STAN BRAKHAGE

Stan Brakhage was an avant-garde filmmaker who worked in film from 1952 up until his death in 2003. Brakhage was born in 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri and worked as a live radio and recording soprano throughout his childhood. He entered Dartmouth College but dropped out as a freshman to pursue his interest in film. Two years later he enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute where he met many beat generation poets such as Robert, Duncan, Robert Creely, Kenneth Rexroth and Louis Zukofsky who would influence Brakhage's ideology. In 1954, Brakhage relocated to New York City where became acquainted with John Cage, Edgard Varese, Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas, and others. In 1955, Brakhage was commissioned by artist Joseph Cornell to make the film Wonder Ring. After watching this film, it is noticeably the predecessor of his style present in later films. The camera was an extension of Brakhage's eye. He recorded phrases of his experience to present a feeling as it develops in time. In 1964, his 16mm camera was stolen and resulted in a five year period focused on 8mm works.

The Wonder Ring, Stan Brakhage, 6 minutes, 1955

Many of Brackage's films focus on the loss of innocent and imaginative vision in humans as they age in a society. Other themes in his film are sexuality and mortality. Brakhage was a man on a progressive journey to abandon the material connection the brain makes with the eye. In his book Metaphors on Vision, Brakhage writes “Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception.” Brakhage was an innovator of process. In his films such as Dante Quartet, Water for Maya, and Love Song, Brakhage would paint on a reel of film and sometimes use multiple exposures to give the span of the film's length continuity when projected.

Dante Quartet, Stan Brakhage, 6 Min, 1987

Brakhage is considered to be an artist who created art for art's sake. His ideas, process, and themes are of great inspiration to me. Brakhage is a unique artist because of his unrefined eye. He used color, light, and an emulation of the eye's motion and saccades through a camera lens to give a raw aesthetic. I anticipate exploring the medium of film, but regardless of my medium his mode of storytelling and ideas on vision will influence my process and product. For my senior seminar exhibit I am leaning away from the idea of formal painting and more towards mixed media and projection art to create my body of work.

Desistfilm, Stan Brakhage, 6 minutes, 1954

LUC TUYMANS

Luc Tuymans is a contemporary Belgian figurative painter known for his works focusing on the decay of an image as it is communicated, translated, and reinterpreted. He was born in 1958 in Mortsel, Belgium. From 1976 to 1982, Tuymans attended multiple schools where he studied fine art and painting. He attended Sint-Lukasinstituut, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, and the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. In 1982, Tuymans brought a halt to his painting and studied art history at the Vrije Universiteit and pursued his interest in film. 1985, Tuymans returned to painting and exhibited his work in an emptied swimming pool of the Palais des Thermes, Ostend. Since his first exhibit, Tuymans has risen to prominence and become a key artist in the revival of modern painting. He now lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium where he paints and curates.

Me, Luc Tuymans, Oil on canvas. 43 1/2 x 53 5/8 ", 2011. 

Tuymans works from found photographs and video stills often relating to Belgium's history, WWII, the congo, 9/11, Disney, and the corporate world. He claims that violence is the only recurring theme throughout his work. His paintings are easily recognizable for the pale and reduced color scheme he utilizes. Tuymans says that “tones much more than color influence how you memorize imagery. A painting has a different time span and physicality than reality. By making a memory more physical we make it more inadequate.” Tuymans believes it is important that each work stands out by itself but also works together. He typically paints light to dark.

Der diagnostische Blick V (The diagnostic view V), Luc Tuymans,  Oil on Canvas, 22 7/8 x 16 1/2 " 1992 

Days after I came across Tuymans paintings, the images were still returning to my mind because of their unhealthy coloration, subtle sense of despair, and ambiguous context. It was interesting to acquaint myself with works that were similar to what I have currently been creating without referencing it prior. I painted intensely cropped portraiture with washed out colors early in the summer and now coming to find Tuymans's perfected version of the style is deeply inspiring and motivating. I am currently split between working from pictures and working from live subjects. Each has its ups and downs. I do not wish to paint from historic subjects unless they become relevant to the present situation or could enhance the conveyance of a contemporary idea.

