T-Shirts, Togas, or Au Naturel? : The Problem With Clothing In Art

It has been said that the foot is nobler than the shoe, but is the sandle nobler than the flipflop? In renaissance Italy before planes, trains, and automobiles biblical characters were represented wearing fashions from their current time. This is presumably because it never occurred to them that people would have ever dressed any differently. In Rembrandt's dark, jewel-studded biblical narratives he seems to have invented his own fanciful interpretation of Jewish clothing. But why don't these inaccuracies look naive or silly to us?

An interpretation of Bouguereau for a photoshop contest on worth1000.com

One of the snags of our over-scienced post-industrial age is that we now know everything, so we no longer need our imaginations. Another is that we don't make anything ourselves. Our day-glow hats and fanny packs are one size fits all, and will be out of vogue next year. Clothing is designed for the convenience of the manufacturer in worldwide uniformity. Shirts and jackets are emblazoned with company logos and pants are made extra baggy to fit our masses.

"Foreclosure" by Max Ginsburg

I don't mourn modern inventions, because they have afforded me more time and freedom to create.  The problem for a visual artist though is that it is difficult to make poetry out of the throw-away objects of mass-production.  The options before us are kind of like this:

1. Embrace modern fashion with tongue-in-cheek humor
2. Select less offensive or conspicuous contemporary fashions, or simplify by playing down the uglier aspects of them.
3. Invent your own clothing styles
4. Dress your models in period costumes, most likely mismatching different past eras.
5. No clothes at all.  (Easiest, but sometimes yields awkward results.)
6. Sheet.


Best of luck friends.

Rembrandt

Massaccio

William Whitaker

Odd nerdrum

My painting "Iconoclast"

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Living Grand Masters: Steven Assael

Well, some of the people I deem as "grand masters" I have already listed as teachers. This is where categorization starts to drive me crazy. Steven Assael is undoubtedly one of the great painters of our time, so it won't hurt to do another post for him.

If you've never seen Steve develop a painting it is simply outrageous. At first his technique looks like a very bad idea, and it is very easy to get nervous that he's not going to pull the thing off, but he always does, gloriously. He uses a bright orange, red, or hot pink ground color and uses the surface as a palette. He works unbelievably quickly, slapping and slamming a loaded wet brush as though it were the enemy, but with a totally disinterested expression.

Steve was in his twenties when he painted this. They roped off a section of their apartment to keep everything in the right place.

Still my favorite.




A piece in progress featured in the new American Artist.

The Pieta Retold by a few of my favorite painters.

I have a thing for pietas.

Michelangelo did the famous one. The pieta is traditionally a depiction of Mary holding the dead Christ across her lap. Literally translated "piety", the word means something more like "mourning". in this case.

In art, though, the pieta is less a story than a form through which to express a certain emotion or pathos. It is not at all necessary to know the story, because the message is in the shapes and in the bodies. As in most of the classic motifs, they usually come from an ancient source predating Christianity, and are recycled and reinterpreted much like what a "standard" is to a jazz musician.

Above is an example of something like our pieta predating Jesus by nearly 600 years. It is by the greek painter, Douris, and represents the mythological characters, Eos and Memnon.

In this entry, though, I'll be focusing on some interpretations on this theme by contemporary artists.

Here are three by Bo Bartlett. The one above is a commentary on the Civil War.

Bo's use of the flayed lamb here is a clever parallel, and I like the way the sky itself looks like there is a fire for the sacrifice somewhere just outside of the frame.

This (above) is probably more accurately a descent from the cross. If you're offended by the female with nail wounds, remember that many women too were crucified in the days of the early church. I love all the urban debris scattered in the background, the red couch, and the guy pointing as if making some kind of accusation. I don't remember Bo's exact explanation for all of the stuff in it, but I don't really care. It's a staggeringly beautiful piece that cuts right down to the soul.

Vincent desiderio with his son. Check out the projected images in the background.

My rendition. Actually it's more of a "Madonna and Child" foreshadowing a "pieta." Ok, I said my "favorite painters". If I wasn't at least one of my favorites why would I continue bothering?

Steven Assael's parents.

Another steven Assael above. He did a few of these firefighter pietas with my pal David as the model for the little boy.

Here's a political pieta by Harvey Dinnerstein, a teacher of Assael. It is probably more accurately a "deposition" in which a group of disciples is carrying the body to the tomb, but in essence the same form. I'm not sure if he ever did a full painting of this, but I find it incredibly powerful. An image like this transcends the political message and becomes something universal and timeless. These are probably vietnam protesters, but could just as easily be a much older event or a future event. I enjoy the contrast between the limp, dead arm at the bottom and the defiantly raised arm, stabbing diagonally toward the upper left corner. I feel the outrage myself just looking at it.

Max Ginsburg is a great painter, but to me this one is a little overstated. The message here seems to be carried more by symbolic bits such as the flag, the screaming woman, the fire, and the blood, rather than in the shaping of light and the movement of the bodies. I might like it better in black and white.

Ooh, sepia is kind of nice. Actually I LOVE that!

Teachers Of Mine: Steven Assael

I mean seriously. Steven Assael renders (no pun intended) me speechless. His talent is epic. He has a passion and a work ethic unlike anything I've ever seen. He is a gentle soul and a good friend.

I studied with Steve at SVA my senior year, and continued to study with him privately during my years in New York. Steven is a student of Max Ginsburg and Harvey Dinnerstein, other painters I greatly admire.

Seeing this painting at his 1998 show at Forum Gallery changed my life. This is one of the best figure paintings I've ever seen.

Amy's favorite, "Amber Ray".

Watching Assael paint is similar to watching a professional wrestling match between a paint brush and globs of gloppy wet paint. Although in reproductions one is mostly aware of the level of realism, when viewed in person there is quite a lot of abstraction in the paint. Threads of pure and half-mixed color can be seen in the strokes. Steve loves to pile on the flake white and thickly layered wet glazes with a honey-thick medium that creates a jewel-like effect on the surface. His unorthodox technique normally involves a superloaded fan brush or round sable shifting about masses of paint the way a sculptor models form in clay.

Steven Assael is well-known for making ballpoint pen a serious drawing medium. He handles it quite like silverpoint, and often adds washed in layers of color and tone.