PURE PAINTING
A Sense of Quality
“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.”
-Walter Pater
By pure painting I refer primarily to the physicality of the painted object. In an oil painting, this object is the oil paint on canvas or board. This is our first sensory encounter with the work and it is like hearing the notes of music and the tone qualities of the musical instruments. All of our knowledge comes through the senses and it is the sense of sight that gives us our first knowledge of a painting. By pure painting I am referring to the aesthetic reaction caused by the response to the painting as painting. It is the pure beauty and expression of paint texture, brushstrokes, and color itself. It is the aesthetic experience provided by the encounter with a work of art. In this case painting. I make the musical analogy to distinguish it from an art that is mainly about ideas, political or otherwise.
There are of course several levels on which to approach a painting and several points of view from which to evaluate it. The first and most obvious is the subject matter and content, provided we are not talking about non-objective abstract art. Since I intend to refer to the history of painting, I will be dealing mainly with representational paining. The subject matter may imply a narrative and may also reflect ideas inherent in the story. This is the literary level of a painting in those paintings that have one. Another level would be the style of the execution. This may range from a basic realism to various styles like Baroque, Expressionism, or Modernism in general. A further level would be concerning the execution; the technique, craftsmanship and skill in the art of painting. This is often harder to evaluate as it requires more technical knowledge and experience from the viewer. Currently, craftsmanship does seem highly regarded because it does not express clear ideas whether philosophical or those addressing social and political change. Perhaps because it is harder to appreciate, I think it may be the most important element which makes a work of art a work of art, provided one has a respect for aesthetics. It is mainly in the level of skill and technique where a painting can approach the condition of music.
To get the full aesthetic experience of a painting, it must be approached or felt on every level or at least every level that the artist intended in the painting. The first two levels I mentioned are relatively obvious and they are how most people, both in and out of the professional art world, approach art. Contemporary art criticism and curatorial practice seem to place a premium on art’s role and responsibility for social change and often to the extent that this is often seen as art’s only function and purpose. For some this becomes a simple definition of art. As important as these issues are and how laudatory it would be if art can be effective in this way, I do not think it is a proper definition of art and it is not a good way to understand art or in this case painting.
The mystery and poetry of painting for me comes mainly from the pure aesthetic sensation of color and the painterly expression of the brushwork. It is also about the composition of these brushstrokes and the expressive arrangement of the shapes and colors across the canvas. In other words, it is the formal, abstract and sensuous elements of painting that you react to rather unconsciously. Vladimir Nabokov said you feel this in your spine. Ideas, innovations, and politics may be important, but these do not, I think, create the aesthetic response.
The brushstrokes and textures in the paintings of Eduard Manet are an essential part of his aesthetics. Equally so are the fluid vitality of Franz Hals’ brushwork and the poetic, meditative scumbled and broken textures of the brushwork of Diego Velazquez. These are artists commonly referred to as painter’s painters, meaning it usually take a painter to appreciate their craft and brilliance. For me one of the great experiences of painting is perceiving how the artist has applied the paint to the canvas, how he uses the brushstrokes to express observed reality.
One of the great masters of this pure painting is Titian. Of course, his paintings are not just what we would call pure painting, because his subjects are recognizable mythology, religion and history. However, it is the surface texture, brushstrokes and color by which his art elevates and transcends his basic subjects and ideas. His late, great The Flaying of Marsyas is, I think, great mainly because of the color and shear sensuous physicality of the painted surface combined with the violent subject matter and the philosophical allegory.
The Flaying of Marsyas is in a museum in the Czech Republic, which is where I currently live. I now have this great example of pure painting close at hand. It is also special for me because I painted a version of this myth myself years before in Chicago.
The effects of the brushstrokes and the movement of the paint across the surface can be life-enhancing, to use the famous phrase by Benard Berenson. The individual marks of paint are like the individual notes in a musical score, which together create the work of art. When I first started looking at paintings, I was greatly moved by this experience. I am not exactly sure why, but it was like hearing music.
In referring to music, Arthur Schopenhauer said “…its effect on man's innermost nature is so powerful, and it is so completely and profoundly understood by him in his innermost being as an entirely universal language.” Schopenhauer goes on to say that this experience is unique to music and it is not the same with the other arts. For me, painting can offer a similar experience if it is approached more in the way we approach music.
I do not intend to say that a musical, sensual and an aesthetic approach to a painting is the highest way to appreciate a painting, but I do mean to say that without it I do not think one can fully appreciate it as a work of art.