Painting After Art is Dead

Tom Nichols, writer for the Atlantic, is as a child of the 1960s, and he says in a recent newsletter article titled “The Lies Nostalgia Tells Us“* that “those days weren’t better—but in one way, they were sweeter.” *There is a pay wall for this link to the article (unless you’re a subscriber), but if you are an Apple News subscriber, this link will open it for you. I find Tom interesting (I am a more-left-than-center progressive, yes I made that up) because he is as far to the right as I can handle, frankly. Something about perspective. Also he absolutely rails on MAGA world which, given his facility with writing, is delish. Anyway, about this recent newsletter on the topic of nostalgia. tldr; he explains what he means by talking about childhood memories that are sweet. As a child of the 1980s, I get that- it’s a sort of un-complicated-ness (because childhood, duh).

I was reminded when reading that word- nostalgia- of a blog I wrote almost a year ago about the topic of color. I also touched on the idea of nostalgia in that piece (pin) because I was beginning to explore an interest in the parallels between the cultural moment of the 2020s and late modernism (which I developed a little more at the end of that year). To summarize, I teach my students that Modernism can generally be understood as a reaction to Classicism, and a belief that a re-imagining of human culture was necessary and imminent. Very simplified of course. On to that pin = the specific reference to nostalgia was this Jonathan Stevenson essay at Two Coats in which he discusses how nostalgia that’s basic (yes I mean it that way) romanticism is the “dumb” variety. Not the same message as Tom and also parallel.

Yes I got to “and”! It just comes up all the time. “Yes” Tom and I have tender memories of childhood, and, it’s a lie to believe that time in our history was better. Same thing for Modernism- yes it was necessary change and the idea of universal human worth is great, and… it sure wasn’t a clean break from misogyny, racism and classism either.

Also, I gotta say, it’s pretty wild to read that I wrote, basically, “hey our situation today is sort of like the Modernists in that nothing about the old way of doing things works anymore” a year ago and wonder at how different things are in the US and the world one year later. Wow.

The ground I’m covering lately, with the new, square paintings on glass is somewhat familiar.

After taking a break from grad school in 2000, I began to make sketches in MS Paint that eventually turned into paintings. At the time these were a reaction to what I saw as an over-seriousness about being cool (a contradiction yes and at the time one I was not ready to receive) which I felt was a prominent theme among the abstractionists that were getting lots of shine in Houston and nationally at the time (my artists statement was, roughly, “yeah, video games and Saturday morning cartoons baby!”).

While my newer work intends to have a more direct line to Albers, as I’ve written, the earlier work above was a nod in the direction of Richard Anuskiewicz (for whom the former was a mentor). Both shared a quite well established interest in color theory, and also in perception. In addition to this relationship between bodies of work, I also hope to soon be in need* of a different strategy for production in my practice that looks more like this earlier body of work, which mirrored Richard’s approach to making (heavy emphasis on planning to make production easier in the sense of being straightforward). Organizing my work flow into “bites” that I can chomp off as time allows will be necessary. There will be time for free-form creativity.

*More to come, suffice to say, life is in flux. Also, I am grateful to have this be the challenge I need to solve (verses so many others which could be my lot).