I really like the figure in the lower right, her hands in particular, but I think the figure of Icarus here is kind of awkward. For instance, I think his upper torso has been artificially widened. Still a powerful painting. Also, the lighting here is spectacular and incredibly subtle.
I think it's a shame that most modernists/post-modernists/contemporary artists would immediately dismiss this painting as bad simply because of the subject matter. I admit that the subject here doesn't do much for me, but if I immediately dismissed the whole work for that reason I would be confessing my ignorance of this paintings' other virtues. When I debated these issues with other artists who automatically dismissed representational paintings like this one I did not ask them questions like, "what is wrong with this painting?" Instead I asked them, "what is good about this painting?" and instead of hearing some re-hashed aesthetic theory about why representation was bad I couldn't get an answer. Their lack of an answer would reveal to both of us the lack of understanding they had about their own positions.
It looks like his upper torso was widened because he had to use that part of his body to power the wings -- check out the arm straps.
ReplyDeleteWhy is representation considered bad? That sounds preposterous. Or does the art world have a more specific sense of the word "representation"?