22 February 2011

The Art of Jeff Sonhouse



Jeff Sonhouse’s latest exhibition, “Pawnography,” at the Tilton Gallery in New York explores the role of the black male in today’s shifting socio-political climate. His vivid portraits, rendered as mixed media paintings or drawings, depict a variety of political and anonymous figures, their faces sometimes masked or completely obscured. In the case of the latter (examples below), the effect is reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s harrowing representations of authoritarian politicos. These often colorful works ask the viewer to consider the dark undercurrents of our cultural and political landscapes. As the exhibition title suggests, both we and the subjects in Sonhouse’s paintings are instruments in a game we may never fully comprehend. (Source: www.coolhunting.com)

solidarności z Libią

08 February 2011

Jung on Art

Finally Jung summarizes his view of art and the artist--and cocks yet another snoop at Freud in the process:

"This re-immersion in the state of participation mystique is the secret of artistic creation and of the effect which great art has upon us, for at that level of experience it is no longer the weal or woe of the individual that counts, but the life of the collective. That is why every great work of art is objective and impersonal, and yet profoundly moving. And that is also why the personal life of the artist is at most a help or a hindrance, but is never essential to his creative task. He may go the way of the Philistine, a good citizen, a fool, or a criminal. His personal career may be interesting and inevitable, but it does not explain his art".