ART & ARCHITECTURE INTERVIEWS for FIVE BOOKS, ESSAYS, FIELD NOTES

No. 4 - The Human Figure

Welcome to Appel Art Journal No.4, featuring the latest Five Books interviews relating to art and architecture, and things that have crossed my path. Art returns time and again to the human figure, from the earliest representations to our digital age.

INTERVIEW | In Conversation with Julien Delagrange | 04.11.20

Figurative Painting Today

The broad brushstroke stereotype is that figurative painting is at best old-fashioned, at worst obsolete. Yet collectors and curators have been clamouring for figurative art in recent years, as a generation of painters takes a more traditional, representational approach to addressing major cultural themes in their work. Is figurative painting today merely a reactionary impulse, a kind of nostalgia for art that preceded modernism, postmodernism and the fragmentation in art-making that was ushered in by conceptual art? There is much more to it than that, argues painter and art historian Julien Delagrange. Figuration can serve as a vehicle for either historical or conceptual ideas, for art theory, in a way that’s more immediate than some of the more abstruse critical approaches of late 20th century. In the latest Five Books Art interview linked here, he picks five books that address the state of the art. His latest project, Contemporary Art Issue, also vividly makes the case for figurative painting today.

WHAT’S CAUGHT MY EYE & CROSSED MY SCREEN

Munch and the experimental self - virtual exhibit

“I have an old camera with which I have taken countless pictures of myself, often with amazing results … Some day when I am old, and I have nothing better to do than write my autobiography, all my self-portraits will see the light of day again.” So wrote Edvard Munch in 1903. More often than not, these photographs are all about self-representation, the recurring theme of his paintings, prints and writings. As a second wave of pandemic response threatens to restrict access to public art spaces again, we may need to content ourselves with online viewing rooms for some time yet. This intriguing glimpse of Munch, perhaps the archetype of the tormented artist, runs through 20 May 2022 and is a visual treasure trove for painters and photographers alike.

Public distancing, social proximity

Where We Stand is a design challenge that invited 15 leading creative agencies, designers and design partnerships to respond to a new reality in cities: the need for physical distancing. ‘Social distancing’ has become the universal catch-phrase, whereas in fact what we need in society is greater social proximity, while keeping a safe distance. How best to achieve an arm’s length rapport with one another without sacrificing the bonds so important to a vibrant and vital civil society? Each team chose a favourite public space, and proposed new visual systems that create a welcoming, safe – and at times provocative – environment for the public to gather, dropping the typical cues of crisis and caution. A welcome reinterpretation of ‘health and safety’ guidelines in our precious public spaces.

The human figure in motion and in space

“We have all become suddenly more aware of the moments when we cannot avoid touching elements of public buildings”, writes architectural historian Edwin Heathcote. The trappings of public spaces say a lot about the culture that installed them, beyond safety concerns. The 20th century concept of a building as a total work of art brought handles that reflected architectural aesthetics. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein followed Bauhaus cues and the idea of elegant functionality in designing a house that reflected his philosophical ideas (simple door handles like the above themselves appear to embody a logical proposition). What was it about door handles that transfixed thinkers in Vienna and Berlin during the early decades of the twentieth century, echoing earlier considerations of handles in America and ancient Greece? Nowadays, despite numerous good designs, “almost every door handle you will see … will be cheap and ill-considered”. What does this tell us about the state of the commons today? Heathcote’s short history of the door handle considers.

Distressingly little has been said in public policy or media circles about resilience. Confronted with contagion, the first line of defence is naturally to consider contact. Where are the second and third lines of defence? What are we doing as societies - and individuals - to bolster our resilience? How do we become more ‘anti-fragile’? Reconfiguring our public spaces is one way. Developing our natural resilience and immunity is another. Running is one ingredient in a recipe for fitness that remains socially sanctioned. Here’s to more ideas like this architectural running route of London’s Brutalist gems, via Wallpaper.

Bedtime stories

Having trouble sleeping? Who isn’t! For those looking for a distraction from harrowing headlines, the New Museum introduced a project by the artist Maurizio Cattelan (whose recent work ‘Comedian’ showed us that he’s bananas - though we already knew that). Inviting friends, artists and performers to keep us company, Cattelan imagined ‘Bedtime Stories’ as a way of staying together during these days of isolation. Each participant was asked to read a sentence, passage, chapter, or more from their favorite book, shared with the New Museum’s online audience. Here’s Tacita Dean, Raymond Pettibon, David Byrne, Rachel Feinstein and others to lull you to sleep. Though Iggy Pop’s opening salvo in the series, in which he says goodbye to his departed dog, is unsurpassed.

Looking for something a little more Old School? Art History at Bedtime, which presents stories about Old Masters read by the British art historian Bendor Grosvenor, may be the ticket. Here’s an extract from Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists about the fifteenth century Florentine painter Filippo Lippi, how he became friends with Cosimo de' Medici and thus broke into the Italian intelligentsia of the day. Although he was extremely gifted, Lippi was addicted to instant gratification, Vasari says. If he could not have what he desired, he would include it in his next painting and so "diminish the violence of his inclination”. He might have felt entirely at home in our day and age.

Image above from Lisa Sorgini’s sublime series Behind Glass, glimpses of beauty in quarantine, many of them reminiscent of Lippi’s madonna and child, and so many depictions of safety and care from the dawn of humanity, mothers rocking their babes to sleep in the comfort of their embrace.

‘Painting is a dialogue with other painters.’ So says the artist Marlene Dumas, and nowhere is this more clearly seen perhaps than with figurative painting like hers. Postmodernism championed the Modernist leitmotif that ‘painting is dead’, yet painting continues to be incredibly vibrant, even as we see the continued fragmentation and proliferation of artistic approaches. The human figure remains a focal point for many artists’ ideas. You might call it a staple of visual culture from the earliest of humanity’s representations, with continued relevance into our own digital age. As a conceptual artist friend of mine put it, to be able to draw well is like a ‘superpower’ for communicating ideas. For much of art history, the close observation that drawing and painting demand has centered on the human form.

A marker of accomplishment in a civilization is surely the quality of its public spaces. Contagion is forcing us to reconsider many things, including the ways we might maintain a sense of civic solidarity and poise in testing times. ‘The way you do anything is the way you do everything'. Right down to the humble doorknob, the things we make and the things we surround ourselves with, our shared built environment, enshrines the values we hold dear. May the calamities of 2020 bring clear-headed improvements to the ways in which we live with each other.

'Today's ashes are the soil for tomorrow's civilizations'. I woke the morning after Super Tuesday from a dimly remembered dream with these words. Something I'd heard or read before? Or an offering from the collective unconscious? For those who are able to sleep soundly, the night brings counsel. For others, bedtime stories may provide a welcome soporific. Recent bedtime finds feature contemporary and Old Master artists alike. And the inimitable punk elder, James Newell Osterberg Jr. aka Iggy Pop.

Sleep soundly, stay courageous and stay fit. Thank you for taking the time to read this fourth edition.

Romas Tauras