More synths.... same building.

Here are my second series of photosynths depicting Lincoln Cathedral in various states of deconstruction. The synthed photo works remind me of scenes from Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera where architectures is divided by trick cinema photography

Some of these examples look cubist, but there is an element of dynamism that we would see in futurism. The above image is too extremely distorted and splayed for my purposes. However, some elements of the juxtaposition are quite interesting. This software does come up with some very odd combinations.

 

The above start to look like a fusion of medieval  architectecture and constructivism: Matta-Clark as a medieval anarchist perhaps or Protestand reformer. from the days of the Reformation.

A Medieval Malevich?

Cezanne's Studio

Above is a photograph of Cézanne's studio in Aix-en-Provence is described by Robert Hughes as "one of the sacred places of the modern mind, a reliquary" (Hughes, R. 1991 p.124).

In 1906, just before he died Cézanne wrote a letter to his son:

"I must tell you that as a painter I am becoming more clear-sighted before nature . . .
Here on the bank of the river the motifs multiply, the same subject seen from a different angle offers
subject for study for the most powerful interest for months without changing place, by turning now
more to the right, now more to the left" (Rewald, 1995, p. 327).

On the 21st August 1906 he wrote a letter to Emile Bernard:

"Now, being  old, nearly 70 years, the sensations of colour, which give the light, are for me the reason for the abstractions which do not allow me to cover my canvas entirely nor to pursue the delimitation of the objects where their points of contact are fine and delicate; from which it results that my image or picture is incomplete"  (Harrison and Wood, 2001 p.39)

Sources:

Harrison, C., and Wood, P., Art in Theory 1900-1990 Oxford: Blackwells.

Hughes, R., The Shock of the New London: Thames and Hudson

Rewald, John (ed. 1995), Paul Cézanne, Letters New York: Da Capo Press.

Cezanne

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire 1885-7

The more I look at the new photographic joiners I have produced recently, the more Cezanne is called to mind. I have already discussed cubism and Cezanne, has be rarely referred to, apart from during a discussion of Diebenkorn. “Cezanne is famous for saying that any idiot can make deep space” Gilbert-Rolfe reminds us, and “that it is already deep”. The task then “of the artist is to carve out that space- an oxymoron that exactly describes Cezanne’s general practice” (Gilbert-Rolfe, 1995 p. 91).  Although the strategy of the photo-joiners seems radically different from the aims and ambitions of the first project, the formal qualities of the photographic pieces seem similar to some of Cezanne’s pieces. Cezanne’s aims have some similarities to my own. Cezanne according to Norbert Lynton “spoke as though painting were a desperately difficult matter of capturing ‘little’ sensations’ and disposing them on a surface, not to imitate nature so much as to construct an image that would be ‘parallel to nature’” (Lynton, 2003 p.23). Unlike Impressionism Cezanne’s art “is not concerned with light” (Lynton, 2003 p.23). Cezanne’s attention is on “capturing the subjects before him to show their physical presence and also the spatial relationships and tensions between them” (Lynton, 2003 p.23).

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire 1904-6.

The emphasis “was on seeing” (Lynton, 2003 p.23) and I wondered whether this was fully the case with my own work. So, Cezanne avoids the mere “retinal scanning of the Impressionists” and engages “with the complex process by which we relate ourselves to the work physically and spiritually” (Lynton, 2003 p.23).

Cezanne’s work is a recording of forms through the juxtaposition of small planes or facets. Like Cubism it is a mosaic of experiences. A lot of abstract art emerges from Cezanne, but Cezanne can never be the father of abstraction. What Cezanne gives us however is “a process of seeing” (Hughes, 1991 p.18). The critic Barbara Rose is quoted as saying in a different context, the statement; “This is what I see” , is replaced by the question: “Is this what I see?” (Hughes, 1991 p.18). What we see in a Cezanne is a record of hesitation and doubt. 

