PERCEPTION AND PAINTING
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The abstract of Donald Craig Sorenson
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CONTENTS
LIST OF PLATES •
i
INTRODUC'l'ION •
1
The Art Historical Dilemma and its
Philosophical Basis
Body
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6
Painting and Visual Thinking
Conclusion .
. .
• .
. •
10
An Ontological View
13
BIBT.. IOGRJ',.PHY •
PL..!iTES • • •
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LIST OF PLATES
Page
Plate
1.
"Untitled, 1971"
2.
"Untitled, 1971"
3.
"Untitled, 1971"
4.
"l-veb #1, 1972"
5.
"Web #2, 1972"
6.
"Web #3, 1972"
7.
"Untitled, 1972"
8.
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9.
"Untitled, 1972"
Untitled, 1972"
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ABSTRACT
PERCEPTION AND PAINTING
by
Donald Craig Sorenson
Master of Arts in Art
January, 1973
Since the beginning of the ttventieth century the
style termed "Hodernism," seems to have rapidly depleted
itself, and we now have what some critics have termed
"post--Modernism.
11
This situation particulary affects
painting, in which forms, methods, and techniques that
hmre been used until now presently appear exhausted to
artists, and they are turning to sculpture and/or
conceptual forms of art.
- "Modernism," has been defined as a progressive
stripping down to bare essentials or a discovering of
underlying structure. 1
This can be observed in two
tendencies t.hat arose in painting -- one stems from
~1onet.,
which v,ras eventually refined to color field and
flatm2ss -- the other from Cubism and the artist Mondrian
to a sort of geometric abstraction.
'I'he two direc·tions
1 Jack Burnham, The Structure of Art
L~eor~~-~raziller I~~~9?_~~---~_P·· 4~-
{New York~
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have also been synthesized in certain cases.
They
represent the "issues" that painting has always faced.
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Being highly philosophical, they represent the dualistic
nature of man -- the Dionysiac/Apollonian poles.
The
shift that occurred in the 1960's was the complete
secularization of art -- it was the final determining
force' of the system that perhaps was put into operation
by Manet -·· it marked the end of an epic and a tradition.
Faced with an immense historical consciousness and
knowledge, there is a general malaise among many artists,
painters, in particular.
It is the purpose of this brief
abstract on my o-vm work to define painting, and to
provide justification for its continued existence and
necessity.
Conceptual art has been an attempt to "go beyond
the object," and transcend the physical.
Ironically,
in some forms it has become mystical, a reaction to
the static quality of "object" painting and sculpture
executed during the 1960's, which was one of the charges
brought against "vitalist" or expressionistic painting
of earlier styles.
I want to point out that true paint-
ing has never been "physical.n
I
It is the nature of work-
ing in two dimensions that contradicts the physicality of
the
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paint~g.
A flat color field is still "illusionistic."
2 Peter Plagens, "Some Problems in Recent Painting,"
Journal, (Winter 1970--1971), pp. 160-162.
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This is painting's hope and its strongest asset.
It should be obvious by now that what might be needed
is a new structure -- one that goes
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beyt~~
degree, vertical and horizontal grid.
the ninety
Non-object art is
one attempt to do this, but will fail unless it is
ontological and based in perception.
The art historian
Kubler suggests that a man appears at the end of an epic
or at the beginning of one, who synthesizes all the past
forms of the culture and creates a ne'"' structure. 3
The
process is particularly evident in Western art (for
example:
Giotto, Hichelangelo, Leonardo, Rembrandt,
Beethoven, Picasso, Schoenberg, etc.) ;
hov;ever, Kubler
I
I
came t.o this conclusion by studying the forms of preColwnbian art in an absence of a written tradition.
Our
modernist epic is drawing to a close, another structure
is being formed, and it appears we are on the threshold
of_the new.
Being genuinely concerned with a rift between a
perceptual versus conceptual form of art in the past, I
no longer wish to acknowledge a difference.
It is the
quality of the forms or the ideas that is important• It
is a period of speculation, ·theory, experiment, and in
some cases, decadence.
In some areas painting is still
the most propitious medium or methodology available
.
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3George Kubler, The Shape of Time
(New Haven and
London: Yale Universit.y Press, 1962), p. 89.
