Trinity

Mikko Lyytinen
Trinity (side b)
Oil on Canvas
2009

Here is another older piece from 2009 from the days of Institute of Fine Arts. It was an exercise in which we studied three artist’s works and paraphrased them in our own paintings. It’s been a while but I’ll try to refresh my memory and give a brief take on what it was about.

First artist is Andy Warhol, who celebrated the mundane objects along with portraits of celebrities in his bright colored pop art. I’m using the iconic image of actress Marilyn Monroe as starting point, but replaced her features mischievously with those of Pope Benedictus XVI.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, Silkscreen, 1962

This leads us to the next artist Francis Bacon. He had quite an expressive style in contrast to that of Warhol’s. Some of his most famous works are inspired by Diego Velasquez’s painting of pope Innocent X. The pope is maybe the most notable religious authority on earth, a man of great of power, but also representing ultimate denial of sexuality in regards to the clergy but repression on ordinary people as well, in contrast to the sensual Marilyn Monroe. While obviously different, these two subjects share something similar in their idol status that is unreachable to us mere mortals.

Francis Bacon, Study After Velasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Oil on Canvas, 1953

Diego Velasquez, Portrait of Innocent X, Oil on Canvas, c1650

With the last artist choice I try to play against that. Hermann Nitsch is known for his paintings and ritualistic orgy-like performances with splattering of blood and other bodily fluids among animal carcasses and naked people. The ritual is the key word here which has inspired me a lot in my own work. Where Warhol’s paintings are purposely objectified to its limit, Bacon’s paintings are very fleshy in their distortions; though they are in a sense only depictions of acts where as Nitsch brings his art into realm of actual experience. Though performance is often documented and viewed via video but they are not made to create illusion in the same sense as movies.

video may be NSFW

Hermann Nitsch, AKTION 135 at 2012 Havanna Biennial

There is something I’ve picked up from all of the artists though the Warhol may not be so obvious, but it relates to the idea of mundane; how there is something interesting in everyday experience. Bacon I can thank for the liberating anguishing hedonistic expression in painting and Nitsch for taking that further into the ritualistic performance which in part sort of justifies the traditional painting for me. Of course there are many others influences that I can dig into on later posts.

Francis Bacon, Study of Velasquez Pope II, 1961, Oil on Canvas

Another version of the pope by Bacon. Being a horrible tourist I took these pictures while visiting the Vatican on my trip to Rome in 2011. A pilgrimage on it's own.

That’s about it, I hope i didn't leave out anything important. Maybe you can see more connections and contradictions between these three. Feel free to ask questions and leave a comment.

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