A FEW GENERAL THOUGHTS ABOUT ART.
Many people have tried to pin down what exactly art is. The most ancient definition sees in art perfection of skill and technique. In the Renaissance, perspective was invented and painters would work more and more neatly, accurately, naturalistically and illusionistically. At some point, humankind noticed that reproducing nature perfectly could not be the summit of art.
Abstraction is the key to art. Abstraction has finally enabled artists to soak up their surroundings and to sublime their impression of reality. This was the day art escaped from realism and naturalism, and finally gained liberty and autonomy. Since modern art, beginning with Van Gogh and Cézanne, artworks have altered in their appearances (as well as their approaches). Mediums of art have expanded to infinity. Two personalities, who I admire very much, in the history of art, have contributed to this notion significantly: Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol. They both have taken the opportunity to widen the boundaries of art. Concerning these artists, ready-mades are very important. These neglect every kind of skill and artistic education. All they have is content or to speak in art philosopher A.C. Danto’s words: aboutness.
I consider the invention of ready-mades the biggest caesura in art. It finally waived all questions about the heritage of an artwork and concentrated on what is behind a piece of art. In this moment, art became as free as it could be, because it could have any shape or ingredients. Artworks were no longer dependant on what they appear to be – they were unleashed from perception. Ready-mades were not about being but about representing.
The step that art does not need to be tied to objects anymore opened a whole range of new opportunities: it created genres like concept art, performance, environments and media art. In short: it legitimated abstraction in form and content.
A FEW PERSONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT ART.
From my point of view, this development has emphasized the content of an artwork much more than its form. This led me to the conclusion that truly great art does not unfold by simply looking spectacular, but by having a matter – for instance by raising a question and trying to conclude it. Max Ernst wrote: “Art has absolutely nothing to do with taste.” I agree with him completely because I condemn judgments of art based upon nothing but visual pleasure.
Nevertheless, I also admire abstract expressionists like Pollock or De Kooning who do not worry about content but who do art only for expression’s sake. That is because in their works expres-sion becomes the matter and pushes aside pure visual ingratiation.
Concerning my own art, I focus on the content first. I search for an idea to work on. Then I try to objectify this certain idea. I concretize and exemplify my abstract thoughts.
To raise a question is what I intend when I produce art. Here, I try to engage with very fundamental (ontological) questions that might shake up one’s world view. However I do not necessarily conclude these questions. This is in order to involve the viewer and animate him to develop his own thoughts on that issue. My motivation for doing such art is that I think art is most valuable where it escapes from canvases and settles in people’s minds – and art is certainly most efficient where it changes minds.
I try to evoke this critical momentum described above by a contrast. In good a picture, there has to be a contrast. It is the struggle, the contradictoriness, which makes an artwork interesting to me.
The contrast I use mostly is focused on the What (meaning what the object really is; neglecting phenomenal perception) of the artwork’s ingredients, rather than how they appear. The What of the objects in my artworks are very often contradictory and meant to induce this mental (or philosophical) contrast.
In one sentence: I do not want my works to be simply beautiful but to let cognition work on the recipient. This is, after all, what art means to me: the greatest freedom one can enjoy is mental – and art is the elevator to that stage.
