Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Crypticism


I would like to redefine Contemporary Art. The diptych needs to be repainted and varnished.
Lets start with the word Art. A French art critic said in the Nineteen Century , it is true I do not know what Art is but I certainly know what Art is not. Unable to give a definition of Art we will define Art by its brillant heritage that exist until 1910.We will call Art Velasquez , we will call Art Rembrandt , we will call Art Messerschmidt , we will call Art Rodin , we will call Art the great Jacek Malczewski and a few others.Art could be a very high and unusual capacity , emotional , perceptive and intellectual , to render who we are through a visual form combined with a respect and devotion to the chosen craft.
Lets follow with the word Contemporary. I believe every Art has been contemporary of there own times.In my opinion Contemporary means to be able to express the situation of man in front of his existence in the segment of history that the artist lives in.If my definition of Contemporary Art is true what we call commonly Contemporary Art is neither Art neither Contemporary.
Art is the history of existence.
I was never able to separate the history of human beliefs with the history of art.I believe history of religion as well its counter-part the history of loosing religion has an enormous impact on masterpieces in many civilizations.Of course we do not talk about decorative art here that has an history of its own.I believe great Art and specially Art that focuses on the human figure ( the body being a symbol of existence ) goes hand in hand with the history of religion , because history of religion or its reverse history of atheism is nothing else but how man feels about his existence. The rendering of that state of the entire human race is why I find Art incredible to me. When you deal with the history of religion or the history of nihilism you are dealing with the history of the human race in front of meaning. For almost nineteen centuries Art was linked to religion and after 1910 what Nietzsche called the Death of God tainted the Arts for a century.
In this triptych of civilization , I see a third panel as being a new birth for the arts , the 21 century is going in my opinion to create an Art that is neither religious and neither atheistic but mystic. Humanity failed to adore and failed to hate.To express the vision of the mystical millenium my art is re-interpreting al the vocabulary of any attempt of the human race to construct some meaning , cross , vortex , excommunication , grimoire , levitation , resurrection , crypticisms of all sorts to try to describe a world were man is trying to generate his own religion.I believe Art takes a soul and puts it in another place for a moment or another dimension or may be the only dimension.Great Art can bring in the souls a souvenir of a spiritual place that they never seen before.A new challenge for Art has risen and that is to show the post-nihilistic dimensions of life through the human figure and show the needs of beliefs of man who has no official religions to rely on.It is not because that religions disappear that the need for religions disappear in man.I see the new millenium as a trial for man to find new reasons to believe , trying to build a post-God spirituality. Each of my statues show the evolution and the adventure of this man.I believe we can call this man the contemporary man.
Be hell , be heaven and be humanity and may the figure of man be re-morphed in the wonders of Crypticism.

2 comments:

  1. Your post-God spirituality concept is interesting.

    You say "what we call commonly Contemporary Art is neither Art neither Contemporary." Do you have a preferred term to refer to the work of artists in the recent years?

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  2. Dear Andrew , when I refer to Contemporary Art I refer to Conceptual Art , I am not referring to the artists working today.
    Best.

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