Page 9 - TAG

Often accused of creating accidents, Pollock was the ‘man’ who
stirred up more negative reaction to abstract art than most that
came before or after him. He answered his critics with anger and
typical American bravado “ I don’t wait for the accident, I create the
accident.” He is known to have snapped back to a vicious critical
attack of his work. Today we can find hundreds of ‘Pollock’ imitations
on the web - all of them worth no more than the canvas they are
painted on - none of them being imbued by the personality, the
passion, nor the elegant control of any of the original Pollocks’ -
which is why Abstract painting is not as easy as many of today’s
artists believe it to be. To expand on the Pollock statement above,
I would like to suggest that...

”Great Abstraction is a state of being - creating a real work of art,
not a simple case of image making .”

After the ‘American Expressionism’ came the ‘Neo Realism’ of 1960.

“Easel painting, like any other classic means of painting or sculpture
has served its term. Still sublime at times, it is approaching the end of a
long monopoly. What is proposed? The exciting adventure of ‘the real’
seen for what it is and not through the prism of conceptual or imaginative
transmission. What is the determining feature of this new perception?
The introduction of sociological reinforcement at the critical stage of
communication. Sociology comes to the aid of consciousness and
hazard, wether it is the posting or the tearing down of a sign, the physical
appearance of an object, the rubbish from the house or living room, the
unleashing of mechanical affectivity, or expanding of sensitivity beyond the
limits of perception....”

Above: extract from the The New Realists. End of painting predicted in
1960. (quoted text is taken from their first manifesto).
Written by Pierre Restany – Italy

It perhaps the art of another kind, other than painting, that has pushed
abstract art further and to its very limit. That art is ‘the new European
realism’ which came into being as quoted above- It is an odd and
contradictory statement - ‘realism pushes abstraction’ - but in purely
intellectual terms it is correct to say that we do view ‘contemporary art’ one
that features an actual unmade (household) bed, a roll of paper crushed
into a ball, layers of masking tape placed in a one inch square and placed
on a wall, or a door that opens with a light going on and off, or a notice that
tells us not to worry, or a banana stuck on a wall with gaffer tape - as Art -
the Public places abstraction and these realist forms of intellectual based
art presentations, as one of the same thing.

From my standpoint - I think the major mistake of the ‘art institutions’ was
and still is, to favour Artists that ridicules Art. We need Art in this world
to help us progress as a species - Humans are capable of destroying
themselves easily - they don’t need a push into cynical loathing of Art.
The challenges of creation should be wide and open to all - a broad church
if you will - one that will continue to embrace visual art in its various guises.
Art created by humans of all ages, shapes and sizes. Surely it is time to
dismiss all of the labels of art, lets just say... all Art should be special.

written by SPIKE - TAG#4 ©painters Tubes magazines December 2019.