/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[Anonymous No.3691675]

What does /ic/ think of contemporary painters?

I personally love the work of Victor Zayas, but i'm bothered at how some contemporary painters can both make marvelous, beautiful work (see Ronnie Landfield. His "For William Blake" is beautiful, despite all else) while the rest of their work is pure meaningless jackshit.

[Anonymous No.3691699]

>>3691675
I think it's too difficult for anyone to escape the echo chamber in the modern era to do anything truly outstanding.

[Anonymous No.3691831]

>>3691699
What kind of echo chamber do you mean?

[Anonymous No.3691845]

>>3691831
Not him but I definitely feel stifled by the endless influx of (often excellent) art and media, and the instantaneous "lol gay" "omg so gr8" of social media.

It takes constant effort and discipline to escape the cacophany of human noise and practice anything--visual art, music, or writing. Especially if you need to work a job for a living.

[Anonymous No.3691971]

>>3691845
>It takes constant effort and discipline to escape the cacophany of human noise and practice

You're absolutely right

[Anonymous No.3692063]

>>3691971
In the past, you would eventually run out of books you'd like to read. TV would be reruns and trash for most of the day. Your friends wouldn't want to hang out all day every day...

Now there is more TV and movies and porn and online pseudo-socialization available than any person could ever consume. Every moment of spare time can be filled with "entertainment" optimized by thousands of experts working around the clock to keep you glued to the screen.

It's hard to acknowledge one's own weakness to temptation, but it's like being a fatty and passing by a "free ice cream and pizza buffet" on your way to the gym every day. No matter how strong your will, eventually you'll take a taste. And most of us will gorge ourselves once in a while.

I think that even if I withdrew to a shack in the wilderness, my mind would still be twisted for years.

[Anonymous No.3692156]

>>3692063
You're absolutely right, and I've seen from other people in artistic depression, we will often sink into sedation and oversaturation. Yes, you have to train willpower, but also see "entertainment" and social media for what it is; white noise and emotional vacuum.
Just like food addiction you have to cut immediately and try to understand the mechanics the thing you're addicted to, to get off it.

[Anonymous No.3692626]

>>3691675
I want to become a great artist but I don't want to be poor.

[Anonymous No.3692683]

>>3691675

(assuming what you mean by contemporary painters = painters who exhibit in contemporary art galleries):

Most of ic isn't willing to engage with
contemporary painting. Paintings which don't flex traditional technique/'fundementals' are dismissed as 'pseudo conceptual bs'.

/ic/ values tradition and technique more than it values experimentation (which is the hallmark of contemporary painting). And thats fine, contemporary painting/art isn't for everyone.

[Anonymous No.3692702]

>>3692683
I’d say that there are still contemporary painters who utilize fundamentals or exhibit some level of appeal to traditional painting techniques while also innovating. Phil Hale comes to mind and I think he’s probably the most popular. There’s also that abstract realism (idk if that’s the correct term) style that people like Benjamin Bjorkland and Nick Runge use. But yeah I agree with you, /ic/ is mostly about commercial art so the discussion is heavily skewed toward concept art and porn commissions since that’s what brings in the dough. Even discussions on comic books or web comics are pretty limited here.

[Anonymous No.3693067]

>>3692063
Yes, you're right. No normal, functioning human can truly escape this iron cage of modern entertainment; I say that with enough confidence because the artists, philosophers and writers of our time all have some sort of disorder - psychological or not - that allowed them to shut their senses and focus inward.

Proust's In Search of Lost Time deals with that. The main character explores all mediums of distraction, be it societal, sexual, egotistical, etc, only to at a late age discover that true success in life can only be achieved when you abandon these pleasures. If at his time, the beginning of the 20th century, it was so tough, we're going to need supernatural force to achieve anything in the future.

[Anonymous No.3693072]

>>3691675
Well, can be really good, when the painter understands what he's doing.

[Anonymous No.3693085]

>>3692683
Yeah, /ic/ is definitely not interested in art, only commercial drawings. I hate saying "commercial art" because it is contradictory, art deals with beauty and beauty alone.

On the topic of contemporary painting, I understand why some people are so reticent on it. It's literally an industry. We have established painters who vomit art daily and make millions out of it, when in fact the only thing they're selling is the name; If they weren't famous and recognized, their "art" would be labeled as pretentious, and the artist, a dilettante.

The second problem is the art itself. Most of it, I dare say more than 90 percent, is pure nonsense. The most famous and respected painting of my country is called Abaporu, pic related. The painter, when asked about its meaning, said "After a thunderous sleep filled with nightmares, I woke up, and in a frenzy I painted it. I had no idea what I was doing, I just knew that it had to be done". The following day, the painter brought it to her husband so he could figure out the meaning of the painting. Baffled, he called a friend and they spent a whole day trying to find out what this piece meant. When they did, they pronounced that it was the portrait of the brazillian working man, its small head symbolizing the lack of critical thought, the big extremities symbolizing the hard working aspect, the posture meaning the connection with the mother earth, etc etc.

