The Tragikons

On Saturday I stumbled into the Cohen Rese Gallery in San Francisco and was struck by the mysterious and beautiful neo-romanticist paintings of North American Robert Watson (b. 1932- d. 12/14/2004). Many people have called his work surrealist and I suppose it’s easy to see why…   the paintings have some basis in reality, yet they seem other-worldly, fictional and allegorical. Surrealism often incorporates the percieved irrational juxtaposition of images and at times the images themselves have absolutely no basis in reality. Watson’s paintings do neither of these things…  a number of things that can be stated as differences between the two genres, but the main difference between neo-romanticist paintings and surrealism is that neo-romanticism does not incorporate what Andre Breton (founder of surrealist movement) declared as the freedom from rational controls or psychic automatism. Technically then – the Watson paintings are not surrealistic. Neo-romanticist (Watson’s) paintings have more to do with Fantasy… I know that there are many out there who are probably cringing at the thought of what I’ve just said, but neo-romanticism is the idealization or internal observation(feeling) and reaction to reality and that bares some kinship with fantasy. I am not suggesting that Watson’s paintings are in the genre of fantasy. Furthermore, Neo romanticism is in direct opposition to Naturalism – defined by Webster as “a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail.”  Neo-romanticist paintings tend to be moody, nostalgic, reflective, romantic and the idealized versions of reality as felt and seen by the painter. In this sense – the paintings border on fantasy, but are not fantasy in the purest sense. Fantasy is a genre that represents magical or other supernatural concepts, suggestions, beings or places. In other words – Fantasy is neo-romanticism on steroids. In the case of Watson’s paintings many of them are constructed entirely out of imagination but remain within the grasp of earthly plausability..  for example his “The Tower” painting depicts a solitary figure standing in front and to the side of what appears to be the ruins of an ancient and unusual tower not existing in the real world.

Side note: In the future I would like to address the genre of Fantasy and ask why it has been left out of the canon of fine art. I believe it to be an interesting question…

Themes often found in neo-romanticism include ruins, utopian landscapes, haunted landscapes, romantic death, idealised beauty and perfect love. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post… artistic movements in one art often occur in parallel with other art forms or will appear in other forms of art years if not decades later. The parallels are found most strongly in a gothic tinged variety of neo-romanticist art. It’s a variation that really deserves attention because it’s had such deep influence in the modern film industry as well as rock music of the last thirty-five years. I’m making mention of all of this because while I was perusing through the gallery I took note of a brief typewritten paragraph hanging on a wall mentioning all the notable figures who have collected Watson’s paintings. Among the list were – Mort Sahl, Ray Bradbury, Burt Reynolds, Norman Cousins, Vincent Price, Armand Hammer and the late Duchess of Windsor. I was not surprised that Vincent Price was a collector.. as a matter of fact, based on the film career Mr. Price has had I

 thought Watson’s art and Vincent Price were a perfect pairing. (What I’m trying to illustrate here is the relationship between the gothic and neo-romantiscist genres.) Vincent Price made a career of starring in many classic Gothic 

horror movies playing the anti-hero and the villain. One such movie that is in my top ten of all time favorites and that had a special place in the heart of Vincent Price (played the leading role) is called, “The Last Man On Earth.” Recently, there was a remake under the title of “I Am Legend” in 2007. “I Am Legend” is the original book title authored by Richard Matheson (sci-fi author) that spawned the movi

es “The Last Man On Earth”, “Omega Man” and “I Am Legend.”  I have seen all three and by far “The Last Man On Earth” is the best… it is a work of genius. If you have not seen these movies and are thinking about renting one – rent “The Last Man On Earth.” (I have included the first part of the movie at the bottom of this blog post.) The most recent version “I Am Legend” is rubbish. Back to my point – because Watson’s paintings are neo-romanticist they resonate very well with the gothic genre and that is why Vincent Price probably collected the work. 

 

A great number of things have come to mind with regards to rock music and the neo-romanticist gothic genre, but because it’s such a vast topic I’ll dedicate a post to that at a later time.

