MEANiNGS AND MOTIVATIONs BeHIND THE "BODY WORKS" OF THe EARLY 1990'S - BY GERARD PaS

"The self, terrible and constant, is for me the subject matter of painting. Barnett Newman, 1965".
Harold Rosenberg, Barnett Newman (Harry N. Abrams, INC., New York, 1978), p.21.

PREFACE

Dream Memory of the Brace 1977

In the historical development of my work, I have held to the premise that the basis of creativity is directly related to one's life experiences. In other words, if one were to undergo a near -- fatal airplane crash and be badly injured, this experience would leave not only the evident long-lasting physical injuries, but also a heightened awareness of reality, as for example, your life flashed before your eyes. This premise has been the cornerstone of my work for the past twenty years.

INTRODUCTION

Red Blue Wheelchair 1987

My works from 1986 to 1994, beginning with the RED BLUE WORKS, has provided a critical analysis on divergent idealistic trends within architecture, design and art. These works (samples of which can be seen on other pages of this site) has served as a polemic towards a trend in Post-Modernism which had accepted many of these aesthetic theories, seemingly without question. While my past works have deconstructed various manifestations of modernism (i.e. Rietveld's, Red-Blue Chair), I have never attempted to build a new and improved product through reconstruction. Nevertheless, with the deconstruction and subsequent synthesist -- restructuring of historical images in my art language resulting in a critique of juxtaposition, some scholars consider my own work as being Post-Modern (remark 1). While my art may seem Post-Modern on the exterior, upon careful investigation you can see that I view Post-Modernism with some scepticism. Rather and to the contrary, with a deeply sardonic sense my work has pointed to the pitfalls of any idealistic aesthetic, in its inability to encompass all factors, particularly from the perspective of any marginalized subgroup, such as the handicapped, minority group, etc.

The marginalized are at best, often the missing piece of the puzzle in most ideologies; or at worst, often time, the cornerstone which the builders negated to insert. If Post-Modernist theory considers the marginalized (in praxis), within the scope of its overall deconstruction/reconstruction of reality and sociopolitical issues, then I am indeed Post-Modern!

RAISON D' ÊTRE

"The sentiment of art, like the religious sentiment, like scientific curiosity, is born of wonder; the man who wonders at nothing lives in a state of imbecility and stupidity. This state ceases when his spirit, disengaging itself from matter and from physical necessities, is struck by the phenomena of nature, and seeks their meaning; when he is impressed by something in them grand and mysterious, a concealed power which reveals itself". Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

"We are now learning to translate reality, by means of our imagination, into constructions which can be controlled by reason, in order to re-form these same constructions again in a 'given' natural reality, thus penetrating nature by means of forms that can be seen." Piet Mondriaan
H.L.C. Jaffe, De Stijl, 1917-1931: The Dutch Contribution to Modern Art (Cambridge, U.S.A. & London, U.K.: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1986), p.

Joshua 1993

During the period from 1986 to 1994, I had been developing a number of sculptural and two-dimensional works which endeavoured to discuss two primary streams of modernism; both rooted in my own previous explorations of art history. The character of these two disparate currents being: 1) that of the soul, the emotional, romantic, expressionistic and often anti-intellectual, 2) that of the mind, the learned, mathematical, rational and logical. For example, the tension between the more spiritual and expressionistic Asger Jorn's paintings in juxtaposition to the cooler, theoretically inclined minimalist works of Frank Stella or Barnett Newman.
On a rudimentary plane, these works are quite simply based on an understanding and visualization of various forms of physiology and anatomy with a layer of modernist colour theory and composition layered over top. The figurative forms and or appendages in my paintings and sculptures convey both healthy and ailing aspects of the human body. The resulting discourse and apparent dilemma between frailty and strength within the same human body, is firmly based on my own existentially dealing with my crippled body (remark 2) and my subsequent psychological relationship to it. The physical surface and material technique (painting style) in these works reflect aspects of both heavily endowed Expressionist painting and lean -- flat Minimalistic colour fields, embossed over the surface of the human body as a series of meridians and geometric forms.

Untitled Figure with Spirals 1990

These works could also be interpreted as deconstructed 'body painting', modeled after primitive, native or aboriginal body markings, while at the same time the rigid colour fields and compositions make them thoroughly modern in their investigation of modernist forms. The minimalist structural appearance and coloured meridians of the endoskeleton system is similar to the 'Cartesian' illustration of the "Man of Sorrows", which illuminates the centres of pain. While the richly flowing and heavily painted negative spaces (backgrounds) are more reminiscent of the expressionistic. The depiction of the figure and sculptural painted negative areas within the confines of the minimalist aesthetic, create an intense polemical dialogue within the technical economy of each individual work. Lastly, the actual works are most often very large in size and thus heroic in their statements. It was my hope that by using this dialectical vocabulary, an intrinsic dualism would result: between not only theory and praxis, the healthy and the sick, the conflicting painting techniques, but also between the angular plastic forms and the natural forms of the body.

