New Painting

At the end of my previous post, I mentioned that I would like to discuss a little bit in detail the artistic process of Wade Guyton, one of the six contemporary artists who were a part of the Oranges and Sardines exhibition at the Hammer Museum. To be honest, I had never seen any of Guyton’s works (even through reproductions) previous to seeing one of his pieces in the exhibition, although I had heard about his unique artistic practice. Thus, I will admit that I am no Wade Guyton expert. However, I think that I know enough to discuss his artistic process in relation to the main issues raised in this blog.

To reiterate from the end of the previous post, Wade Guyton makes paintings. Yet, he doesn’t use paints. Instead, he creates his works by jamming linen, canvas, and other material through commercial inkjet printers. Specifically, his works explore aspects of mechanical reproduction and error by using these inkjet printers to make abstractions, as the printers create various drips, smears, and skips on the linen as they are pushed to their physical limits, causing them to literally break in some instances. The sources of the imagery that are printed onto the linen, of course, are digital—a mixture of scanned drawings and printed material are abstracted and made into single images as the printers struggle to print the imagery onto the material that are not meant to be running through them.

Wade Guyton, Untitlied, 2005, inkjet on linen, 65 X 38 in

In the Oranges and Sardines exhibition pamphlet, Guyton says about his artistic process: “I make paintings, but I don’t think of myself as a painter…. It came from being interested in everything else in a way—sculpture, conceptual art, photography, and then drawing. In the beginning, when I started making art, all the artists I was interested in were involved with the manipulation of language or the malleability of the categories of art. There was a freedom in this way of thinking. There was a space where objects could be speculative.” Here Guyton talks about the “malleability of the categories of art.” It is of notable significance that, particularly over the last few decades, the categories of art have become much less distinct and clear-cut. It is arguable that art as a whole as grown into an experimental genre of sorts, with many of the subgenres overlapping more and more over time. Undeniably the advent of new digital technologies, among other developments, has had a notable impact on this.

People who are not all too familiar with the contemporary art world (and perhaps even some of those who are) would probably hesitate to consider Wade Guyton’s works as “paintings.” After all, even the dictionary defines painting as a “graphic art consisting of an artistic composition made by applying paints to a surface”—and everybody is inclined to believe the dictionary. However, we must acknowledge that in the past, definitions and parameters pertaining to an assortment of practices have changed in accordance to new developments. For instance, the dictionary defines the classic definition of photography as “the art or process of producing images of objects on photosensitive surfaces”—and similar definitions come up as the first-listed definition for photography in various dictionaries. Yet how many people would actually deny that the process of capturing images through a digital camera and printing them through an inkjet printer qualifies as photography? In digital photography, neither film nor photosensitive papers are used, yet it is universally accepted as photography. Essentially, with paintings such as those of Wade Guyton, things are no different. We must simply realize that new technologies have brought with them new methods of painting, and we must accept them for what they are, whether we like them or not. And in this sense, new technologies have certainly opened up the doors for much more exploration and experimentation within the fine and/or traditional arts, proving that such media are still extremely relevant in today’s culture.

A Short Art Review + Some Thoughts: Oranges and Sardines at the Hammer

Today, I visited the Hammer Museum in West Los Angeles to see the exhibition entitled Oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting, which opened just under a week ago on November 9, and will be on show until February 8, 2009. For this show, six “hot” contemporary painters have each been asked by the curator to select one or two of their own recent paintings to be shown along with works by other artists who have had a significant impact on their own art-making processes. In this sense, it is perhaps quite different from the typical art exhibition, as it shows both historical work and contemporary work within the same context. The six contemporary artists on exhibit are Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilmann, Amy Sillman, Charline Von Heyl, and Christopher Wool, while the artists selected as influences range from painters of the early twentieth century such as Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian to more contemporary artists such as Sherrie Levine and William de Kooning.

Despite the fact that the exhibition has been given the subtitle Conversations on Abstract Painting, the six contemporary artists participating in Oranges and Sardines have chosen a range of various works to show alongside their own, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. In visiting the show, it was interesting to see the different works that these contemporary painters have outwardly chosen to show as having a great impact on their thinking and development of their own work. Seeing work that was both familiar and unfamiliar to me, it became somewhat of a game to connect the dots between the works of the contemporary painters and the supposed influential works—to try to see the specific ways in which each of the selected works perhaps influenced the exhibited works of the six contemporary painters. Sometimes trying to connect these dots was not so easy, as the ideas and thought processes behind each of the works don’t necessarily show through in an obvious fashion. However, I personally did not see a problem with this, as abstract works are often difficult to “get” in general. On the other hand, I have the feeling that the wide variety and diversity of art chosen by each of the artists showed to me why abstract painting is still very relevant to the contemporary art scene today—there are still many territories within the abstract art genre that can benefit from further exploration and experimentation, as the six artists from the exhibition demonstrate through their work.

So what does this exhibition have to do with the main subject of my blog—technology and its effect on art? Well perhaps nothing directly. However, as many perhaps already know, abstract art as a genre of artwork emerged about one hundred years ago as a shift a way from representational work. Artists no longer felt the need to be attached to a literal visual description of objects and images from out in the world, and thus allowed themselves to explore a wider range of visual expression, entering into realms untouched by artists of the past. One of the many various factors that led to this shift away from representation and toward abstraction was the development of new technologies, particularly photography, which in many instances devalued the act of reproducing realistic images through painting. In this sense, abstract artwork is a product of technological progress.

