NEW POSSIBILITIES IN PAINTING

First published for www.joshuamason.net  
 

I want to elucidate a mystery. I would like to shed light on the phenomenon of Art. By investigating it one may examine it for all it's possibilities.

In the past the artist has been likened to a mad man, wrestling his inner demons from the bowels of his own unconscious mind. Out of such psychological obscurity the myth of the artist was born, and attests to the irrational quality of inspiration. The artist, it has been believed, is somewhere between the innocence of childhood and the derangements of madness. Plato in the Ion said, "there is no invention in him [the poet] until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him."1 The insights he gains in this bardo are rarely given to normal men; as such the myth of the artist is born out of attributing him with a connection to unseen realms of the psyche. We shall say the artist is much like a shaman....

Although science, with it's measurements, threatens to rid any mystery from the imagination, the persistence of the artist myth is still living with us, and is in fact quite symbolic.  It is an inadvertent homage to the penetration of inner being as differentiated from "reasonable" experience. I am concerned with this phenomenological undertaking differentiated from "reasonable" experience, but not in the common interest of the irrational. Rather, I am concerned with the super-rational, which seeks to go beyond the "reason" completely.

What is this mysterious consciousness which overwhelms the artist’s mind? I purpose that some artists, finding an intensity in his preoccupation of fantasy, and the world as contrived distraction, seeks a vividness of the unconscious mind, and such irrational qualities lend to the formation of good works of art. However, there is another kind of mind whence the artist, finding neither benefit nor virtue in the unconscious, seeks to confront, and it is called "super-consciousness."

In order that we may find what this "super-consciousness" is, if anything, we must confront the problems of representation which the perception of super-consciousness challenges. Art and consciousness exist isomorphic to one another, or as a similarity in shape.2 A new type of art would not be concerned with the dialectical materialism of the old avant-garde fashions, and would go beyond modernism to question the representational paradigm by questioning the existing isomorphism of art.

The existing isomorphic characteristics of art, that is, the existing similarities in shape with our perceptions as exhibited through art mediums, considers the ontology of the structure of space to be a closed system. In other words, perspective fixes space and it becomes "closed" because it objectifies. One sees that Aristotelian logic even penetrates the art experience so that there is a separation between the work of art and the viewer. Art of this kind fixes the viewer and the viewed, thus assuming a separation and fragmentation between the subject and the object.3

Some artists have already pointed out this isomorphic tendency to "fix" space, and they sought to eradicate it from their work. Movements within modernist painting where already catching light of this problem of representation: Impressionism showed us how appearances change with light and movement. The theories behind Impressionism are about painting consciousness in the world and not about mapping or measuring the world.4 Furthermore, the Post-Impressionist Cezanne, through painting multiple angles or perspectives of a landscape, showed us things are not fixed - things are shifting.5 Cezanne opens up uncertainty, which would later become the postmodern trait, but may equally be appreciated in the psychology of impermanence.6

In order that we may find a way towards super-consciousness, what Jean Gebser referred to as "diaphaneity,"7 we must finish where Cezanne, and later postmodern artists, left off. We must open up uncertainty and impermanence in our work.

In order that we confront uncertainty we shall confront the theories of suggestion. Suggestion depends on the willingness to admit that meanings exist beyond what can bee seen or described. It is uncertain, therefore, because results can take may different faces and interpretations. Suggestion may be called ambiguity. For example, when suggestion has to due with representation, or more prominently the use of color in representation, consequently the use of color may actually limit the suggestive range of the imagination.8 Suggestion is also accomplished by omitting the subjects of sentences. It seems that suggestion depends on engagement of the imagination.9

In order to find impermanence in our work we must deal with "perishability," which may be defined as acknowledging the transience quality of an artwork. The desire to achieve artistic immortality is common in the West, since we've wished to demolish time with our marble and paint restorations, and yet marble crumbles and canvas rots. The suggestion of perishability becomes the emphasis on our transient nature, which without qualities of impermanence would not be Beautiful. 

