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This is an imaginative and masterful examination of painting's history in art, its death by art theory, and its resurrection in various forms in contemporary art practice. Artists of any skill, art students, art historians, art theorists will delight in this purposeful exploration of how the material nature of paint becomes the embodiment of a painting's ontology in contemporary art theory. The material nature of painting is considered as a leading actor throughout art history, as well as the source of its viability as a contemporary medium of art making in contemporary art practice. Viewing painting in the context of its art historical present, this book examines painting's history in art, its death by art theory, and its resurrection in various forms in contemporary art practice. In this context, prevailing art historical theories are examined in order to position painting in contemporary society. Integral to the discussion is resonance; the quality embodied in a work of art that continues to engage the viewer in visceral communication over time, Resonance is therefore a determining characteristic in the viability of painting in any age. Painting is alive; painting has evolved and is yet evolving. Even now, painting is configuring and reinventing itself in the artifacts themselves as well as in the context of contemporary art theory
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7 THE LIATERIA- !TY O'/ OF PAINT IS INTRINSI_. TO THE WOnK OF ART An Explanation of the Meaningful Placement of the Medium of Painting in Contemporary Art Theory Sharon Orleans Lawrence With a Foreword by George Bauer The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935383 Lawrence, Sharon Orleans. How the materiality of paint is intrinsic to the work of art : an explanation of the meaningful placement of the medium of painting in contemporary art theory / Sharon Orleans Lawrence ; with a foreword by George Bauer. 1. Art--techniques--painting. 2. Art—popular culture. 3. Philosophy-aesthetics. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-4463-8 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 0-7734-4463-7 (hardcover) I. Title. hors serie. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright © 2013 Sharon Orleans Lawrence Front Cover Photo: Sharon Orleans Lawrence, Nothing Left to Say, 2010, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches. All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press Box 450 Lewiston, New York USA 14092-0450 The Edwin Mellen Press Box 67 Queenston, Ontario CANADA LOS 1 LO The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America "Art has its tradition, but it is a visual heritage. The artist's language is the memory from sight. Art is made from dreams, and visions, and things not known, and least of all from things that can be said. It comes from the inside of who you are when you face yourself It is an inner declaration of purpose, it is a factor which determines artist identity." --David Smith, Modernist Sculptor and Painter Table of Contents Foreword, George Bauer, PhD V Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 2 The Question of Painting 4 The Painter-Theorist Approach 6 Paintings and Resonance 10 Paint Surface and Beyond Materiality Defined 11 Painting and the Perspective of the Artist Chapter 1: The Materiality of What Painting Was 17 Painting in the Caves 18 Painting Among the Greeks and Romans 20 Painting Defined by Painters Across History 23 Painting in the Twentieth Century 31 Chapter 2: The Materiality of What Painting Is 37 Painting in the Twenty-first Century 37 The Materiality of Theory 40 The Materiality of Painterliness 44 The Materiality