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for experimentation -- providing one learns its limits.
comes upon
discover~_::E
S~IE:.P)Y
by its own
~~
or more
Currently, painting is under a surge of linguistic
structuralism., Marcel Duchamp made the remark that he
was tired of being termed a "stupid paint.er. "
4
He
wanted to put painting "at the service of the mind"
as opposed to "retinal" painting.
This paper is partly
an attempt to show that an illiterate painter, far from
being
11
stupid, 11 can have a very refined perceptual
"intelligence."
Being unfortunately misled by linguists
into t.hinking that painting and all art is based on word
struct.ure, Duchamp hypothesized that when one strips away
the forms, pure thoughts are the
11
result~
hence, his work,
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even." 5
. Structural linguistics is one way of looking at the
world -- especially language -- ·and has led to important
discoveries.
However, it is only one of many theories
and basically epistemological.
Because of this it can
be applied to language systems, literature, and other
4Marcel Duchamp, "Painting ..• at the Service of the
Mind," in Theories of Modern Art, ed. by Herschel B.
Chipp (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of
California Press, 1970), pp. 392-395.
1
5 Jack Burnham, The Structure of Art,
George Braziller Inc., 1971), p. 160.
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(New York:
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mental thought-systems with great success -- but when
applied to the visual arts it utterly fails to give an
adequate explanation in any great depth.
This is because
most art is based in experience and perception and is
ontological in scope.
It is about being.
Through readings in phenomenology and gestalt
psychology it has become apparent to me that painting
is a form of "visual thinking." 6
Artists learn from
looking at art and from their own experience.
The mind
receives impressions of form and simple shapes and
creates a synthesis.
This is done partly consciously,
partly beneath awareness.
with images.
The painter in a sense "thinks"
Being a very complex operation that the mind
of a great painter performs, it has little to do with
linguistics~
He tends to grasp the elements that will
make up the new structure of experience before it has
been realized and gives it concrete, sensible existence.
This becomes a violent revolutionary act that tends to
.
break down the old order of art and create a new one.
7
Painting, since it can transcend the limitations
of physical form and does not require an accumulation of
vast amounts of int.ellectual literary knowledge, has
~al Thinkir,:-t.s[ (Berkeley,
Los lmgeles and London: University of California Press,
1969) 1 pp. 13-14.
7
Morse Peckham, Man's Rage for Chaos (New York:
1 Schocken Books, 1967), pp. 25-40.
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6 Rudolf Arnheim,
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the advantage of grasping a new s·tructure in the most
expedient way.
This is why I believe that painting is
as good as any other methodology of art to reach this
goal.
In large scale paintings there often exists a
certain strength; paintings that are conceived small
rarely work in bigger dimensions.
For example, ana. lytic
cubism which usually relied on small fcrmats and small
dabs of paint could never be painted large.
Picasso's
"Guernica" has been criticized for this very reason -being actually three separate composi t:ions. 8
An import-
ant step was taken in the SO's and 60's in painting.
The scale was increased and the observer was actually
enveloped in the vmrk.
For these reasons I chose to 'N'Ork large, using
dirr.ensions of about six by eight feet --- human scale.
I do not work from small studies,
(except perhaps to
work out a new structural problem) conceiving and working directly on the canvas.
A sort of dialetical
process takes place between myself and the canvas
being a series of diminishing returns until I feel it
is finished.
It becomes an analytical as well as an
/.
!;; \;.;
8walter D. Bannard, "Touch and Scale: Cubism,
Pollock, Newman and Still," Artforum, (June, 1971),
c:6.
·-7-
and reconsidering.
If I go too far the painting is a
failure-- the same as when Pollock would "lose touch." 9
Using acrylic paints that produce a sort of pastel
chalky surface seems most agreeable to my sensibility.
My paintings end up fairly thick
paint.ing.,
11
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lots of under-
Having a sort of predilectJon ;towards
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yolor schemes, I enjoy juxtaposing shrill
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and idlss"(;'~an·t· colors to create tensions.
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The entire
painting is painted with a brush guided by a light
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pencil drawing.
Then certain shapes -- stripes, zig-
zags, bars or triangles are taped off with masking
tape, although some are painted freehand.
