Avant-Garde

I suppose the superlative which readily comes to mind over and over again is ‘amazing’. Amazing man, amazing work, but more so ‘amazing’ times he lived. People seemed to have an inexplicably narrow vision of what constituted a painting; anything outside the permitted criterion was the domain of beasts (or Fauvists)

Amazing how the world has changed since then. We often hear that statement. (Did you honestly think the world was going to stay the same??! Honestly?) Matisse, from what I can see learnt to use colour as a pure form of expression which people could not just get their heads around. They asked why someone would want to do such a thing! Why can’t artists simply paint the way they always did.

Fast forward to today. We of course use colour as a pure form of expression, we wallow in colour…its accepted and seen as good and right. So whats advant-garde today? I wish I knew and I’d be doing it, but such thoughts lead to contrived work, and I can be as guilty as anyone of creating contrived work.

Whats important in the art world? Who are the main movers? The new avant-garde? What painters are saying something new and different and real? Is it important for us, as artists, to be in dialogue with these people on some level at least, as in looking at their work and inquiring, if only inwardly, what makes those images so compelling?

I look at the work of Australian artist Hazel Dooney, her work is explicit, somewhat disturbing, but its contemporary, its up to date, its very real. It’s confrontational and all that is good. That is what Matisse was in his day, and for that she should be applauded. You won’t find landscapes or old world views of apple and oranges still lives in her works. There will come a day, when people will look at the apple and orange still lives and say ‘Did people really hang this stuff on their walls’ Yes we did and we enjoyed. There’s no harm in liking apples and oranges, besides their good for your health.

I don’t think it’s a question of looking around and seeing where there’s a gap and trying to fill that with your form of expression. I think its living your life in a real and modern world, which we all do for the most part and our work being a genuine expression of that living which is what makes for contemporary and real. We just have to live genuine and authentic lives and the rest will follow. That all? I hear you say. So simple.

That life doesn’t have to be lived on the New York art cutting edge scene, in fact it would probably not be very helpful. It is, I think going to be largely defined by an inner life also.

So what would I like to hang on my wall today, a Hazel Donney or a Matisse? Right now I would have to say a Hazel Donney. Don’t know why, but that’s my answer for what its worth.