Crenshaw 1

Mary Crenshaw

Stuart Steck

Critical Theory 1

1 March 2011

Locating My Work in Contemporary Abstraction

Mary Anne Staniszewski in Believing is Seeing asserts that any art object must have

cultural significance in order to play a role in contemporary art. What I found most intriguing

in her book is that meaning of a work of art is made by behavior and language that is

considered acceptable in society. Random collective formulations give significance to art

objects. The author believes, “Most of the great and ambitious artists of our time do not limit

themselves to the creation of discrete objects. Instead, they produce objects or projects or

installations that interact with the system of Art” (261).

My painting fits into the category of Abstract Expressionism. Currently there are

many Abstract Expressionist artists using various personal and innovative approaches.

Howard Hodgkin, Zao Wou-Ki, Gerhard Richter, Franz West, Gillian Ayres, and Philip Taaffe

are all well know artists working abstractly. Karin Davie, Wilhelm Sasnel, and Elizabeth

Neel, are also prominent younger painters interested in exploring abstraction. These artists

use elements relating to society and culture either conceptually or pictorially in their abstract

paintings.

Hodgkin is a colorist whose work has been compared to Matisse's. According to

James Mayer this artist uses impressions of chance meetings, surroundings, or

meteorological conditions in his powerful representations. These memories are used to begin

and justify doing his paintings. At one point in his life the artist had an epiphany. After

Hodgkin had a brush with death due to amebic hepatitis his paintings of heterosexual couples
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in mundane rooms drastically transformed. It was at this time he discovered his

homosexuality. The change in Hodgkin's sexual identity took his painting in a new direction.

His skill was liberated through the discovery of this new-found sensuality (19).

In an interview with Diego Cortez, Philip Taaffe describes how he looks at materials

from lost cultures and 1960s abstract art. Taaffe describes his work as investigation of

commentary. He wants the viewer to be transported to a blissful, euphoric realm.Yet this

artist is emphatic in showing undeniable differences because of changes taken place in

painting after the beginning of Abstract Expressionism. He is not concerned with one creative

mode surpassing another, but rather uniting them.

Taaffe's challenging work presents these images to us on a contemporary note,

collectively, rationally, and intellectually. The artist claims that the material he gathers in his

research has to be internalized in order for it to live again through his work. Ultimately

paintings reveal themselves through their characteristics and are inseparable from the process

that goes into their making. The patterns he uses are based on historically significant motifs

such as traditional Islamic and Celtic patterns. Taaffe's decoration is loaded with information.

(Cortez) This use of motifs is an example of what Staniszewski means when she asserts that

an art object's value is linked to its place in the greater culture (261).

Bob Nicas describes artist Elisabeth Neel (painter Alice Neel's granddaughter) as

someone who likes to wrestle with her images and push them to the point of self destruction.

Neel wants to complicate the process by making problems for herself and has to resolve the

paintings through the physicality of the medium. Relying on imagery from real life events,

this artist's research questions mortality and its link to the cosmos. In Neel's work the non-

figurative resembles carnal existence accurately. In much of her work the concern is

putrefaction and decay. Disintegration, disaster, and brutality are not easy themes for the
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viewer to take in. This artist regards her work as a continuous unearthing of invented

conditions (54).

These are just a few examples of Abstract Expressionists painting today and how

their work relates to contemporary culture. The question is how my work fits in with current

abstract painting and how it relates to culture. As far as the aforementioned artists are

concerned, the first aspect is the power of gesture and response to the materials. Like Taaffe,

there is an attention to design, yet the work is not illustration or design. I use a personal

system.

There is an intuitive approach with the use of the paint and decision making.

Layering the paint and relying on chance is another factor tying my work in with

expressionist painters working today and of past generations. The paintings progress as the

loaded brushstrokes interact with the succeeding marks. I use tree trunks, sticks, dirt, sky and

leaves because they are familiar to everyone. They are painted flat to resemble the use of

space in Japanese art and some of the marks are read as calligraphy.

I ask myself if this personal vocabulary is enough to hold up to Staniszewski's beliefs.

