06.30.02
grumble, grumble
Just woke up…allergies took alot out of me…I hate when that happens…
but then again I hate not understanding Wile's proof of Fermat's last theorem…
Likely that I cn do something internally about both, however…
hmmm….
http://www.ionicfuturism.com
Wow–Emilia Cleopas' paintings display an organicity that is reminiscent of some of Schwitters' best collage/paintings–with all of the pseudo-techne of a Duchampian Large Glass or Three Standard Stoppages–but remarkable in her vibrant usage of color and reverse collage(?). It seems as if there are representational elements which may or may not be a part of the painted surface–but if so–they are given the impression of being placed as if in collage technical usage. But being digital reproductions–it's hard to tell how much is 'paint' and how much is collage.
It is quite vibrant work, the vibrancy recalling to me some of Klee's mosaic paintings–but whereas the units in Klee's work tend to be parts of a larger whole (attesting to his fascination with 18th century counterpoint), the units in Cleopas' work sometimes have an autonomy of their own–which actually gives her work a more concrete modality/presentation as it then becomes more akin to craft than painting–which is always the danger with painting that moves away from representation (eat that Greenburg). I would wonder if that is a gender thing? The tendancy towards craft–rather than “high art”.
The thing is that the paintings at the site ARE representational–but it is a mode of representation that is idiosyncratic (and I say this without having a healthy knowledge of South American art in general, and her teachers specifically–so 'ware my claims about the idiosyncrasy of her representational style). And whether that idiosyncrasy is of a cultural sort, or an individual sort–I doubt that the two can be separated from each other, or from gender for that matter–Cleopas' work exhibits a closure and finality that only a painting with subject matter can have. Subject matter that is 'explicitly' stated in the descriptive paragraphs accompanying the images at the site.
Subject matter alone, however, cannot account for the formal closure of her works–that is also a painterly matter–and one that extends back to the post-impressionists. It is the modernist ideal–the self containment of art–an art that exists for its own sake and need not be tied to the external world as 'realistic' representation. It is a type of formality that became exemplified by the Cubists and modeled endlessly after that. I don't believe there is too much irony in the usage of Ionic Futurism considering how much the Futurists owed to the Cubists. Cleopas' subject matter is representational–but that 'representational' element becomes the modernistic formality–the formality that was finally expanded upon by the Abstract Expressionists through the Color Field Painters and finally broken by the Minimalists with work that intruded upon or became a part of, as Fried would critique, the theatrical space of the receiver. Miniamlist work, has no frame of it's own because the work itself becomes content, thus allowing the painting to become object/content with the audience space as frame–thereby entering the same space as the viewer. This is not at all the issue with Cleopas' work. Her work definately are self contained–with internal subject matter.
I suppose it boils down to being an issue of collage-like techniques. Collage is problematic for painting as it allows content to be concrete–and this in conjunction with Emilia Cleopas' tendancy to 'craft' lends her work an almost decorative air–which is what gives it its vibrancy while allowing her to maintain the air of formality associated with high modernism. Very slick work, if you ask me…but then again, this is all explained (sort-of) at the homepage of her Iconic Futurism website.
I would love to see more of her work…
06.27.02
a new day…
'Her gift of life took the form of rice cakes, stuffed generously with sweet bean paste. As their sweetness slid smoothly down his throat, Takezo grew giddy. The fingers holding the cake shook. “I'm alive,” he thought over and over, vowing that from that moment on he'd live a very different sort of life.'
–from Musashi: The Way of the Samurai (book 1), by Eiji Yoshikawa