A rolling stone

"Sisyphus" marble 2010 Michael Pionteki Kehrlein


The absurd hero, the rolling stone....

Going beyond

"The Rape of Proserpina" (detail)1621-1622, Bernin

The subject, rape, is not not my interest( in fact the title is often "rapt" which in history is not quite the same as it is used today). In any case the sculpture itself is sublime. Sublime? It's often difficult to separate the aesthetic value in art from the subject. In this case, I want to look at this image and I get immense pleasure doing so.



"Self Portrait" Lucien Freud


I am not sure what pleasure I get from this painting, but I get a lot of it. Again I go beyond the subject, maybe. I am drawn into the painters world, evidently a little tortured( I can relate to that), it's the painting's sensuous quality which captivates me.

Life of feeling

"Ancient Silence", Beverly Pepper,2009 ©Beverly Pepper


"The abstract language of form that I have chosen has become a way to explore an interior life of feeling...I wish to make an object that has a powerful presence,but is at the same time inwardly turned,seeming capable of intense self-absorption" Beverly Pepper. This quote keeps ringing in my ears, as it is essentially what Malevich was painting in "Composition White on White", and what I am expressing in "Hero".




"Hero" Pionteki Kehrlein




This morning when I saw "Ancient Silence" for the first time, my heart gave a huge leap, AND the sculptor is 88 years old!
Here I was thinking that nothing was happening outside the "ART MARKET", that we had all sold out to "THE MAN", but no, this lady is keeping the flame lit. By the way for you New Yorkers she is showing right now at Marborough.






"One Pixel" Yana Kehrlein


Yana isolated one pixel from a photograph of a Valasquez painting and printed it out 34.3cm x 34.3cm. Yana is "moderate suprematist".

Moderate Suprematism

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition White on White. 1918,




"If one insists on judging an art work on the basis of the virtuosity of the objective representation, the verisimilitude of the illusion, and thinks he sees in the objective representation itself a symbol of the inducing emotion, he will never partake of the gladdening content of a work of art.
Our life is a theater piece, in which nonobjective feeling is portrayed by objective imagery. the Suprematist does not observe and does not touch - he feels." Kazimir Malevich





Challange vs. skill Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi



In his seminal work, 'Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience', Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.

Concentrating on the center of the Challange vs. Skill illustration I see white. We might say then that being in harmony with the "highs" and "lows" would be a white space. In his 1918 Suprematist Composition, White on White, Malevich attempted to eliminate all superfluous elements, including the color.




Additive color model


An additive color model involves light emitted directly from a source(It should be noted that additive color is a result of the way the eye detects color, and is not a property of light). Additive color systems start without light (black). Additive colors are often counterintuitive for people accustomed to the more everyday subtractive color system of pigments, dyes, inks and other substances which present color to the eye by reflection rather than emission.






Subtractive color model

Subtractive color systems start with light, white light. Oil painting is a substractive system, if we add the three primary colors we obtain black. White paint absorbs the primary colors and reflects white. Malevich eliminated color with color, using white he absorbed all the "feelings" and reflecting none.

So where are we today? Is our color reference a substractive or an additive system of preception? Do we see more images on the computer or in art galleries? And in the art gallery, are the images created by a subtractive or additive system? Digitally created images, which are very much "a la une", have a particular color system,(computer monitors and televisions use a system called optical mixing and cannot be considered additive light because the colors do not overlap. The red green and blue pixels are side-by-side. When a green color appears, only the green pixels light up. When a cyan color appears, both green and blue pixels light up. When white appears all the pixels light up. Because the pixels are so small and close together our eyes blend them together, having a similar effect as additive light), and are printed out using an additive system, or projected, as in video installations using computer monitors. In contemporary painting I see the artist using pigments, organic or inorganic, to create an illusion of the "modern reality" I'm not so sure we know where we are at today, it's a little too close to the situation to have a "clear" perspective, time will tell. One thing we could say is that to completely "feel" we must find a "harmony" within these different systems.