Cathedra 1992-93

While these new works are not appropriations they do borrow heavily from various attitudes towards aesthetics prevalent in this century. For example, I completed 4 very large works of almost 10 metres in height (approx. 30 ft.) based on a deconstruction of the human arm and leg: super extending the length of each of these limbs (in the same manner as a Louise Bourgeois or Alberto Giacometti sculpture) and then applying the Minimalist codex ' of simple colour fields, i.e. Josef Albers 'colour theories'. The work itself is titled after Barnett Newman's "Cathedra". Examples of these works can be seen above.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS OF ART

"Let us not be afraid to say that a truth which is not beautiful is only a logical play of our intelligence, and that the only truth that is solid and worthy of the name is beauty." Ravaisson.

I'm Afraid of more than Red, Red, Yellow, Yellow and Blue, Blue. 1994

From 1990-94, I continued to develop a series of sculptures, paintings and drawings which dealt with the human figure. As stated above, the cornerstone for these works was my deconstruction and reconstruction of the human body. In order to advance my own aesthetic investigations, I had started to reduce the particulars of anatomy to an even more simplified form than those of my previous works seen the earlier galleries. I had already begun to reduce the exoskeleton forms to a solid primary colour, while at the same time omitting the endoskeleton structure altogether. For example, in "I'm Afraid of More than Red, Yellow, Yellow , Blue and Blue, 1994," the viewer only sees one large muscular blue arm on a blue background, a large central red section, next to an atrophied thin yellow arm on a yellow background. This entire piece measures over 4 metres by 2.5 metres and is comprised of each primary coloured section divided by three totalling nine sections overall. The subtitle for this above painting is "Poliomyelitis."

Mouthpiece #3 1994

During this time I also completed a series of paintings made entirely by mouth. Generally speaking, the motivation behind those works was, when one considers mouth painting, it brings forth an image of 'handicapped art'; which for the most part is not much better than kitsch. The topic of my mouth-painting's consists solely of hands and feet, painted in the same style as my larger works; but obviously the technique is not as controlled (c.f. images above). In making these mouth works I hoped to challenge the common cliche or marketing term of "Handicapped Art," which immediately triggers pernicious images of hapless cripples painting saccharine images of puppies, teary eyed children or escapist landscapes outside of the tradition of Canadian landscape painting. My point in making those "Mouth-Pieces" (title for the series), was to say that the only handicapped thing about mouth painting: is the fact that what has up until now been marketed as Foot and Mouth Art, is bad or inferior art. The absence of any sense of art history or understanding current trends in art is the only handicap that Mouth and Foot artists face aside from the technical difficulty of painting with your mouth or feet. Let us not forget that: Renoir in his later years painted with his brushes bound to his arthritic arms, Matisse painted larger as he was going blind and that Chuck Close paints with the aid of his assistants from his wheelchair today (c.f. Gerard's collaboration with Chuck Close "Portrait of Chuck Close"). All of these artists were or are handicapped, but certainly we couldn't say that their art is handicapped. In fact in this light, I see the term 'Handicapped Art' as somewhat of an oxymoron (please also read my short comments which further elaborate my views on Foot and Mouth Art - by clicking here).

"I always confine myself to expressing the universal, that is, the eternal (closest to the spirit) and I do so in the simplest forms, in order to be able to express the inner meaning as lightly veiled as possible." Piet Mondriaan in a letter to Theo Van Doesburg, 1915
H.L.C. Jaffe, De Stijl, 1917-1931: The Dutch Contribution to Modern Art (Cambridge, U.S.A. & London, U.K.: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 12.

Gerard P. Pas
London, Canada - May 12, 1994.

Remarks: (please click on the remark to return to where you were reading)

1. In Doris Riedmiller recent German textbook on Postmodernism, she refers to my "RED - BLUE WHEELCHAIR" as the quintessential example of Postmodern appropriation of De Stijl furniture. Doris Riedmiller, TYPOGRAPHIE: *(The Rotis Institut, Uber Leutkirch, West Germany). Ludenscheid, W. Germany, Pub. Edition Druckhaus Maack (1988).

2. I myself contracted Polio as an infant and later represented the Easter Seal Foundation as their "TIMMY". Further reading discussing my involvement and examples of my work on this topic can also be found in: Gerard P. Pas, "The Living Meridian #1", "Fluid Exchanges: Artists and Critics in the Aids Crisis". Edited by James Miller, Toronto, Buffalo, London: University Of Toronto Press (1992). pp. 218, 228-230, illus.# 4.