justin mortimer

Adrian Ghenie

The Existential vs. the Absurd

 Pictured: Sisyphus (1548-1549) by Titan

                                            The Existential vs. the Absurd 

                                   The Aesthetics of Nietzsche and Camus

The following Link will take you to an academic paper that is well worth the effort to get your hands on, whether through the proper licensing or a jstor account access to this document will allow for a brilliant resource on the understanding of Absurd & Existential Aesthetics of Art.

The document that is linked below discuss the various aspects in depth, that make up the Aesthetics of Existentialism & The Absurd both in specific regard to their pioneers, Nietzsche & Camus. The study of these specific philosophers and their contributions to these fields fit extremely well with my own conceptual handling of works in literature, art and film.

I recommend reading this essay, the conclusion of which fits nicely in furthering our understanding of how these philosophical benchmarks have effected our current context, the post-modern world.

"An artist...  if he can tell himself that, finally, as a result of his long effort, he has eased or decreased the various forms of bondage weighing upon men, then in a sense he is justified...."
-Albert Camus

"The profound Greek, so uniquely susceptible to the subtlest and deepest sufferings ... was saved by art, and through art life reclaimed him...." 
- Friedrich Nietzsche

 Follow This Link:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/428426

Before Radar, We We're Quite Deaf...

The Failed Inventions of A Desperate Situation

The Image above was taken during a period where radar technology was yet to be invented & airplane's ruled the sky's. In a desperate attempt to combat this threat and weakness in the worlds military at the time many inventors took to the labs to find some answer. From this came obscure, cumbersome and failed but all interesting inventions, machines of war that looked more like humorous prop than a potential answer to disaster. As this period came to an end and radar was invented and various other devices to combat the problem we are left with these strange, forgotten images of inventions now mostly lost that seem completely surreal and out of context to any situation, especially that of wartime.

These images leave behind an absurd theme of mankind struggling to perceive or understand this danger beyond their natural sensory ability to the point that science and the government are grabbing at strings, in some a vein attempt for survival.

"Jean Auscher's maritime acoustic locator: 1960.

This remarkable headgear was invented by Frenchman Jean Auscher as an acoustic navigation device in case of radar failure on small vessels. Shown at the 1960 Brussels Inventor's Fair, and, one suspects, nowhere else ever again. "

^ Refrence

<http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/ear/ear.htm>

Modernist Painting - flattness

Greenebrg discussed the limitations of painting as a medium in much of his writing. It was the Old Masters who, according to him, struggled for centuries to break free from these limitations and create a depth of perspective in their work. Modern painters, however, have embraced such limitations. He wrote, "The enclosing shape of the picture was a limiting condition, or norm that was shared with the art of the theater; color was a norm and a means shared not only with the theater, but also with sculpture. Because flatness was the only condition painting shared with no other art, Modernist painting oriented itself to flatness as it did to nothing else." In other words, Greenberg pointed out that art of the theater or that of sculpture is, by their very nature, three-dimensional forms. Painting, however, is applied to a natural two-dimensional surface, and modern artists had begun to embrace that nature rather than trying to defy it.

Modern Art : The Story

Pop Art As A Cultural Movement

Pop

Start reneging with politics , social issues , and most importantly the everyday via the Street.

Pop as a Strategy against politics and capitalism. This can be understood as a reaction against the austere political agenda behind Abex movement and painter such as Pollock.

Return to freedom , what is the 'art of freedom.'

was quoted as saying 'why not just make a reproduction' , when asked of what he thought of the Mona Lisa being brought over to America from Paris for an exorbitant amount of money.

Individual has to be free to revolt.

Partly a revolutionary art.

Reengage with lo culture through images of the everyday.

<Image: Warhol - Brillo Boxes, 1969>

ABEX - excerpt from Eva Cockroft's 'Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of the COld War'.

The functions of both CIA’s undercover aid operations and The Stoof’s international programs were similar. Freed from the kinds of pressure of unsubtle red-baiting and hyper-jingoism applied to official governmental agencies, CIA and Stoof projects could instead provide the well-funded and more persuasive arguments and exhibits needed to sell the rest of the world on the benefits of life and art under capitalism.

In the world of art, Abstract Expressionism constituted the ideal style for these propaganda activities. It was the perfect contrast to the regimented, traditional, and narrow nature of socialist realism.

It was new, fresh, and creative. Artistically avant-garde and original, Abstract Expressionism could show the United States as culturally up-to-date in competition with Paris. This was possible because Jackson Pollock, as well as most of the other avant-garde American artists, had left behind earlier interest in political activism. On the one hand, the youthful political flirtations of some of the Abstract Expressionists was a liability in terms of gaining congressional approval for government-sponsored cultural projects. On the other, from a cold warrior’s point of view, such linkages to controversial political activities might actually heighten the value of these artists as a propaganda weapon in demonstrating the virtues of freedom of expression in an open and free society.

Heralded as America’s artistic coming of age, Abstract Expressionist painting was exported abroad almost from the beginning. Willem de Kooning’s work was included in the U.S. representation at the Venice Biennale as early as 1948. By 1950, he was joined by Arshile Gorky and Pollock. The U.S. representation at the Biennales in São Paulo, beginning in 1951, averaged three Abstract Expressionists per show. They were also represented at international shows in Venezuela, India, and Japan.


<< image - Pollock, J. Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952, 1952, 212.09 x 488.95 cm, enamel and aluminium paint with glass on canvas. National Galleries Australia. >>