Acrylic on Cardstock - 4 x 6 inches
While looking about the apartment for something to paint, I saw the latest postcard I received from artist Dan Caven, which you can see over at Art League Now. The original is a collage of found objects, but it made for such a great composition, and one that wouldn't have popped in my head, so I chose this as my subject.
4 comments:
Abstraction is for the eyes. It is a reminder that there is more in the world than we can ever think up ourselves, it is a ticket to a world of wonder frozen in an artwork.
Notice the way the brush strokes on the black shapes start out a little transparent. This is compelling.
The overall composition is banal, centered, balanced and neutral (which is strange for red) and does not activate the ground the way I suspect the original collage did. Good experiment, less than stellar painting.
The success of collage is about the juxtaposition of the content of the elements combined with the composition of the shapes (and layers) the elements inhabit. What happens when you remove the content quality from collage elements? The narrative stops and becomes nonverbal. This is what has happened with this experiment. The narrative has been muzzled, leaving only half. The half left over are awkward brush strokes without real relevance to each other.
You seem to have drunk the cool aid and have been seduced by your materials. Paint is intoxicating. Is this a bad thing? Not in 1940s it wasn't. But if you remove the narrative, shouldn't there be something as powerful left behind to carry off the artwork?
Check out:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Clement_Greenberg
Dogbreath Crustofsky
Thanks for the feedback. The original collage is indeed much more powerful. You can see it and tons of other samples of Dan's work at:http://artleaguenow.blogspot.com/
It's interesting that you mention narrative, because I've always felt his work to be narrative and lyrical. Poem or haiku-like.
I'd never really considered having anything terribly powerful in any of my paintings yet. I rather hoped it would be something to strive for once I found my voice, and in that regard I still feel a long way off.
I have not read much on Greenberg, but will correct that in the near future.
thanks,
gringo
I suppose that I'm more obtuse than most, but I didn't understand what "Anonymous" tried to say except that he/she didn't like your work. (?)
I'll go to the local art supply place and try to find a container of power for my paintings. They probably suck without any power.
I liked this and the other abstract that you've done. My mother was an abstract artist who sold almost everything that she did. People always asked her "but what is it?". Wrong question! BUT,I learned many new words (for me) from her replies! :-)
Keep up the abstractions. I'll hold on to the obtuse.
Ken B.
Ken your server is rejecting my email replies. Not sure why.
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