Left Photo of “Man On Pier” 1958 – Right Photo of “The Tower”

Both Oil on canvas by Robert Watson @ Cohen Rese Gallery in San Francisco 

      

While at the gallery I was fortunate enough to have had a conversation with the very pleasant gallery director Donna Abee. Donna expressed that Ray Bradburry requested from Watson the use of one of his paintings as the cover art for “The Martian Chronicles”. In my estimation this request by Bradburry (science fiction author) is further evidence that Watson’s paintings lend themselves well to the genre of fantasy and science fiction.  According to Bradburry there was just one problem with the painting…. the planet Mars is red and Watson’s painting is an earthly blue. My assumption is that the new red version was an adjustment not carried out by Watson, but by the book publishers presses. The two versions seen below:

           

From what I could see – there were roughly four paintings of Watson’s all grouped together in the gallery. At first glance anyone looking at these paintings and new to the art of Watson would think that because they were very similar in terms of color and style that they were painted within a few years of each-other as part of a series, but no – “Man On Pier” was painted in 1958 and “The Tower” was painted roughly forty-five years later ! Surely, these paintings held a profound gravitas for Watson. Nearly the entire body of Watson’s work depicted the loneliness of man amidst a mysterious world. 

For your viewing pleasure I’ve posted part one of “The Last Man On Earth” below:

MUSIC: 

Paul Sawtell – Composer (Music Score), Bert Shefter – Composer (Music Score)

 

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi127206169/

 

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I finally found time to spend the day at the SFMOMA a few weeks ago and found that 

The photograph I took of Matta’s “Invasion Of The Night” 

Oil on canvas 1941- San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art

there were a number of wonderful paintings worthy of some writing, but there was one painting that took my attention almost entirely. The title of the painting was “Invasion Of The Night” and the painter was Chilean born Roberto Matta  b. 11/11/11 – d. 11/23/02. I was sure that I had at least heard of every surrealist / abstract expressionist painter on the face of this earth who had been a known figure within the art establishment during the 20th century. I guess I was wrong. It was like uncovering a sunken treasure chest. The painting reminded me of Dali and his amorphous shapes, yet the perpective, colors and lines were quite novel and utterly foreign.  It’s a beautiful piece.  At instances the lines are bold and billowing..  and at others it’s as if Matta is painting with great detail the intracacies of something strangely ethereal and organic. The light in the painting is disperse and the background is devoid of any real feature. When I viewed the painting the first time I’m almost certain that the image gave me the inkling of a human brain. It wasn’t a thought that stayed with me for a very long time, but the idea of a brain did flash briefly in my thoughts…  I’m mentioning this now because after my visit the first thing I did was to do a bit of research on the painting and on Matta. What I discovered was that during the time that Matta had created the painting he was also painting a series known as the “Inscape.” According to a Prof. Claude Cernuschi, “Matta’s key ambition was to represent and evoke the human psyche in visual form filtered through the writings of Freud and the pychoanalytic view of the mind as a three-dimensional space: the ‘inscape.’ My brief thoughts on what I was viewing as being brain-like was not far-off ! I also discovered that Matta is a seminal figure within the surrealist and abstract expressionist movements and was a part of the Andre Breton group of surrealist artists in Paris. Matta had also been a teacher to and influence on many American painters. American painters who were influenced include Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky and Robert Motherwell. In fact, Matta’s influence was so strong that it gave birth to the American Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950’s. Matta instructed American painters on what he termed “Automatic painting.” More on this in a bit…