Color revisited

Cave painting Lascaux,France

In the begining man used iron oxide and charcoal as pigments.




Tiziano Vecellio, Assunta, 1516-1518, Santa Maria gloriosa dei Frari, Venezia

Titien used Vermillon(mercury sulfide mineral,cinnabar,very toxic)




"The Milkmaid" Johannes Vermeer 1660

Vermeer used Indian yellow(from the urine of cattle fed only mango leaves),lapis lazuli and carmine(dried cochineal beetle).






Death of Sardanapalus Delacroix, 1828

I don't want to give a history of color, I'm just skimming over time to illustrate a little how our aesthetics have changed. In the need to express themselves the artist has used the means at hand. The caveman used iron oxide(red earth) and charcoal from his fire. As time went on we became more travelled so the artist's palette became more complexe. Unfortunately many of the pigments were found to be toxic(cinnabar), inhumane(indian yellow) or simply to expensive(lapis lazuli), so we synthesized color and the modern era began. In 1841 the first paint tubes came into being and art changed even more, now the artist could paint "en plein aire". Artists started using photography(Delacroix) as an aid. In general morals were loosening, content and form adapted to the new aesthetic.





"The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai 1832

Hokusai used prussian blue, the first synthetic color to be produced(1706).






Venice Twilight Monet 1908




Black Square,Kazimir Malevich, c. 1915






BLAM, Roy Lichtenstein, 1962. oil



Ralph's Diner (1982),Ralph Goings, Oil on canvas.

Photorealist painters like Goings relied totally on photographs, but still used oil paint as a medium









Maui Kelley Walker 2001 CD Rom and Poster on canvas 7 x 9 ft


Today many artist's depend on digital photo reproductions and acrylic paint.

The work presented here gives a quick look at the changes in art through color and the changing subject matter. Today the artist doesn't really have to know how to paint, it is of secondary importance, he wants to get across his idea and uses the materials at hand, like we always have!

Color

Man with a Blue Sleeve Titien





I was invited to join a online art magazine today(Art et Peinture), on opening up it's "homepage" I saw a little box at the bottom intitled "le petit dico arstistique" it read: "Couleur primaire : couleur ne pouvant être obtenue par le mélange d'autres couleurs, ce sont le
cyan, le magenta, et le jaune"
I understood something very important to understand art today; we don't know what we are talking about! or at least by ignorance we are mixing everything up.
Cyan is certainly NOT a primary color in painting! Cyan is a printers color and a computer color and in painting the closest we come to Cyan would be Turquoise or Azurite(both being green/blue). Magenta likewise is a printing and computer color (#FF00FF), halfway between red and blue. Both Cyan and Magenta are synthetic.

Since the invention of color printing, and the reproduction of original oil painting by this process, our visual perception has been polluted, now we have the computer to make things even worse! If our perception of form(form refers to the visible elements of a piece of art, independent of their meaning) is polluted, as suggested, then an integral part of the "ouevre" is distorted which could mean that access to the "whole" meaning of said "ouevre" is impossible. I often wonder if this hypothese applies to music and poetry(recorded music or poetry read on the computer). Maybe I am being a purist and should let the end justify the means. I love poetry books, I even smell them, caress them, besides reading them!
It's always with a certain restraint that I look at a Titien painting on the computer, I keep in mind that what I am looking at is a distortion, but it does bring up memories and using these memories I am able to elevate my appreciation a little bit.


'Spiritual America IV' featuring Brooke Shields by US artist Richard Prince in the exposition "Pop Life"

All this brings us to Art today. There is show circulating around entitled " Pop Life" which takes Andy Warhol's provacative claim "Good Business is the Best Art" as it's starting point. I don't intend to discuss business and art right now, maybe, MAYBE, at a later date. What IS pertenent, at this point, is that pop art depends on the "new" color system in it's realization, becoming an intergal part of the "ouevre", and thusly we can "see" the work as a "whole" in magazines,posters even on the computer. We could say that to fully understand contemporary art we must accept new rules. If we attempt to look at art today with the perspective of old we will be lost.


