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The word Pointillism immediately brings to mind the Impressionists and Pointillists of the late 19th Century. Some may even know the name Georges Seurat, who seems to be the most famous of the practitioners of that oeuvre. At that time, the object was to break a scene down into it's most basic of elements - single brush strokes of color, and let the viewer's eye blend the colors and perceive the tableau, instead of using the brush to blend. In the years since, artists have applied that same principle to abstract painting. Peter Young and Andrew Forge come to mind. Gastone Biggi pretty much mastered this oeuvre in the early 90's, and in the 40 plus years that Kuno Gonschior pursued this, he took it right on into (pointillist) Minimalism.
Here we are in 2008 and pointillism has evolved into a celebration of itself. It's definitely cut the apron strings to realism and now stands on it's own or works as just another prop in any composition. These "points" can be any size, both large or small, whether painted or made of collage.
Both of these paintings were done in 2007. In John's mixed media work, below, these orbs of nuanced colors seem to just hang and float there with no apparent purpose other than to entertain us. On the other hand, Glenn's work (left) gives us some other realistic clues to work with. Even though his orbs are front and center and an integral part of the composition, they remain very neutral, making them open to interpretation. Fascinating how similar the color tones are in these two works. So we've come quite a ways from painting realistically and copying nature using small brush strokes or points of color, to actually constructing abstracts that celebrate the dots of color, themselves.
Top image, Glenn Fischer's, "A Boy With Guns Means Business", 16"x20" from his Website.
Right is John Belingheri, "Dipthong Azure", 78"x88" , from his page at Andrea Schwartz Gallery.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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