Thanks for this wonderful quote from MOMA Director Barr and reference to the 'pictorial conquest of the external visual world' as the basis for authoritarian verification of Abstraction.
In the 1990's much of the digital software was organized and designed on Broadway, SoHo/NoHo. "DotCom" Gallery was active then too. The transfer from analog systems to digital systems accelerated from the 1990's through to 2005, so that the personal cell phone computers ( Germans call therm "handies") connected individuals to digital software that configured the visual world in a way that neither Director Barr nor any others could have foreseen.
A whole new visual world appeared through the digital systematics. We could see new things in new ways.
I exhibited the "VENUS OF PIXELS" works during 1994-1995 at DDA and DotCom , Henie Onstad , and group shows. No one knew what a Pixel was or what it meant.( And I was a sexist. ) Alex Katz came by one show and said later, "hey, I like 'em".
New entities and structures in deep space were revealed and analyzed. Inner parts of the human body and its structures were revealed and understood in new ways. The conquest of the external and internal visual world leapt into a new phase, bounded out geometrically and multiplied our comprehension. What could be known expanded dramatically and continues unrestricted.
The limitation and prejudgement of Mr. Barr and so many others was shattered by human innovation. There can be no better demonstration of the hazards of the authoritarian closed mind than the Digital Age.
I recall the rejection of a donation of one of my works (maybe one of the VENUS of PIXEL pieces) by the MET, 20th Century Art Wing Curators, in 2003-2004. She was so sorry -- I replied, "What will you do with 21st Century Art ? ".
Indeed, preconceptions and prideful authoritarian attitudes do debilitate the freedom of the artists in every discipline. But note that it is the closed senses and minds of the authoritarian and retail journalists that suffer the most. They can't see it ! They have to come later to appreciate the new configurations and new ways to see, to hear and to feel the world.
For the artists and poets, we have to hold their hands and gently show them the way. Without the innovations, those nay-seerers would be stuck inside their limitations, gloating on the conquest that was, rather than riding the thrill of the revealed.
PS: Everyone thought you, Mr. Ratcliff, were the best cool looking of the Poets.
Perhaps it’s passive laziness, lack of confidence or a marked deficiency in education that inclines people toward acceptance of being told what to think rather than actively engaging in critical thinking.
Alfred Barr cites “a powerful impulse” That drove artists to “abandon imitation of natural appearances”.
‘Abandon’ feels negative. ‘Imitation’ connotes fake, dishonest and unoriginal. ‘Appearance’ also stands on shaky ground.
The “powerful impulse” interests me though.
There may be an impulse in the neuro-diverse mind of an artist, to constantly seek change. I’m constantly hearing that an artist must go beyond his comfort zone, try new things. Yet many commercially successful artists stay within set boundaries.
Nature is always with us, even in a subway car. I value my ability to find beauty in the natural world through visual experience, only to find a way that it might be conveyed. It’s basic to how I’ve assembled my skills. For me, aesthetic priorities are established that guide and extend my ability to invent and create images, some fantastic, that, while not totally abstract, have never before existed.
Thanks for this wonderful quote from MOMA Director Barr and reference to the 'pictorial conquest of the external visual world' as the basis for authoritarian verification of Abstraction.
In the 1990's much of the digital software was organized and designed on Broadway, SoHo/NoHo. "DotCom" Gallery was active then too. The transfer from analog systems to digital systems accelerated from the 1990's through to 2005, so that the personal cell phone computers ( Germans call therm "handies") connected individuals to digital software that configured the visual world in a way that neither Director Barr nor any others could have foreseen.
A whole new visual world appeared through the digital systematics. We could see new things in new ways.
I exhibited the "VENUS OF PIXELS" works during 1994-1995 at DDA and DotCom , Henie Onstad , and group shows. No one knew what a Pixel was or what it meant.( And I was a sexist. ) Alex Katz came by one show and said later, "hey, I like 'em".
New entities and structures in deep space were revealed and analyzed. Inner parts of the human body and its structures were revealed and understood in new ways. The conquest of the external and internal visual world leapt into a new phase, bounded out geometrically and multiplied our comprehension. What could be known expanded dramatically and continues unrestricted.
The limitation and prejudgement of Mr. Barr and so many others was shattered by human innovation. There can be no better demonstration of the hazards of the authoritarian closed mind than the Digital Age.
I recall the rejection of a donation of one of my works (maybe one of the VENUS of PIXEL pieces) by the MET, 20th Century Art Wing Curators, in 2003-2004. She was so sorry -- I replied, "What will you do with 21st Century Art ? ".
Indeed, preconceptions and prideful authoritarian attitudes do debilitate the freedom of the artists in every discipline. But note that it is the closed senses and minds of the authoritarian and retail journalists that suffer the most. They can't see it ! They have to come later to appreciate the new configurations and new ways to see, to hear and to feel the world.
For the artists and poets, we have to hold their hands and gently show them the way. Without the innovations, those nay-seerers would be stuck inside their limitations, gloating on the conquest that was, rather than riding the thrill of the revealed.
PS: Everyone thought you, Mr. Ratcliff, were the best cool looking of the Poets.
Perhaps it’s passive laziness, lack of confidence or a marked deficiency in education that inclines people toward acceptance of being told what to think rather than actively engaging in critical thinking.
(Thanks for another thought-provoking piece.)
Thank you.
Alfred Barr cites “a powerful impulse” That drove artists to “abandon imitation of natural appearances”.
‘Abandon’ feels negative. ‘Imitation’ connotes fake, dishonest and unoriginal. ‘Appearance’ also stands on shaky ground.
The “powerful impulse” interests me though.
There may be an impulse in the neuro-diverse mind of an artist, to constantly seek change. I’m constantly hearing that an artist must go beyond his comfort zone, try new things. Yet many commercially successful artists stay within set boundaries.
Nature is always with us, even in a subway car. I value my ability to find beauty in the natural world through visual experience, only to find a way that it might be conveyed. It’s basic to how I’ve assembled my skills. For me, aesthetic priorities are established that guide and extend my ability to invent and create images, some fantastic, that, while not totally abstract, have never before existed.
Authority x Reductionism = Power + Control
Your commentaries are refreshing. appreciate.