…And it very much continues to be so, as art in general is always highly influenced by the various developments that are occurring in the greater world. With our society’s increasing fascination with digital technology, more and more artists are moving into the digital realm to create their works. This applies more so to commercial artists and graphic designers than to fine artists, but there are also plenty of fine artists working in digital media, experimenting with and exploring new methods of art-making. So then, what does it mean for a fine artist to continue working in traditional media, rather than shifting to digital media with the rest of the crowd? Well, for one thing, as I have already mentioned in a couple of past postings, there are some qualities and sensibilities embedded in traditional art forms that can never be recreated through digital means. For example, the texture and quality of paint applied to the canvas cannot (at least at this point in time) be replicated through a computer screen or a standard ink jet print. Thus, going through the physical labor of creating a full-scale image on a large canvas comes to have an even greater meaning than it perhaps had before the explosion of digital culture. Issues of labor and experimentation are always highly relevant to the art-making process and the final output, and as mentioned earlier in this post, for an artist to continue engaging with traditional means of art-making indicates that there are still many territories left to explore within the realms of traditional media.

Abstract painting in particular has always proven to be an experimental genre within the fine arts, and it is interesting to note that the definition as to what constitutes “painting” is still constantly being refined today—as can be seen especially through the work of Wade Guyton in Oranges and Sardines, who actually embraces the use of digital technology within his work, yet continues to identify his works with the genre of traditional painting. Since I feel that Guyton’s works are highly relevant to the subject of this blog, I would like to spend the next post discussing in detail his artistic process in relation to traditional and digital art forms.

Simple is Best? Traditional Animation Today

Ever since the massive success of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995, animated films have gradually moved further and further away from traditional, hand-drawn methods of animation towards the use of computer-generated imagery, or CGI. While some animated feature films have attempted to preserve the traditional element by complimenting hand-drawn elements with CGI, most have come to be produced entirely through CGI methods, with the ratio of the former to the latter becoming smaller and smaller over time and with entirely hand-animated films becoming virtually non-existent. Perhaps this is inevitable, for how many people have even heard of Disney’s Brother Bear or Home on the Range (Disney’s most recent traditionally animated films) as compared to Pixar’s films, the Shrek films, or even Disney’s own CGI film Chicken Little? The public’s infatuation with these newer methods of animation have led many animation studios to focus solely on CGI-based films,... but will this always be the case? I don’t think so, or, at least, I hope not. CGI has certainly opened the doors to many new possiblities in animation, but it surely has not produced an alternative to replace the more traditional forms, as these two methods for animation truly are two separate media, much in the way that photography and painting are two separate media for art-making.

In July 2008, Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli released its latest animated film, Gake no Ue no Ponyo (English translation: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), written and directed by filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, one of the most famed animators and film directors in Japanese history. (Anime fans outside of Japan are sure to be familiar with Miyazaki’s name, and perhaps even those who aren’t anime fans may be somewhat familiar, as it was not too long ago that his film Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.) Miyazaki’s films have always maintained the traditional animation technique, but ever since the 1997 film Princess Mononoke, CGI has been employed in some form or another in order to give the films “a little boost of elegance.” Interestingly, most if not all Japanese animators have resisted making the switch to completely CGI-based animation in the way that American animators have, perhaps largely because of the differing needs and wants of their primary audiences. However, virtually none of these animators have stuck solely to traditional animation techniques, as they have all strived to add this “boost of elegance” into their films. However, in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli have made a complete return to hand-drawn, traditional animation, proving to the public and more importantly to themselves that digital technology is not always necessary to create an engaging and visually captivating animated film.

Trailer for Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008).

I actually had the opportunity to see Miyazaki’s Ponyo when I visited Japan in the summer, and much of the beauty of the film lies in its visual and conceptual simplicity. Not only has the animation been simplified through its resistance to make use of digital imagery, but the plot itself has also been made simple, with no complicated side plots and a fairly limited cast of characters. Despite being aimed primarily toward a very young audience, the film is surprisingly entertaining and engaging for those outside of the target audience. There are probably many reasons for this—for example, the film demonstrates to the audience the nearly endless potential of the human hand. However, I am sure that another one of the biggest reasons is actually the break that it gives us from our constant overexposure to computer-processed imagery in our everyday lives. Ponyo simply gives a refreshing change from such digital imagery, and this point relates back to the point I made in my previous post about graphic design and the computer—the use of the computer is not a better way to create work, but rather is just alternative for doing so. Computer-generated animated films are often breath taking, but so is Ponyo, a hand-animated film that, in fact, looks just as modern as any CG-based animated film.

In a similar vein, it is also interesting to note that in December 2009 Walt Disney Animation Studios will be releasing the film The Princess and the Frog, their first traditionally animated feature film since 2004. In the production of this film, the artists are employing animation techniques that rely upon the use of traditional pencil and paper, as they “focus on what the [hand-drawn] line can do.” It was actually not too long before the production of The Princess and the Frog that Disney announced that they would no longer produce traditionally animated films. Yet here they are now, working on one to be released just next year. Perhaps the infatuation with computer technology in the area of animated film-making is soon to end, as more and more people come to the realization that traditional animation is still just as modern as it ever was.

Teaser Trailer for The Princess and the Frog (2009).