The Ideas of Angony Paintings - Essay Example

– I’m sorry, I just don’t fully understand what it is you need. I have added quotes from two friends into the story, but am not sure this is what you are requesting. I also don’t want to waste a lot of time writing something unacceptable. Please take a look and provide more detailed directions about where I am going wrong. Student name Instructor name Course name Date Angony Rising What do you get when you cross primitive style with higher vision? The work of Melbourne native artist Angony is a viable solution. Angony is a very intense artist who works to depict the experiences of everyday life – its joys, pleasures, pains, stresses and challenges. “The majority of my paintings aren’t planned, it’s just a matter of persisting until something of interest transpires,” he says. However, this does not translate into frivolous results. Because he works quickly and doesn’t worry much about planning, Angony says he doesn’t have any of the complaints against acrylic paints drying too fast that many serious artists like him experience. Instead, he revels in the speed the paints impose on him as he allows an image to come to life for him. “I use acrylic paints because they are versatile, available in many shades, blend well and can be mixed with glazes or pastes for different effects. As I work fairly quickly, they are more suited to my style,” he says. Because of his highly expressive style, his neighbors say they love to watch him paint and are sometimes surprised to recognize themselves within his paintings. “Angony is very quick when he works and he doesn’t like to be interrupted. I think that is why he doesn’t usually like to have people around while he’s ‘in the zone’” says neighbor Sheila Creeley. “But sometimes you’ll notice the green hat you were wearing or that thing that you were doing in one of his next paintings.” Australia is home to artists of all kinds, making it difficult for the individual to make his own mark, but Angony has found his greatest expression and success in the form of primitive art. Primitive art recognizes that the underlying elements of human emotions can be deeply expressed through the colors and lines of the work more than the symbols and forms found in the image. By de-emphasizing focus on the image and channeling the emotional experience of the moment, primitive artists attempt to bridge any emotional distance introduced through cultural or social differences of symbol interpretation. This concept is perhaps best expressed by the words of Jean Francois Lyotard in his 1984 book The Postmodern Condition when he describes the process as an attempt “to make visible that there is something which can be conceived and which can neither be seen nor made visible.” This element is most often referred to as the sublime. For many artists, such as Angony, this sublime element is recaptured to the highest degree through the sense of wonder and imagination typically found through the focus on ‘primitive’ geometric forms. The movement toward primitive art was started by Pablo Picasso. As artists concentrated on the essence of the experience of the art and its creation instead of the symbolic form, they discovered that emotions were generally felt the same universally even when technical elements such as symbols, shapes or colors were understood differently by different cultures. This meant that the process of triggering an emotional response could be approached in the same way almost universally even though the forms might need to be changed. “It doesn’t surprise me to learn this theory about Angony’s work,” said friend Lucas Neil. “He paints from his feelings and worries about details later.” Angony, like many others, have discovered that some form of recognizable shape is generally preferred by the modern audience and looks to others such as Jean Michel Basquiat or Jean Dubuffet for inspiration. Basquiat was a well-recognized neo-expressionist artist who gained his start as a graffiti artist in New York. Dubuffet introduced the term ‘art brut’ to refer to art produced by non-professional artists working outside of the boundaries of aesthetic norms which he often used as inspiration for his own pieces. Angony also often looks to the artwork of children for inspiration, but his subjects are anything but childlike. In paintings such as “An Uphill Battle,” the colors are subdued and generally monochromatic within the red spectrum. This gives the painting a sense of energy and life being the color of the vital element blood, but the darker tones indicate older blood, deep emotion, pain and hardship. Within the painting is the shape of a very small hill angling into the image from the bottom center and leaning toward the right hand side. The word ‘give’ in capital letters is scratched into the paint near the top of the hill. Paralleling the angle of the hill and extending a bit above it is a very long, very thin arm. This arm enters the painting from the bottom left corner and ends in an open hand with curled fingers just above the word ‘give’. Just above the halfway point on the left hand side of the painting is the face of a man, nearly the same color as the background, with a gleaming white downward-angled eye and a mouth full of equally white teeth that could be smiling as easily as it could be gritting its teeth in pain. Thus, although the painting is highly primitive in its images, it expresses a great deal regarding the pain and need of the indigenous peoples of Australia living within the modern world. Whether the figure is attempting to climb the hill or is holding a hand out for donations is a matter of interpretation as is the expression on the man’s face. Not all of Angony’s paintings center on such serious topics. “Beach Babe,” for example, offers a simple view of the backside of a woman with particular emphasis given to her bottom. “Painting for me is probably similar to people who love reading … it’s a great escape in which time has no relevance and when I can allow my emotions and impressions of life free expression,” he says. “To hold a roof up is not the only purpose of walls, paintings give life to any scene and like a good song can change your entire outlook.” Angony has held numerous gallery showings and has sold his work in Australia, the United States and Thailand. To view more of Angony’s paintings or to contact him, visit his website at http://www.angonysart.com/. Critique My search for this story was particularly difficult. I looked on the internet for possible stories, but usually there wasn’t enough information available on the internet and it wasn’t possible for me to find more information elsewhere. I would start working on a story I thought would work, but then would run into a brick wall trying to find out the answers to questions I felt were important to have answered and would have to find another story to work on. Finally, a friend found out what I was doing and suggested an artist profile on someone they knew who was an artist. Contacting this artist was relatively easy on the internet and he graciously answered the questions I had. Through this experience, I learned the importance of getting to work early on my assignments, having back-up plans and the value of networking as a source of potential stories. Some of the important questions I asked in the interview were: What or who is your inspiration for your art? How would you characterize your style? What is your preferred medium? How do you approach your art? What do you consider some of your greater successes? Although I thought the interview would be just me asking a question and then him answering them, I discovered that the interview worked more like a regular conversation. I would ask a question and then he would start talking about something that would bring up a question I hadn’t thought of before. It kind of irritated me at first because I had trouble keeping up with my notes and sometimes the conversation would answer my questions out of order. However, I think this contributed greatly to the quality of my article. For example, I wouldn’t have made the connection to Picasso on my own, but the name all by itself adds a level of seriousness and historical relevance that strengthens the piece tremendously. Read More