  Diagnostische Blick IV, Luc Tuymans, Oil on Canvas, 22 1/2 x 15 ", 1992 

YAN PEI-MING

Yan Pei-Ming is a modern expressionist portrait painter whose works are loose and representative of the roles that their subjects play in society. Pei-Ming was born in 1960 in Shanghai, China. He did not attend art school in China due to the highly competitive application process, but he did take part in a program called the propaganda studio. At age 20, Pei-Ming moved to Dijon, France in order to attend the École des Beaux-Arts. He later attended the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques in Paris, France. He gained notoriety for his large format portraits of Mao Zedong. Pei-Ming made a significant breakthrough for Chinese art in the Western context because he was the first Chinese artist to exhibit at the Louvre. Pei-Ming now teaches painting and drawing at his alma mater, École des Beaux-Arts.

Fighting Spirit, Yan Pei-Ming, Oil on Canvas, 118 1/8 x 118 1/4 ", 2012

A consistent theme in Pei-Ming's work is universality. He walks the line between figuration and abstraction, perhaps to portray the universal through the abstract and the unique through the representational. Pei-Ming states that “within my portraits, I am illustrating theories.” Theories that are closely tied to his political views. Pei-Ming's works are typically large and monochrome. He thwarts the power of color to ensure that it does not detract from the essence of a moment or feeling. Black and white are all Pei-Ming needs to convey a feeling. Pei-Ming is heavily influenced by Francisco Goya.

Self-Portrait as a Hooligan, Yan Pei-Ming, Oil on Canvas, 137.8 x 137.8 ", 2003

I am drawn to Pei-Ming's paintings because of their dramatic weight and expressive brushstrokes. Each painting feels heavy as if it is bearing the weight of its subject's body and power. This is due to the careful placement of values. Pei-Ming strives not to paint people from history, but people who are alive now. I agree fully with this decision because what is more relevant than our contemporaries? Portrait painting is where I am presently stuck. The human head is of fascination to me because it is the crown jewel of two billion years of evolution. Inside of the head is where all perception, feeling, thought, spirituality, and emotion exists. The combination of all of the sensory information yields a visualization of the person's identity in the form of a facial expression. 

Grand Timonier, Yan Pei-Ming, Oil on Canvas, 98 3/8 x 98 3/8 ", 2000

FRANCESCO CLEMENTE

Francesco Clemente is an Italian Neo-Expressionist painter and 2-D artist. He was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He moved to Rome in 1970 to study architecture, but did not complete the program and instead directed his focus towards his artwork. At age 19, Clemente had his first solo exhibition in Rome. In 1973, Clemente went to India for the first time where he would later spend much of his time. In 1980, he left India for New York, gained notoriety in America, and collaborated with visual artists such as Warhol and Basquiat and writers like Ginsberg and Creely. Currently, Clemente spends his time working between New York, Italy, and India.

Grisaille Self-Portrait, Francesco Clemente, Oil on Canvas, 12x 12.5 ",1998

Clemente's work focuses primarily on the female body, self-portraiture, non-western spirituality, sexuality, and dreams. Clemente's vast collection of self-portraits stems from his belief that they are reflections of the fragmentation of the self; something organic and expanding from a center. Clemente claims the goal of the artist is to see the circle by stepping out of it. His concern has more specifically focused on images that break with the customary notion of the ego, continuity of discontinuity, and gaps in our experience. All of his work is about becoming aware of connections. Clemente says “I'm in love with the fragility of life.” and “Painting is not so much about decision, but acceptance.”

                                              Alba, Francesco Clemente, Oil on Linen, 46 x 92 ", 1997

I am largely fascinated with the themes present in Clemente's work. In coming of age, I have developed concern with the self, spirituality, and sensuality. I would like to reestablish the notion of conflict originating from inside the self as a subjective response to an outside fact instead of the thought that problems are directly related to the outside. The self is too often excluded from the equation. His series The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows was deeply moving to view and understand. He painted the series as one large watercolor and then cut it into the completed pieces. This could be a process that I would like to use for creating a body of work so that it is possible to understand the series to be one piece whilst working on it and later partition it into an experience. Clemente's self-portraits are also very inspiring to me because of their expressionist feel and depth of emotional content. I use self- portraits to imitate an out of body experience. When successful, I am able to focus on myself objectively through a perspective that is nearing the third person.  

