colors somewhat
limited my expressive vocabulary in that they only read as intense.
There just wasn’t enough visual variety or subtlety. Also, with the
type of brush stroke I used, I felt as though the color and strokes
were “fighting” for dominance. The strokes had more of a twisting,
frenzy to them, and that, coupled with the intense saturated
colors, became too intense for me. I wanted more variety in the
colors and more control over the strokes.
So, I began to explore other color schemes and at one point I
left out most of the color and just used shades of grey with very
little color (hand and fist paintings). What I found in doing this
was that I could be just as expressive, even intense, with less
color. The brush work changed as well becoming less frenzied and
more flat and deliberate while still retaining a gestural quality to
it. In other words, I began to exert control over these two important
elements of my paintings. With this control, my ideas and process
evolved into the current paintings that stand as metaphors for the
meeting of the “inner life” and its representation, the exploration
into human nature itself.
End notes
1. Webster’s. p. 1373
2. Slivka, p.68
3. Damascio. p.xvi (see also his chapter on Emotions and Feelings)
4. Rader, p.240-246
5. Balken, p.21-22
6. Barnett, p.14
7. Arnason, p. 446
8. Balken, p.142
9. Kirk et al.,p.181-212
10. Balken, p.78 and 91
11. see Simon, or Auping books
12. see the Simon or Aupings books for examples
13. Stomberg, p.3
14. Norton Anthology, p.128
15. Kirk et al., p.89, 111, 145, 176
16. Arnason, p.492
References for my thesis
Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art, 3nd., Abrams,1986
Auping Michael, Susan Rothenberg, Rizzoli, 1992
Balken,Debra Bricker, Author Dove: A Retrospective, Addison Gallery of American Art and the MIT Press, 1997
Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Kandinsky at the Guggenheim, Abbeville Press, 1976
Bledsoe, Jane, Elaine deKooning, Georgia museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1992
Damasio, Antonio, Descartes’ Error, Putnam, 1994
Kandinsky, Wassily, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Dover, 1977
Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd. Ed., Cambridge university Press, 1990
de Kooning Elaine, The Spirit of Abstract Expressionism, Selected Writing, George Braziller,1994
Langer, S., Problems of Art, New York: Scriber,1957
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th ed., Vol.2, 1979
Rader, Melvin, A Modern Book of Esthetics, 5th ed., Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979
Simon Joan, Susan Rothenberg, Abrams, 1991
Stomberg, John, A theater of Recollection: Paintings and Prints by John Walker, Boston University, 1997
Webster’s New World Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1980
Please note I have most but not all the figures listed.
F. 1 missing
F. 2 Beginnings
F. 3 Prototype
F.5 Untitled
As I reread over this, i realize that much of this is still true. I have exhausted the colorful shapes I’ve been painting. I don’t think I’ll go back to using the human figure. Something will come to me eventually……. I hope………
jancschindler 