I'm perfectly aware that the Abaporu is not contemporary, but it is still the most exact definition of what art is to our contemporary culture.

[Anonymous No.3693766]

>>3693085
You make a perfect illustration for the hunger after meaning in todays art world. Without context, this painting would mean little to nothing to me, the story - which is still wonderful for the people involved - is too subjective and I wouldn't even come up with the idea because the painting doesn't attract my attention. The painting still doesn't mean anything to me desu, but I'm not arrogant to say that everyone shares my aesthetic. A taste I don't share and that's that.
But I agree, the industry is shit and it's always the same couple of people, made of a structure resembling a political one, who decide what hangs on the walls and what won't. That's just how it is now. There's no diversity in it which makes it al very onesided and hollow a lot of the time.
Still, we're lucky being the first generation of artists to be able to share and sell our work to people all over the world, our ability to network has spread immensely, so there's that.

[Anonymous No.3693774]

>>3693067
Thank you for this post. I feel fucking insane because I’m completely content by myself, living in my own little art world of discovery and self exploration. I will definitely check that book out.

[Anonymous No.3694420]

>>3693085
Interesting take

I certainly don't hate that painting, but I would probably hate the tastemakers who elevated it to the status of a national treasure.

I think fine art paintings will always be a commodity for the wealthy; it's a medium that produces a one of a kind object over the course of many hours, and usually requires years of training/practice. By necessity, it requires a patron with some dough (if you are painting in Italy in 1600, you will have to paint some angels if you want to make a living, or even have your work displayed somewhere besides your garage).

So perhaps it isn't that art or artists are broken, but that our wealthy elites are broken. They have no taste, and don't even pay lip service to a spiritual creed (aside from whatever progressive dogma is trending this year). They don't even care to surround themselves with crass baroque opulence, because they wish to present themselves as average joes just doing the will of the people.

[Anonymous No.3696419]

Bump

[Anonymous No.3696434]

>>3691675
I like painting.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/neue-wilde

[Anonymous No.3696440]

>>3694420
I really like this.
You know how you go along and have thoughts/ come to conclusions but never put them into words that focus them for the mind to see clearly?
Well you just did on this point.
Thank you sir.

[Anonymous No.3698140]

>>3694420
I understand your point regarding the painting, but I do hate it because, in my vision, it marks the birth and evolution of a culture of ignorance led by fools. When we analyze a work of art, very obviously the object being analyzed is the work itself; the effect of the painting (such as in Impressionism, where the focus is on the effect created) is merely and only a symptom of the tools and techniques used in the making.

The very same painting can cause many different effects on each viewer, but the artistic element can be reduced to a single point or fact of the work itself. When many viewers have very distinct, or even absurd, interpretations of a single canvas, most likely the painter failed. When there is no common place of opinion regarding a work of art, analyzing it would be no different than analyzing the viewer's mind. A painting that allows the observer's thoughts to wander aimlessly is not 'creative' nor 'though-provoking', it's bland, and it's empty. That is why the Abaporu is not only bad, it lacks beauty, it lacks focus, it lacks harmony, it is the most awful symbol of modern art.

[Anonymous No.3698150]

Is Zdzislaw Beksinski contemporary? I'm not a huge art person, I just like to draw, but I really like the aesthetics of his work. Pretty shallow perspective but I don't know how to gain anything deeper.

[Anonymous No.3698171]

>>3694420
I also agree perfectly with your view of our wealthy elites. Function surpassed beauty, and modern art is no more important than wallpaper when decorating a house.

However, true artists have always lived and trived in obscurity. Prudhomme won the Nobel of literature that was denied to Tolstoy, and no one reads Prudhomme anymore. Proust had his books denied by almost every french publisher, forcing him to self-publish and remain unknown for long after his death, while Balzac remained the epitome of french literature for more than a century. I'd say that the modern, capitalistic culture and way of life enforced more than ever that art is no more than a tradeable object, but we have been living in this culture for decades now and we still have not found our so-waited "artists of obscurity", whom I dare say simply do not exist.

[Anonymous No.3698177]

>>3698150
Of course, Beksinski is great. There is always an eerie feeling to his colors and sceneries, a sort of mystic, melancholic view of reality.

I recommend you watch this documentary to have a good start on aesthetics: https://youtu.be/bHw4MMEnmpc

[Anonymous No.3698227]

>>3693085
>art deals with beauty and beauty alone.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Anonymous No.3701205]

Bump