postpostmodernism and postmodernism 2

mark rothko, magenta, black, green on orange

the wikipedia entry on postpostmodernism suggests (to me) a wide variety of interpretations, most having to do with the idea that postmodernism is somehow past its prime.

what strikes me from my personal perspective is that there are but a handful of artists from the postmodern period whose work really gets to me - to be precise: there are many individual art works that get to me, but they mostly seem to be exceptional in the artists' oeuvre. so i mean artists whose work gets to me more than a few times, work in which something fundamental to me seems to be developed. And then again, are these artists anywhere postmodern in the art-philosophical sense? also, none of them are alive anymore. [of course my knowledge of modern art is rather limited. i look forward to discovering artists which disprove my contention about postmodern art].

of course, for me there is mark rothko. then, for me personally with rather contradicting/conflicting feelings: joseph beuys. also francis bacon, especially when he focuses more on spatiality than on gruesomeness (of which i'm not a fan at all). i'm also intrigued by constant (nieuwenhuys), also especially his more spatial paintings. perhaps i'll think of some more (oh, i wrote something already on chuck close, ok perhaps he should be in this list also...)

to be continued.

chuck close: more than realism?

what struck me with some of chuck close's works was the intensity of some of the portraits. an intensity which, in retrothinking, i would ascribe to a combination of ` harsh' realism (non-prettified i mean) with an extra layer of (is this a word?) deconstruction of reality [oh oh i'm starting to sound like ralf kwaaknijd here...].

by ` deconstruction' i mean his pixel-like approach, where each pixel is just a small abstract element. but in the best works it seems to me he added to this also extra abstract expression in these pixels. and freedom with respect to the size and placement of the `pixels'.

and then suddenly, the work for me starts to shimmer, vibrate, i don't know. it's an effect which i do not experience with the small reproductions on internet. i think you must go and see the work for real.



chuck close, maggie (photo by ellen page wilson, courtesy of PaceWildenstein, new york, ©chuck close [and i hope ellen and chuck don't mind]

but in other works i did not get much vibes beyond the realism. i wonder where chuck close will take his work in years to come!

chuck close: a portrait in progress

ok, something more serious now.

saw a wonderful short documentary `chuck close - a portrait in progress' by marion cajori, it seems there is now a feature-length version.

also saw a show of chuck close's work, last year in aachen. was glad i went, there were some very interesting and beautiful works (amongst works that i liked far less, to be honest and complete).

here is a video from youtube:



i will come back to this in the next post.