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| "Presentation" (one of my favorites of her work). |
Expressionism is terrifying to me.
But I want to know everything about it.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Expressionism?
Expressionism to me is the release of forbidden feelings. We, as people, keep dark, morbid, and depressing things to ourselves for the most part, and I think that expressionists use either painting, film, dance, theatre, etc. to lighten their souls. And truthfully, most anything that is expressionist looks like it came out the depths of hell. Expressionism is this dark and cruel experience that makes you feel things and emotions that you probably haven't felt, and definitely don't like. To be honest, this art movement does scare me a bit, but more than that, it intrigues me. I can't help but want to know more about it, to find more expressionist pieces from when the movement originated and modern examples. And as I was thinking about this, I remembered, Dana Schutz.
A little while back, I went up to visit my brother at Purchase and decided to go visit the museum on campus, The Neuberger. Upon walking in, I found that the museum had a collection of her work on display. Trust me, seeing her work on display is enough to make anyone turn back around and leave immediately. And honestly, I almost did just that. But something about her sucked me in, to look at everything there. I did just that. All of her work has the same grotesque quality to it, and everything I saw was horrific. Stunningly morbid, depressing, and terrifying. Yet like anything that has these qualities, I just couldn't stop looking at these. I think that this piece, as with any by her is expressionist. She brings feelings of exposure and nakedness mixed with death into this and it's wild.
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I love the Dana Schultz piece you posted up. I think you'll really like the work of Max Beckmann, to whom Schultz quite obviously owes a lot. Look him up - you will like it.
ReplyDeleteNow, you find it terrifying and yet beguiling, this expressionism. I connect this to your first sentence, " Expressionism to me is the release of forbidden feelings," and I cannot help but wonder what it is that you are forbidding yourself to release. Not that that is any of my business, but the depth of an artist comes from the awful stuff that can only be leaked out, that we cannot face head on, that we wouldn't have the world look at unless it was disguised quite a bit. This all reminds me of David Bowie in the early 70's, when he was grappling with his apparent homosexuality, and it was coming out in his art all sideways and bent, but it resulted in some amazing works, or when John Lennon, in an attempt to confess an extra-marital affair, wrote the beautiful and elliptical "Norwegian Wood."
Saying that which we are loath to speak with our mouths. That is art.
Ponder this.