                           The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows (III), Francesco Clemente, Watercolor on Paper, 2009

ERIC FISCHL

Eric Fischl is an American painter, sculptor, and print-maker, though he is best known for his narrative paintings. He was born in 1948 in New York City and grew up on Long Island. His family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1967 where he studied art at Phoenix University and completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute for the Arts. Fischl decided to pursue art when he discovered how painting was an integral part of himself. He repeatedly heard that painting was dead, so he rebelled. After moving to Nova Scotia and teaching painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Fischl moved back to New York City where he had his first solo show in 1979.

Bad Boy, Eric Fischl, Oil on Canvas, 66 x 96 ”,1981

Most of Fischl's paintings are narratives focusing on contemporary American culture in a darkly comedic way.Fischl is Influenced by the expressive nature of San Francisco painters such as Richard Diebenkorn, Dave Parks, and Elmer Bischoff. Fischl largely is a proponent of the convergence of art and science and was once part of a group of artists and scientists that would discuss how art, science, and human nature intertwine and react. Fischl describes his process as working backwards from high-end technology to create a more primitive result. He photographs a scene, alters the image in Photoshop, and then proceeds to produce a painting from the altered image. His narratives often depict their subjects paused in a poignant moment portraying the more timeless qualities of themselves. Viewers are able to imagine the subjects' past and future to encapsulate the described moment in the way of a story.

Dog Days (Diptych), Eric Fischl, Oil on Canvas, 84 x 168 ",1983 

I am intrigued by Fischl's subject matter and outlook on painting. I am not as much interested by his process of manipulating images in Photoshop because that makes painting less of an intuitive response to the subject and more of a formulated response to my ideas. His critical yet playful look at society is far from arrogant and inserts himself in the hidden mania of our culture.

                                 The Bed, The Chair, The Sitter, Eric Fischl, Oil on Canvas 73 x 93 ", 1999

CECILY BROWN

Cecily Brown was born in 1969 in London, England. Her painting style is reminiscent of American Abstract Expressionists such as De Koonong and Guston but is different in that it is less abstract and more figural than the majority of their work. Brown's father exposed Cecily to fine art and painting at an early age because he was a famed art critic in England and was acquainted with artists like Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. Cecily attended the Epsom School of Art in Surrey, England to study art and design from 1985 to 1987. In 1987 she enrolled in printmaking and draughtsman classes at Morley College in London. In 1989 Brown attended the Slade School of Art and in 1992 studied at the New York Studio School. 1997 proved to be a breakthrough year for Brown due to her first solo exhibition with Deitch Projects in New York, since then she has had numerous solo exhibitions.

New Louboutin Pumps, Cecily Brown,Oil on linen, 206 cm x 205 cm, 2005

Cecily Brown's paintings walk a thin line between figuration and abstraction, but she does not consider her work to be abstract because of the distinct figures often present. Brown strays from typical figural painting because of her belief that it is too close to illustration or a definition. Brown strives for her paintings to have a conflict or argument within themselves and from one painting to the next, but details are ambiguous because she wants her works to have a life of their own. Not only is Brown heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionists, but also by more classical artists like Reubens, Titian, and Bosh. Brown works seven days a week on her art and has become a widely acclaimed contemporary painter.

Single Room Furnished, Cecily Brown, Oil on Canvas, 60 x 75 ", 2000

I was immediately captivated by Brown's paintings because of their aura of raw energy. Her paintings appear to be entirely intuitive responses to the erotic world that paint has created within her mind. They radiate energy outward and depict an entropic sensuality. The sporadic lines and splotchy combining of other visual elements makes for an intriguing visual path and immediate stimulation of the viewer. Her subject matter is not conceptually cutting edge, but the content and manner in which she depicts it once again pushes the boundaries of paint as a medium. I would like to progress my painting in a direction of looseness similar to Brown's and emphasize the painting process more then the painting itself.

The Fugitive Kind, Cecily Brown, Oil on Linen, 229 x 190.5 cm, 2000