Acts of Media: The Message of Painting

Can Art be Objective?

Art Critic, Clement Greenburg’s essay “Modernist Painting” examines Modern art’s objective position.  He asserts that Modernist painting is valuable based on the work’s ability to stay true to itself (Greenburg).  There is no patron to appease, or religious authority to impress.  There is only artist, paint, canvas, and freedom of expression.

Can something as reflexive as art ever be truly objective?  

Modernist painting is objective from in and of itself, however it creates a new subjectivity with the artist controlling the subject matter and not just the method of interpretation.

Marshall McLuhan’s essay “The Medium is the Message” gives fascinating insight into the importance of acts of media aiding into the progress of society and human empowerment. He writes, “For the "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs (McLuhan, The Medium is the Message).”

If the medium is the message, the artist is the transmitter. Take a look at the following Jackson Pollock quote found a on the Museum of Modern Art website:

 “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well, (Musuem of Modern Art )."

Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950 (Pollock)

The idea of being "in" the painting and it "taking on a life of its own" emphasizes the work as on objective entity.   Pollock's own words convey his role in the creative process, as one of a kind of conduit surrendering his own subjective will to this entity.  

In lecture, McLuhan describes the literate mind as being more objective due to its ability to make quick, yet informed decisions (McLuhan). Like the development of perspective, or Impressionism, each movement in art marked a new kind of literacy inside of the act of making art works. The literacy in Modernist art seeks to make decisive statements about art. 

This idea of decisive objectivity in art is juxtaposed with the inherent fluidity of art itself. The ability to adapt art to the purposes or interests of the practitioner, extend to the audience's ability to receive new approaches to traditional forms. Without this reception, the new ideas never grow.

Modernist Art is the result of the changes of cultural perspective of painting.  As Greenburg points out, Realism and Naturalism were central to the truth and value of the work, and served as vehicle to perpetuate the social and religious ideals (Greenburg).  Art continues to perform this function within our contemporary society but its message can be more fluid. New social messages are being transmitted through the medium of painting. 

With elitism no longer limiting the practice of painting, painting begins to mean many things to more people. The message of the medium changed.  I think this was important to the development of Modernist Art. Its reception depended on nurturing the seeds of social inclusion, accessibility, and literacy.

 

 Renaissance to Modern Portraiture

Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, 1665

Realism in Renaissance Art

Escaping Criticism by Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874

The burgeoning concept of breaking boundaries in art is clear in both title and the subject of this painting.

Self-Portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
1899
The move away from the sculptural towards flatness.

Self-Portrait in a Striped T-Shirt by Henri Matisse, 1906

The elements of colour line and perspective are deconstructed to emphasize the flatness of the canvas

Works Cited

Greenburg, Clement. "Greenburg: Modernism." 1960. University of Chicago. 23 September 2013 <http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/modernism.html>.

McLuhan, Marshall. "Marshall McLuhan Full lecture: The Medium is the Message." ABC National Radio: Monday Conference. Vol. 1. Comp. mywebcowtube. YouTube, 27 June 1977.

Pollock, Jackson. Lavender Mist: Number 1. National Gallery of Art. WebMuseum, Paris. Washington,, 2002.