George Segal

Guy Denning .Urban Art

Artist as creator.

During World War One, the Dadist movement a reaction against the concept of European civilisation superiorority  , and a measure of man kinds progress. This was due to the carnage and death produced by the war. The Dadist set out to destroy all the cultural manifestation of European civilisation, with the purpose of undermining the power structure of the elites that had caused  the war.All cultural activities identified as facets or examples of civilisation became there target. Art being one of their target and especially the idea of the, artist or creator having a position of elevation or superior status, they deminished the status that works of art held within society.The Dadist proclaimed that there was no fundamental difference between a man made object and a machine made object, and should be given the same status in society or no status as the case may be. The umbilical cord between object and creator must be severed, the only personal intervention with regard objects is one of individual choice, not the act of creation.The Dadist were an anti art movement, and anti capitalist and wished to destroy both.

       It could be argued that they failed in both , art was not destroyed but evolved to encompass the concept of ready made manufacted objects being works of art, and the artist and art word  giving them the status of art. The concept of the artist is not necessarily that of creator ,but one who is an artist and creates art in the process of choosing. Art has not been destroyed but has encompassed the very ideas that the Dadist sort  to destroy it with. More than ever it could be argued the Art  World has come to be identified with the powerful elite, and has indeed become a symbol of status and power , contemporary art is now symbolic capital . The Dadist far from destroying art and elites power structure, has created a new art married to power and status.in 2007 at Sotheby's auction a leather jacket given the title No One Ever Leaves was sold for 690,000 dollars, a world record for a leather jacket, but as a work of art given uniqueness by its title and being bestowed with the status of art by artist Jim Hodges and the Art World, and financial institutions. The same auction sold a sold a shampoo polisher for 2.6 million when it became New Hoover, Delux Shampoo Polisher and given the status of art by Jeef Koons.

Till Baumgartel.

Baumgartels figures inhabit what he describes as a multioptional society, in which large sections of society have abandoned all the old certainties and dogmas and all promise of salvation, and live in environments that reflect their their inner hopelessness and despair.Baumgartel method or practise is to use sketchbooks as a point of departure to transfer received ideas to canvas or paper. These ideas or images create a sense of Melancholy. The scene that the figures in habit does not quiet fit and creates a scense of displacement.Many of his scenes take place in a nocturnal environment which creates a feeling of displacement eg Out after dark. To quote the artist " tries to capture madness, beauty, questionable things, strange things, in his pictures to create a certain resonance. The painting resemble theatrical stage sets that suggest decay and past glories. The figures are isolated and do not communicate.In many cases the scene is exterior and interior at once, suggesting the tension between the exterior and inner world of the figures.

Thoughts on Hopper.

I have been looking at a lot of Hoppers painting more closely lately .What an amazing artist this man was,when you examine the painting technique it's plain that technically Hopper was not a virtuoso ,but that's immaterial ,he uses images of every day physical manifestations to give form to an idea or more commonly an emotion or phycology, such as isolation, loneliness .Hopper is such a master that for me the idea or emotion is more present in the work than the means used to convay it.The emotion is the more powerful content in the painting.To quote Hopper himself " I believe that the great painters,with their intellect as master,have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record     of their emotions .I find any digression from this large aim leads me to boredom".

Rothko paintings.

It's interesting to note how completely Rothkos method of painting and producing images,so completely identifies with his aesthetic conception and subject matter.Rothko method of using thin washes,that dematerialise into the weave of the canvas,the complete fushion of surface and paint and the simplicity of form create a medative mood in the viewer. The subject matter is one of universal immateriality, in which the presence of artistic gesture is completely absent, and therefore so is the artists presence. At this stage Rothko describes the feeling of " the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea,and between the idea and the observer" The images eliminate the iconography of cultural and historical  memory .Rothko states that he is for the " the simple expression of the complex thought". Jonathen Fineburg describes the subjective experience of the viewers encounter with the indescribable painted object ,provides a foundation for the defining of object and self and how they relate.The work does not describe experience the works are an experience .Due to the large scale of the work the viewer is in and surrounded by the image. " We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal to quote the artist.

The sublime in Abstract Expression

Some interesting quotes with regard to the sublime aspect in Absract Expressionism and Newman and  Rothko in particular.Dominique de Menil patron of Rothkos last murals ,said the work invoked " the tragic mystery of our perishable condition . The silence of God, the unbearable silence of God. Newman describes his artistic motivation in the following words ......" We are reasserting mans natural desire for the exhalted.".........The image we produce is the self evident one of revelation, real and concrete, that can be understood by anyone who will look at it without the nostalgic glasses of history." Jonathan Fineberg when discussing Casper David Friedriches painting Monk by the Seashore 1809-10   describes, The small scale of man against the endless space of the heavens and the sea evokes a breathtaking apprehension of the infinite , a sense of cosmic boundless ness , and by contrast a profound realisation of one own insignificance and mortality.                                                                  This statement would cause me to reflect that when we see how religion has been such a fundamental feature of human society in all cultures, that the sense of cosmic boundless ness described above may well be the root of mankinds religious experience throughout history.