Can you accuse a mirror of postmodernism

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Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 29, 2011 at 10:29pm

Yep, it's part of an even larger debate that started with abstract art versus representational art (realism for short). If you want realism, become a photographer and not a painter! Do you want to paint external reality or internal ones? I know to which tendency I belong. The discussion still continues. I have a friend who belongs to the hyperrealist movement. I like her work because she paints always old industrial buildings (so close to industrial archeology memories). For the rest we agree on NOTHING! (hihi).

Problem started with Renaissance, based on the Greec models (not only reality but the idealization of reality, yek, that was a real box of Pandora!)

In this sense modern art is closer to Medieval art, did not focus on external but internal qualities. So modern art is quite spiritual in its approach of the universe (I avoid here in a clever way the word religious, hihi)

 

G.

Comment by cheryl penn on August 29, 2011 at 8:50pm

Guido - what can I say? - Thought provoking for sure.  - AND its coming my way :-)  - Have you read the book The Frame and the Mirror by Thomas P. Brockelman?  On a differnent 'note' to music - it is about collage and the postmodern, Brockelman has an intersting quote by Kahnweiler where he is speaking about the rejection of signs working within a work of art - a LACK of visible world mirroring -

"Painters turned away from imitation because they had discovered that the true character of painting and sculpture is that of a script.  The products of these arts are signs, emblems for the external world, not mirrors reflecting  the external world in a more or less distorting manner..."

Its a herring for sure - but... thanks again :-) X

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 29, 2011 at 8:11pm

Now I wonder if hurricanes know what a mirror is, can they see themselves and the reflection of the damage they are causing, would be a great topic for another Pärt piece. My friend Hélène G did it again. Abado wanted to record Mozart concertos with her and then start a tour. He was upset by the cadenza Grimaud was playing. They could not agree, so Hélène slammed the door in his face and blew up the whole project. Abado will now continue with another piano player who obeys his direction. Why he wanted to record with HG in the first place, escapes me, he knows her reputation. I'll send her an email to congratulate her to say F*** to Fûhrer Claudio!

Again a guy who does not know how to look thru the mirror. I mean by that that tempi and cadenza were not fixed at all in classical music, it was only "indicated"! When LP's and CD's started happening this created a rather bad thing of "models to follow" while in essence there are no models but a wide variety of interpretation and possibilities, it's all the same story, people are afraid of change and indoctrinated to a certain way of listening, seeing and thinking. I am howling like one of her wolfs now! HG has written 2 books but I'm not sure if they exist in English, the first one is a marvel, tells exactly what kind of wonder she is. (so kind of a life story); second one is more poetical and philosophical, invented auto bio   so to speak.

French titles: VARATIONS SAUVAGES (book 1) and LECONS PARTICULIERES (bbok 2). I have both books but book 2 with a personal dedication.

 

 

Guido

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on August 29, 2011 at 12:10am

Very interesting question, Guido (and I love the art).  Will write back more soon.  I've been listening to Spiegel im Spiegel all afternoon in the studio while the wind roars.

Comment by De Villo Sloan on August 28, 2011 at 11:47pm

yes guido, i have seen "parallel plane mirrors" used in several places as metaphors for pomo - mirrors in mirrors. you have made a very thought-provoking piece here

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 28, 2011 at 11:25pm

Well, ever seen a mirror in a mirror or mirrors in a mirror? This is the name of a musical piece by Arvo Pärt (Spiegel im Spiegel). He wrote this in 1978 just before Pärt left Estonia where he had encoutered communist censorship. Pärt said "I was writing music in which there were many notes thrown down on the page like so. I was not guarding these notes as treasures, I was not holding them while every note is decisive and every note is telling. The title of this work refers to the multitude of reflected images that can be produced by parallel plane mirrors."

Comment by De Villo Sloan on August 28, 2011 at 10:51pm

Right, Theresa, interesting question and nice work by Guido. I'd hazard to say the answer is no. The mirror would have to be self-reflective.