The meaning of this article is to prompt artists to starting thinking of ways to insert more consciousness into the world. One way of approaching it in art is to confront the need to connect ourselves once again to the planet. The word human comes from humus, meaning "soil." Art could contribute to a metaphor of humus -  a new relationship of the self with the planet. Art could include the Earth's natural rhythms. Consider the following: the weather, the seasons, the landscape, day and night, light and dark, celestial phenomena, the tides, ect... Consider their qualities of uncertainity and perishability...

Consider the total immersion of the art happening. Consider including painting, poetry, literature, song, dance, theater, music ect.. to emphasize not the individual artist, which would be a modernist view of the artist, but rather to stress the cooperative effort of the art happening. Consider Aboriginal trance gatherings. They transport their audience to other worlds using songs, dances and images. Their paintings don't exist by themselves. They are accompanied by music and signing. To disconnect one medium unto itself is to completely impoverish it...

In order to connect to natural rhythms and to give metaphors which elucidate a sense of place, an art which is less commercial has to be involved. Art which one cannot posses may be helpful. Consider sand paintings done by Tibetan monks, who after laboring on their work finish in an elaborate ceremony by wiping the sand away. Also, consider Navajo paintings done by shamans; they pour colored sand into shapes and then let the wind sweep up the forms...

The new possibilities in painting are therefore to see the role of the artist is a different way. He is no longer a mad man or producer of irrational forces. He is now a shaman or producer of super-rational perception. This shift in the role of the artist is due to a dimensional shift, therefore he must confront the problems of the old, entrenched and regressive modes of representation. The work of some 19th and 20th century artist may be helpful, especially the idea of painting consciousness in the world. Furthermore, Gebser's "diaphaneity," or transparency shall also be involved, thereby solidifying the ideas of Cezanne and 'multiple perspectives.' In order that we may find this super-consciousness we must confront the ideas most apparent in the realization of this consciousness in the realm of the intellect, which is the uncertainty of thought and the perishability of form. It is the opinion of the author that 2dimensional representation certainly no longer grips the individual. Therefore, I make the claim that to be a painter in the 21s century is to abandon the canvas completely, and rather paint the emotions of the space itself, through performances art happenings. So we may achieve this new awareness we must connect these happenings to the naturalisms Earth. A new art will develop, a fourth dimensional art which serves itself and extends into the world and is utterly revolutionary...

1.] "The Artist's Reality", by Mark Rothko. Yale University Press, New Haven and London; (2004).
2.] Art is isomorphic. Essentially, art and consciousness are dependent reciprocals that cannot be divorced.
3.] The fragmentation of the subject and object is seen as the self's identification with the self of representation,  called ego, and the object of ego's thought upon substances of the world, called here the artwork itself.
4.] "Introducing Postmodernism", by Richard Appignanesi.
5.] Cezanne said, "Right now a moment of time is passing by! We must become that moment."
6.] Realization of impermanence is connected to realization of the uncertainty of experience with finite things, that seemed to be 'fixed' but are really in flux.
7.] A key element of Gebser's theory encompasses two fundamental concepts: latency and transparency. Latency deals with what is concealed; the demonstrable presence of the future. In this manner the seeds of all subsequent phases of evolution are contained in the current one. It is on the basis of this aspect that integration takes place. The second term transparency deals with what is revealed. Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual.
8.] The use of color can be brilliant, but it inevitably limits the suggestive range: when a flower is painted red, it can be no other color, but the black outline of a flower of white paper will let us imagine whatever color we choose." - Donald Keene, Japanese Aesthetics, Philosophy East and West 19 (1969): 293-326.
9.] "Suggestion as an artistic technique is given one of its more perfect forms of expression in the Nō Theatre. The undecorated stage, the absence of props other than bar outlines, the disregard for all considerations of time and space in the drama, the use of language that is usually obscure and of abstract gestures that scarcely relate to the words, all make it evidence that this theatre, unlike representational examples elsewhere (or Kabkui in Japan) we meant to be the outward, beautiful form suggestive of remoter truths or experiences, the nature of which will differ from person to person." - Japanese Aesthetics, Philosophy East and West 19 (1969): 293-326.