🎨 GREY DAY AT THE FACTORY 🏭
acrylic on canvas, mounted on masonite - 1985
I thought of this old painting of mine after reading (and commenting on) The construction loving Master Mind, a post by @erh.germany.
It prompted me to do some more research, maybe also to argue about the quote
"A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusions." ~Alan Watts
Eventually, my searches led me to Online time can hobble brain’s important work
Interesting, because that's what I am doing now, and that is what I am definitely doing too much: Online Activity!
So 32 years after I painted this, it becomes a bit clearer what the painting means. It is a construct in my mind that resembles a factory, and all that jumbled input is about to crash, just like a computer slows down and eventually crashes when too many windows are open. What did I think about when I painted this? Probably the same process as happens now when I create: I let the right half of my brain take over (I am left-handed, so the input is direct). There is no pre-conceived direction, no outside distraction. Dionysus is in total control (check this for reference: Apollonian and Dionysian).
As a child, I had few toys, my grandfather provided me with copious amounts of paper and sharpened pencils. I created my own worlds and lived in it. I still do. That is what artists do.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up” ~ Pablo Picasso.
So I never grew up, and I am very happy about that!
Wonderful painting!!!! And it's right: we live in our fantasy world.....
but Picasso? Really? He was a comunist.... I think that's not really what an artist can be....The nature made us all different, with a different function and a different character....
If it were not so, there would be no life on this planet :-))))
There is a brillant Guardian article about Picasso and Communism: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/may/08/pablo-picasso-politics-exhibition-tate
The conclusion of it was, as I had always thought so: "Pablo Picasso, a painter without peer, lived and died an egotist. A party of one was his ideal station." .... and somewhere in the middle: "...........whereby the world-renowned painter was exploited by the party for his famous name, his fleet brush, and his financial donations; in short, that Picasso was a useful idiot."
Now I depart from quoting the writer to put in my own two cents:
But aside from that, the circle around Breton were largely Communist, yet the Communists had little use for their fawning and eyed Surrealism with suspicion, given the Social Realism that was a hallmark of Stalins Russia as much as Hitlers Germany. Later on in Vienna, Johann Muschik coined the name "Wiener Schule des Fantastischen Realismus" for the art of those around Fuchs, Lehmden, Hausner etc, arguing that: "..........has nothing whatsoever to do with the confusions of Breton and his group."
(I wrote an essay about this you can read here: The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism )
This may be a puzzling statement considering Ernst Fuchs and friends time in Paris from where they brought Surrealism with them to Vienna, and within my text I failed to make the point you can only see in my footnotes to the essay:
[14]quoted from Muschik. One must take into account that Johann Muschik was a member of the KPÖ (Communist Party of Austria) until 1956 (after the Hungarian Revolution). The Stalinists of the time viewed Surrealism suspiciously (decadent bourgeois art). Breton's Surrealists in France did not find an open arms reception with the Communist Party there either, as Macel Jean remarks on several occasions in his book "The History Of Surrealist Painting". Modern art, and Surrealism in particular, was viewed by the Communists with the same contempt as the Nazis decried "entartete Kunst", dictating the style of Socialist Realism as the only acceptable art form. It is therefore understandable that Muschik, having a great fondness for the Vienna School, would very vigorously point to marked differences between these movements.
To quote Picasso within just the context of the quote, I recognize its truism - to ascribe political undertones would be a reach. I had painted Picasso at his laughable worse in my work "Pablo's Last Concert" - and that painting once got me into a tussle with the Artists Rights Society who wanted it pulled from the Zazzle site where I was selling prints from.
WOW! So viele Infos :-))) Komme bald nach Wien, ende Monat!!!!
super, freu mich schon - muss sowieso mit Dir reden ......
my essay was not up to snuff on the website, so I had to work it over (bad links and stuff). Now it is updated.
Freu mich auch schon, kisses!
Great article in the Guardian, thanks for sharing. Personally I think Picasso is one of the great modern masters and his political beliefs were spurred by his love of the common man and people on the street. Certainly siding with Stalin was deluded and foolish but Picasso wasnt the only one and as I wrote above, his politics were a reaction against Franco and then later the Holocaust. He never recanted as he aged I suppose because he was Picasso and he never admitted a defeat. I dont know how Picasso viewed America but I'd imagine it was with some skepticism, so his letist stance was also anti-American, anti-empire, anti-colonialism .. sure its ironic considering how much money he was making from his work that he chose anti-capitalist politics .. but that was his unique position: he wanted his cake and to eat it too. Look at Jean Paul Sartre, he also aligned with communism in that era as a radical gesture. I think Picasso wanted to remain fiery and antagonistic, he liked the attention and he longed to remain relevant to the end, and personally I think his late work is very strong, some of his best, because it ahows some humility in old age.
Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole
Better a communist than a fascist .. I dont see how Picasso's political beliefs mean that his work is somehow diminished. Do you want to say that his Guernica is only communist propaganda? Surely not. Picasso may have been an ego pig but ultimately it helped him reach great fame. Sure he was probably a sexist jerk, but that doesnt mean his work has less value. His political beliefs grow out of the Spanish Civil War and a Europe united against fascism .. many people chose to align themselves with communism as a gesture against fascism. I'm sure you know. So its absurd to judge a man for being a part of his time and resisting Franco and fascism.
Finilly his monkey was painting for him, and people were fascinated.... we are not looking who is better but to find the errors, for not repeat this kind of things!
haha, yeah his monkey was painting for him
Here's to never growing up. I have always attempted to continue creating as a child might. I'm very intrigued by your work and started following you today. Upvoted.
Me, too. We cannot live abundant creativity without being in tune with our inner child. My inner child has so much fun and so do I... So nice to find your comment!
Your article really is a firework of thoughts and inspiration and yes, I agree that we need the simplicity of awareness to be whole and to act in the universal flow. Impressing the way you live it.
Thank you - and Steemit and my friends on there are a inspiration to me - after all, this post was a reaction to another friends post!
just awesome................painting..........no doubt that was too good,great article about your painting,,,,,,,,,,and special thanks to your grandfather,,,,,,he encourage you........
yes, I have a lot to thank my Opa for. His encouragement, his extensive library, his connections also: he knew a lot of artists and took me to exhibitions and museums.
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