The question I have to grapple with and answer through painting is if it is sufficient to be

considered a serious and culturally valid contemporary painter through what I bring to

abstraction. The work must be interesting, innovative, and important enough so that people

will pay attention. What I have to say will be resolved only by doing the actual work.

Fredric Jameson writes in Postmodernism and Consumer Society of postmodernist

movements as being reactions against the status quo and accepted forms of society. His belief

is that with revolutionary approaches unattainable, “art is going to be about itself in a new

kind of way.” (132) Artists are getting rid of personal style. Eliminating this means that

personal style is simply not having one. Anna Moszynska describes in Abstract Art how this
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began decades ago when Sherrie Levine imitated the work of historic abstract artists. Taking

this one step further Levine later created her own compositions using various appropriated

artistic styles (227). James Kalm in his video goes to the opening of James Hyde at The

Boiler gallery. Hyde presents a recent series of large paintings based on magnified sections of

Stuart Davis works. Hyde uses the Davis work as a starting point, just as Hodgkin uses

memory, or Taaffe Islamic patterns. (Kalm) The more I investigate, the more there is

evidence of infinite possibilities for my work to be considered culturally forceful and solid.

Over the next two years the body of work I produce will be the evidence.

Claes Oldenburg's I Am for an Art describes a world full of images, sensations, and

experiences. This artist isn't interested in producing tasteful or decorative work and feels that

everything in our immediate surroundings is inspiring. Oldenburg wants the artist to merge

with the human race. Art is personal and universal. Life reflects art, and vice versa. (56) In

various Critical Theory1 readings and discussions with Professor Steck the subject came up

of removing art from the institutions. Oldenburg took his work into the world. Changing the

context is an exciting concept which frees up the artist from constraints of galleries.

Oldenburg's take charge attitude is uplifting. The idea that the artist can take control

over how and in what context the work is presented is liberating.We all know that

Oldenburg's work eventually ended up in museums worldwide. Oldenburg, like Banksy,

Damien Hirst, and other artists, raise their profile by exploiting institutions. This goes back to

Staniszewski's beliefs.

An inspiring passage is in Linda Nochlin's Why Have There Been No Great Women

Artists? Nochlin declares:

Instead, women must conceive of themselves as potentially, if not actually,

equal subjects, and must be willing to look the facts of their situations full in
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the face, without self-pity, or cop-outs; at the same time they must view their

situation with that high degree of emotional and intellectual commitment

necessary to create a world in which equal achievement will be not only made

possible but actively encouraged by social institutions. (151)

Being an artist is difficult for men and women. It doesn't help to complain and think

what if. Nochlin's is a great excerpt to keep in mind for any artist and she is my new

cheerleader. There is no reason to make excuses for inertia or setbacks. After all of our

readings and discussions I conclude that I not only am going to be innovative in making my

work, but also in finding a place in today's contemporary art system. If I can't find one, I'll

invent my own.The possibilities are endless.

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Works Cited

Cortez, Diego.“Philip Taaffe.” Interview.com, n.pag.11 May 2010.Web. Feb 2011.

Kalm, James. “James Hyde Stuart Davis Group at The Boiler.” Ricci-Art.net,

Ricci-Art. nd. Web. Feb. 2011

Meyer, James. “Howard Hodgkin's Body.” Howard Hodgkin Ed. Nicholas Serota. London:

Tate Publishing, 2006: 19-56. Print.

Mozynska, Anna. Abstract Art. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1990. 227. Print.

Nikas, Bob. “Elizabeth Neel”. Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting.

London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2009: 54-57. Print.

Nochlin, Linda. “Why are there no Great Women Artists?” Women, Art, andPower and Other

Essays. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1989.145-175.Print.

Oldenburg, Claes. “ I Am for an Art.” Artists, Critics,and Context:Readings in and Around

American Art Since 1945.Ed. Paul F. Fabozzi. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

2002. 56-59. Print.

Staniszewski, Mary Anne. Believing is Seeing.London: Penguin Books Ltd.1995. Print.