Latest posts by michael wilson (see all)
- JORDAN RIVER - February 5, 2019
- Inspired Art - August 2, 2018
- Waiting for Inspiration - July 31, 2018
- The Bridge between Painting and Photography - July 31, 2018
The actual merger of a conscious idea with the universal un-conscious is essentially the synthesis in abstract painting. It is an actual process where an idea is given form. This form is then transmuted by the un-conscious or as some would say, the sub-conscious. Without this critical merger there is no real synthesis to depend on.
I like the story by one biographer of Picasso where he relates how Picasso would stand hours before a painting in study. The painting would be one third complete – he had given it the initial conscious beginning, the conceptual idea. Now he studied what was before him to understand what the painting was trying to say… what the sub-conscious was wanting to manifest. Without that merger there is no force, no real dynamic that underlies the painting. It would be foolish to believe that our limited consciousness can fully grasp the vast universal un-conscious. We can begin, we can start but it quickly becomes a process of carefully responding to these seemingly hidden universal themes. This is the synthesis. We occupy, after all two distinct spheres of influence – conscious form (that which we see and experience by our natural senses) and the hidden un-conscious which essentially motors our responses. By becoming aware of those two distinct spheres the artist by degrees becomes adept in responding to a dynamic synthesis.
The genius behind the painting Nude Descending a Staircase by Duchamp represented a giant leap in exactly this kind of merger. At that time there were the Futurists painters who were infatuated with motion. They thought this was the next universal transition for painting. The other presiding camp were the cubists led by Picasso and Braque. They felt that form should be understood in terms of prismatic effects. Duchamp effectively merged those two concepts with remarkable sensitivity in the painting Nude Descending the Staircase. As a result Modern art was literally catapulted from figurative painting. That one painting spawned an entirely new awareness in the artistic community.
Today we are unsure exactly where our art will take us and how abstract painting will evolve. The advances in psychology and the broader understanding of the distinction between the conscious and the un-conscious should prove enormously helpful to the sensitive artist. Evolution of concepts is inevitable. The merger, the synthesis of natural conscious form with the universality of the subconscious will potentially lead us to a vigorous and dynamic abstract expression.