Sources:

Gilbert-Rolfe, J. (1995) Beyond Piety: Critical Essays on the Visual Arts 1986-1993, New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hudson, J., (2010) "Richard Diebenkorn"

http://digitalimagingandphotography.blogspot.com/2010/02/richard-diebenkorn.html

Hudson, J., (2010) "Diebenkorn and Cezanne" 

http://digitalimagingandphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/diebenkorn-and-cezanne.html

Hughes, R., (1991) The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change London: Thames and Hudson

Lynton, N., (2003) The Story of Modern Art London: Phaidon

  

New Synths

 Here are some new experimental Photosynths using 250 photographs of Lincoln Cathedral.

The first looks like a great medieval city, a utopian dream.

This one looks like a Medieval replay of a cubist composition.

Jayne Jones: New work and New Exhibition 'Material Matters" 22 June-30 July, 2011

 Jayne Jones - Our greater Scheme for Happness - Mixed Media on Canvas - Size 90cm x 90cm

The artist Jayne Jones has a new show of abstract paintings at the Duckett & Jeffrys Gallery in Malton from the 22nd June until 30th July. I have watched her style and approach develop from the early-mid nineties from mixed media/collage  to  acrylic and oil, to  industrial paint. These works featured here are produced using mixed media; oil pigment, industrial paint and resin.

 Jayne Jones - Where Effort & Form Disappear - Mixed Media on Canvas - Size 400cm x 210cm

In the essay "Experiments in Painting"  by David Sweet he states that Jayne's interest in experimentation "stems from her interest in material processes that involve chance and unpredictable outcomes" (Sweet, D, ND).

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea (1952)

Alpha-Pi, 1960
Morris Louis (American, 1912–1962)
Acrylic on canvas

102 1/2 x 177 in. (260.4 x 449.6 cm)

Puddle Painting: Mars Black
Ian Davenport 2009
40 1/2 x 31 in / 103 x 79 cm
acrylic paint on aluminium, mounted on aluminium panel

This is what was said of her work at the James Freeman Gallery: "while her practice is strongly indebted to important figures in abstraction such as Ian Davenport and Morris Louis, Jayne Jones articulates these references with a very feminine, and sometimes sensual, undercurrent that makes her work distinctive – many of the more figurative suggestions that seem to randomly appear as a result of her process seems to cohere around ideas of womanhood, which in turn makes an initially impersonal approach to painting seem extremely personal and private. In this respect her work contributes to the cannon of process painting, which is a result of her sustained commitment to experimentation and exploration in the medium".

Is her work closer then to the colour field painting of say Helen Frankenthaler?

Duckett & Jeffreys Gallery

2 Old Maltongate

Malton

YO17 7EG

http://www.duckettandjeffreys.com/

Tatlin

Many of the shapes that photography is forced into by Photosynthing recalls the abstraction of constructivism. Featured here is a  Tatlin, or at least a reconstruction by Martyn Chalk. The work is Corner Relief from 1915. The reconstruction was made in 1982 (there may be more than one reconstruction of this particular sculpture as I have seen one dated 1979 and another 1980). Is not the title Corner Counter-Relief, a term that Talin adopted in 1914, "as if to signal a dialectical advance in his constructions since they extended from the wall" to act as a "counter" to architecture, painting and sculpture (Foster et.al, 2004 p. 127).

 Tatlin's work was informed by Picasso's cubist collages and sculptures and constructions. Tatlin would use  "proletariat stuff of the workshop- wood, scraps of iron and copper, wire and rope, string and nails" ( Weston, R., 1996 p. 146).

Sources:

Foster et.al, (2004) Art Since 1900, London: Thames and Hudson

Weston, R., (1996) Modernism London: Phaidon.

Dave Whatt: 2

Hi all,

The website listed in his bog entry from 7 June 2010 is incorrect. His MySpace pages seemed to have vanished.

I am currently following his daily blog at http://davewhatt.wordpress.com/. His music is available on his Soundcloud.


He is also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/DaveWhatt