"Marilyn" Andy Warhol(Image may be subject to copyright).

"il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare"

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Caspar David Friedrich 1818


shipwreck seems sweet to me in this sea(translation of the title for this posting from a text by Giacomo Leopardi).

Life-preserving instincts

"Eros" Pionteki Kehrlein

Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of Eros:

Main Entry: Eros
Pronunciation: \ˈer-ˌäs, ˈir-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek Erōs, from erōs sexual love; akin to Greek erasthai to love, desire
Date: 14th century

1 : the Greek god of erotic love
2 : the sum of life-preserving instincts that are manifested as impulses to gratify basic needs, as sublimated impulses, and as impulses to protect and preserve the body and mind — compare death instinct
3 a : love conceived by Plato as a fundamental creative impulse having a sensual element b often not capitalized : erotic love or desire



"Nascita di Venere" Botticelli 1485

In Freud's classic theory, erotic energy is allowed a limited amount of expression, due to constraints of human society. In 1497, Girolamo Savonarola and his followers carried out the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in Florence,(luckily for humanity, Botticelli's Venus escaped this horror). A large amount of 'degenerate art' by Picasso, Dalí, Ernst, Klee, Léger and Miró were destroyed in a bonfire on the night of July 27, 1942 in the gardens of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.
Human society can certainly be obtuse, cutting off the hand that feeds the mouth. I really don't think that Botticelli was trying to "sexually arouse" anyone! Yet, the seashell is a symbol for the vulva and he did present the female(in a pose reserved during the Middle Ages for the Virgin Mary), nude. In my own work I'm not trying to "sexually arose" anyone, I am trying to arouse our aesthetic sensitivity. Aesthetic sensitivity can be expressed as disequilibrium in the form of lack­ing emotional satisfaction with the existing state of
affairs.


Nude standing by the sea Picasso 1929

Apparently Picasso was not emotionally satisfied with the existing state of affairs when he painted this very complexe image of a woman. I find this painting extremely "arousing"



Nude Descending a Staircase Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp complicated matters even more! Brancusi simplified....


Torso of a Young Girl Brancusi 1922

tactileaesthetics.blogspot.com has been "flagged"

tactileaesthetics.blogspot.com has been "flagged". "The Flag button allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content considered objectionable"(GOOGLE definition of objectionable: "unpleasant, offensive, or repugnant"). To say the least I was surprised! What was objectionable? Was it the 35000 year old Venus? Was it Brancusi's Princess X? Was it "Phallos"(the phallus being a symbol in the worlds oldest religion)? Was it Courbet's "Origine de Monde"(I thought we worked that one out long ago!) Was it Lucien Freud's painting of Sue Tilly because he opted out of the idealizing tendencies of much of the history of Western art? Was it that I mentioned the name Harriman(Averell Harriman was an officer at the Brown bros. Bank which gave financing to Hitler, something I myself recently found out)? Was it simply that I suggested "pleasure arises from sensation"? Is it that art, to be art, has to be "correct"? This would mean that we would have to "flag" the Academia in Venice, the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, The Uffizi in Florence, MOMA in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the History of Art!
Well, now I must decide if I go on posting on this blog. It was suggested to me that I delete certain questionable images.

The need to create 6

I was lucky to live in Ménerbes and I knew it. I was meeting incredible people everyday. One of the people I met was Tony Mayer, once cultural Attaché from France to England(a post he held for 28 years), now in his 90's, had known everybody in the arts during his time as a diplomate. One day at his very beautiful home(Carmejane), we talked of Dora Maar, apparently she had painted a lot in years gone by, and he told me I could see one of her paintings in his bedroom on the south east wall by the window and sent me up to his room. After seeing the painting I turned and saw an old iron bathtub and above it a Matisse painting of a nude! over the years Matisse had captivated my attention, and even though I was no expert, I KNEW this was an original! I stayed quite awhile before regaining my host who interrogated me as why it took so long, as I explained he laughed and then confirmed my thesis! I often visited with Tony and attended the many private concerts he patronized in his home. Today there is a "Colombe", in Ménerbes stone, on his grave.



