Gauguin

With these new paintings I’m going to take the Artist vs. Musician thing a step further by putting early 90’s Rock Stars in paintings based on old Master compositions. How did I come to that conclusion did I ask. Well, istead of limiting this original idea to Soundgarden, I decided that what Soundgarden does is really sum up that whole era of music for me, the music which raised my creativity, and whose lyrics make up a huge part of the inner working of my brain (along with useless things like the blood code to Mortal Combat: ABACABB). I also thought about relating the two by claiming music went through a Renaissance in the early 90’s, as bands such as Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Guns N’ Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, all emerged out of the post-synthesized/hair banded 80’s sound to create amazing meaningful music that paved the way for a new era of music (even though that era turned into shitty rap-rock garbage and other crap like Coldplay). That idea, as valid as it is, doesn’t do much to justify but plays a part in the work.

And ever since I went to study in Florence I have incorporated Old Master compositions. I see it as a way to ingage in a dialogue with / pay homage to the ones who came before me. There are a few paths that painting started to take in the Late Renaissance, those paths branch out even further as time went on through Cezanne and the whole Picasso/Matisse branches until we come to the current abortion of post-post-post modernism. I’ve always felt an affinity towards the painterly path, started by Titian in those brushstrokes defining details found on Pietron Aretino, carried on by Rembrandt, through the impressionists and . The ability to sum something up in one brushstroke.

Since my goal is to make paintings more directly related to the painting process, I feel my apprapriation completely justified, and essential. In regards to Gauguin in particular, I picked this painting mainly because of the way he breaks up the space. His landscapes almost feel like a pile of rags. In terms of personality, he is also one of the most interesting.
The whole human experience thing, Gauguin definitely took advantage of that.