I’ve thought it interesting that all three major arts – music, literature and painting often if not always mirrored eachother in movements. I suppose this has occurred by virtue of the usual associations one would have an as artist. Artists associate with other artists and ideas are exchanged in an organic fashion. Is this process ocurring today ? I am in doubt. With regards to whom or what influenced Matta, the source of it is found in Spain during the mid 1930’s when Matta befriends the literary giants Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Neruda. Both writers were Surrealists with aims at delivering the unconscious onto paper with language. The theory piqued Matta to such a degree that it entirely steered the direction of his painting from then on. What distinguishes Matta from other Surrealist painters was his unique perspective and method which he called “automatic painting.” It was Matta’s belief that by painting entirely on impulse without any forethought that he would be able to more acurately capture his authentic self or subconscious. This perspective was incredibly novel in the 1930’s. Automatic painting brings to mind a book I read a few years ago on Outsider art. The book suggested that Outsider art and childrens art, both of which come from the percieved perspective of naivete had the power to reach the viewer deeply with a kind of innocent beauty that no other art could. I am in complete agreement. The point I am getting at here is that Matta must have inately understood that by being able to express the subconscious he could get closer to the natural beauty or innocent beauty that we can all recognize at an instant. It is the naked subconscious expressed on canvas that has all the rules on form, line, balance and color without all the schooling. A kind of instant beauty. Of course this is not as easy as I’m making it sound…  it requires either true naivete or training with an immense amount of self control and discipline. It’s an assumption on my part in stating that Matta’s aim had been beauty with regards to his use of automatic painting. What I do know for certain is that Automatic painting was a means by which he felt that he could reflect his subconscious. Does one make art for reasons other than beauty ? Is it the goal of everyone that paints to create something of beauty or do some paint merely as a means to achieve some other knowledge ?

 

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Today, as I ocasionally do; I drove to the Frank Bette Center for the Arts to take a look at a possible new installation. Unfortunately there were no new surprises… some of the same old paintings hung on the wall and absolutely nothing in the back room. Well, to be honest there were some new items, but they were neatly stacked on the floor and not yet hung. The center is getting ready for a new plein art exhibit… it just so happens I got there in-between installations. I did see a rather unusual looking sculpture or rather bust of some unknown figure – it immediately caught my attention… it was odd looking or perhaps even strange looking, but in a very good way.  If your familiar with the 60’s television show “The Addams Family” and recall the character “Uncle Festus” then you’d be fairly accurate in saying you’ve seen the bust too.  The bust was sitting high atop what appeared to be a very tall china cabinet. I wanted to know who it was… was this the bust of a real person ? It didn’t have a name tag or title. As I began to make my way to the exit I ran into the centers director. She said a few things about wanting me to come back and visit again when the paintings were hung. Here was the opportunity to ask about who created the bust and did it represent a real person. The curator told me that the artist was Frank Bette, the centers namesake… she then asked me to wait a few moments. When the curator came back she handed me a small book/catalogue of Frank Bettes creative work. As I flipped through the catalogues pages I found a photograph of the bust with a brief paragraph explaining who the bust was….  it was titled “Curmudgeon”. The short paragraph underneath went on to say that the bust was that of a crabby old railroad man. You be the judge…. the artifacts shown below….                                              

After having come back to this posting a few days later to view the two photos side by side my initial reaction has worn off…  the resemblance I suppose was only in my minds eye.

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The Posey Tunnel by Bertolet

Something I forgot to mention on my last post regarding my visit to the Frank Bette Center for the Arts was a painting by Bertolet of the Posey Tunnel. I like this painting for a number of reasons, but the reason I’ll focus on for the purposes of this short post is the connection between the actual tunnel depicted in the painting and the science fiction movie “THX1138″. Even if your someone that isn’t interested in science fiction as a genre, THX1138 is a film that reaches far beyond the realm of purely intriguing science fiction story. Perhaps when the film was made in 1971 one could have said that it was about our possible future, but today one could only posit that the film is most certainly about what we are beginning to witness at present.  The trick in distinguishing whether or not we are living that Orwellian future now is in the ability to be fully aware of the present. This of course is no easy task if your attention is being pulled by the myriad of distractions guised in the ever colorful robe of entertainment. I don’t want to give too much of the film away, but yes it is deeply rooted in George Orwells dystopian nightmare. The connection between the tunnel and the film is that it was used as the underground location for a chase sequence between androids and a few subjects of the dystopia. 

The tube opened in 1928, it’s quite old looking now and each time I travel through it I’m struck by how something so old has come to represent the budding present. In my mind this piece of architecture stands as a great reminder……  Photographs below: Posey Tube circa 1928 and film still of chase sequence in Posey Tube 1971.

THX1138

Directed by: George Lucas

Screenplay by: George Lucas and Walter Murch

 

1928 Photograph Of Posey Tube

Chase sequence "THX1138"

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