Carmejane Ménerbes






In september of 1987 I travelled to Greece staying on the island of Paros. I knew that the Venus of Milos was sculpted from Parian marble and I went in search. Apparently the marble had not been extracted since the time of Napoleon and no one knew of the quarry's exact location. I persisted and finally got a vague idea of it's whereabouts. Covered over by years of abandon and with the help of a Canadian speleologist, I had met in Parikia, I descended down a narrow shaft, about 1.5 meters wide, by stairs cut into the mass of marble. On the walls were "graffiti", at the entrance the images were thousands of years old(women in togas) and after 50 meters down they were "modern"(1800's and no more togas), there was no light at this depth and extremely cold in comparison with the 40° outside. I separated some small blocks from the mother mass, illuminating them with a flashlight from behind checking for unwanted veins, the stone was translucent, it was still "alive". I had wrapped the blocks(approximately 60 kilos) up carefully and put them in my knapsack, keeping them away from the sun and heat. I kept them this way until I was ready to sculpt. I had heard that "fresh" marble would cut like butter and I wasn't deceived. It was pure joy to work on those stones! "Eros" was the first piece in my Parian marble.



"Eros" Pionteki Kehrlein




Influenced by my voyage to Greece I sculpted "Ulysse"; 4 tons of limestone, 7.5 meters long, partly architectural, partly organic.


"Ulysse" Pionteki Kehrlein


John Rewald's house was sold before his death to Yves Rousset-Rouard the producer of Emmanuelle Arson's movies(it's strange how things connect). John could come and spend the summer, but he had taken all of his Art out and Yves replaced them with reproductions, John was heart broken. The village was obviously changing and a young American gave me a way out; Arden Mason, a decsendent of Averell Harriman, owned a home in the village and when he saw what was happening asked me if I would like to restore an old farm in the Ménerbes countryside for him, I didn't hesitate to say yes.

The need to create 5

John Rewald portrait with Mont Ste. Victoire Pionteki Kehrlein


Coutelle's house in Ménerbes was a three story building which started it's days as a post relay station and auberge just under the "Citadelle" occupied by John Rewald, an art historian who wrote "The History of Impressionism", a Cezanne scholar, John had lived at the Chateau Noir in the 1920's! We had an intense relationship(I was the same age as his son who had died years earlier), talking for hours about art but also about life, as if I was his son. His home, the "Citadelle" was a small fortress dominating the village, full of art he had collected over his life.




Dora Maar seated Picasso




Next door to me lived Dora Maar in a house she had shared with Picasso in the 1930's who gave it to her at the end of their relationship. In her house were drawings by Picasso on the wall, I was extatic!


Ménerbes Nicolas de Staël 1953


Nicolas de Staël lived in the Chateau de Castellet at the end of the village until 1953.




Colombe Pionteki Kehrlein

My studio was was large and faced north, there were limestone quarries all over the countryside, I was in heaven. Besides sculpting literally tons of the local stone, I recuperated a block of Carrara marble I had left at Chateau Noir which became "Origine de Monde", (first exhibited in the Salon des Realities Nouvelles,Grand Palais, Paris, now at the Musée Campredon,L'Isle sur Sorgue,France). It was during this time I sculpted my first "Colombe" which I have done many variations of, in different stones and in bronze, over the years.

The need to create 4

Self Portrait 1980


For the next two years I did a lot of commissioned portraits and continued glazing my mothers portrait and my self portrait. In the end of 1980 I moved from the "city" and took a studio in the "Chateau Noir" on the road to Tholonet outside of Aix. Cezanne had a studio in the "Chateau" for 30 years where he painted the Montagne Sainte Victoire.


Chateau Noir- Mont St. Victoire Cezanne


From my room I had the view of the mountain! The Chateau was truely a magical place surronded by tall umbrella pines. I would take long walks in the footsteps of Cezanne. My favorite place was the Bibemus quarry where the Romans first took stone to build Aix.



Bibemus quarry Cezanne


It was here in the quarry, looking at all the beautiful luminescent orange stone, that I started to have urgings to sculpt. And sculpt I did! How ironic, here i was in a place where Cezanne had painted his "flat depth" architectual views of THE mountain and the surrondings and I was sculpting voluptuous forms in stone!


"Demeter" Bimemus stone





Demeter was my first sculpture. It is now in the courtyard of the Hospital in Pertuis in memory of Dr. Catherine Baret who died in a tragic car accident. Catherine was a good friend of mine who commissioned me to paint the maternity in Pertuis. For her my Demeter epitomized maternity




"Cephale" Marbre de Carrare




In 1983 "I left Provence and stayed the summer in Carrare, Italy where I sculpted "Cephale, (exhibited in the Salon des Réalitiés Nouvelles, Grand Palais,Paris,1987). In the fall I moved on, to Paris, working in the Studio of René Coutelle, where I eventually became the head sculptor and responsible of the studio. René introduced me to granit,Maurice Lipsi and the Parisien "Art World".


" Phallos" Exposition Gallery Valmay Paris 1984




Coutelle gave me the keys to a house he owned in Ménerbes in the south of France and On the first day of spring 1985 I started a new and wonderous adventure.

The need to Create 3

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Jupiter and Thetis Ingres 1811 Musée Granet Aix en Provence



I often visited the Musée Granet in Aix. Influenced by what i saw, I thought I needed to prove to myself that I could paint like the "Maîtres",and started a self portrait.



I wasn't satisfied, sure it was "impressive", but for me it lacked something. I new there was another way. Titien had found his "sfumato" using transparent glazes which corresponded with the layering in my colored pencil drawings, so I started a portrait of my mother after the photograph of Ansel Adams thinking that Ansel's zone system and Titian's sfumato technique had a lot in common.


My Mother after Ansel Adams photograph

My painting got interupted by a commission for a mosiac in a swimming pool at the home of Emmanuelle Arsan In the mountains above St. Tropez. The mosiac was done using over 70,000 pieces of glass and took almost a year to execute.

Swiming pool mosaic with Emmanuelle Arson

Back in Aix i continued to paint my mother's portrait and my self portrait and at the same time painted absracts using "taches" of paint, as if they were atoms. I imagined myself as an atom and painted what I saw around me, other atoms(my mother was a physicist and on the team who initially split the atom in Berkeley). This was my way of trying to understand better what I was seeing. In the summer of 1978 I was commissioned to paint the maternity ward in the hospital at Pertuis not far from Aix, on 500 square meters of wall I painted "birth" with the perspective of an atom.


Maternity Pertuis France 1978

The need to Create 2

Severance Pionteki Kehrlein 1975


Severance was one of the first works I did in Aix. I was leaving my old "self" behind in California....


Michael in the old world-Aix Pionteki Kehrlein 1975



I was in the "old world" but to me it so new and I was trying to situate myself. I started drawing differently using a sort of cross hatching technique, which I would refine AND redefine.



d'apres Ingres Pionteki Kehrlein 1975



I turned to the "Maîtres" for inspiration.



after a Picasso self portrait Pionteki Kehrlein 1975





What I found was a little "hard", but the technique was extremely interesting. It would take over a month for one drawing, using over 40 different color pencils in "layers". This technique of layering I would use later in oil painting under the influence of Titian.




Woman in pink shorts Pionteki Kehrlein 1976



Woman sleeping Pionteki Kehrlein 1977


I softened up! my drawings became ethereal.

I was ready to PAINT!