These end
up being very complex configurations of over-under
shapes, and some are almost completely painted over
by a protruding background.
Coming to the problem of figure and ground we can
see that this has been an occupation either consciously
or unconsciously of painters for centuries.
It is
crucial in n-.y opinion to what painting· is about
it is also how we perceive the world.
for
Painting, for
many artists~ has returned to a primal perceptual method
9 Jackson Pollock, "Three Statements," in Theories
of Modern Art, ed. by Herschel B. Chipp (Berkeley,
1 Los Angeles and London:
University of California Press,
L-~~-7 o~~_:~~--54 -.~- ~---6
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·-·-·--·----in the 20th century.
That is why some painting is
sol
similar to paleolithic cave painting or children 1 s art.loj
Although being very sophisticated, it has returned to a
simple perceptual configuration;
that is, as a simple
figure against a plain background, with almost total
flatness.
At the present moment in t.he art.-political situation,
painting has been given about three alternatives: photorealism, wall sculpture, and non-painting or conceptual
art.
Having experienced a strong political pressure to
"push" painting into new directions, I
have experimented
with "wall sculpture,"
Close to a
(see plate 4).
hundred newspaper strips were cut out, being about four
layers each.
These were then dipped in acrylic paint
and left to dry.
A construction of interweaving with
staples and glue took place which formed the final semirectangular web.
This is the danger painting faces
when pushed to its limits
world.
I
the forms jump out into the
thought the strips would be the figures, while
the background would be the gallery or the world.
How-
ever, this is the function sculpture has always performed
and I have since temporarily abandoned this idea.
As I
stated earlier, painting's strength (enigmatic structure,
10 Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Thinking (Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London:
University of California Press,
1969) 1 pp. 254-273.
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,----------------------henc~
interest) lies in the very fact of its two dimen-l
sional illusions.
The nature of this illusion is what
interests me and it is wha·t my earlier (see plates 1,
2 and 3), and later (plates 7, 8 and 9) paintings are
about.
The paper strip paintings helped me to realize
this structure as applied to the world (compare plates
4a, Sa and 6a, and plates 7a, 8a and 9a) in relation to
pa.in·ting.
'I'he early paintings attempted to integrate the
stripe and zig-zag figures into the background colorfield.
Some were buried in the field, some going in
and out of the plane, and some lying entirely on the
surface.
They were placed at an oblique angle creating
a ver:y dynamic composition.
After experimentingit
occurrr.~d
~vi th
·the paper-strip paintings,
to me that they v1ere too i.mmeshed in the
reality of experience to sc:q what. I wanted them t.o.
That is, they became three dimensional, occupying "real"
space.
They needed explanation, whereas the paintings
did not.
Hence, taking a cue from gestalt psychology,
I painted the bar and triangles paintings (plates 7,
8 and 9) •
I'he premise of these paintings was to make
statements on how we perceive the world -- using simple
gestalt principles.
How do we stru.ct.ure experience?
What is the basic
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cognitive process by which the mind pulls out objects
from chaos or nothingness?
In order to answer these
questions I used simple rectangles (bars) or triangles
painted in a purely random all-over pattern.
Like the
earlier zig-zag paintings, some of the bars were half
painted out, some complete.
Since I used fairly thick
paint, a ·tension is created bebreen thE: literal surface
and the overlapping illusionistic space or sense of
shallow depth.
This same tension was discovered by
Cezanne and by analytic cubism, and is present in the
work of Hans Hofmann. 11
According to the principals
of gestalt psychology, the mind should order and complete
the partially overpainted bars.
It was my desire to have tr1e perceiver a.ctively
involved with creating gestalts by "completing" the bars.
The viewer was supposed to see t;he frag.men::ed bits of
figures and "know" them as simple rectangles.
Cog-
nitivley the mind would tend to perceive the painting
in an orderly over-all effect -- although in reality
they were chaotic and random.
Hm.,rever, my ovm mind is
constantly striving for order while pai.nting ·thernr
consequently they are somewhat ordered.12
11c1ement Greenberg, Art and Culture
Beacon Press, 1965), pp. 52=53.
12Morse Peckham, Han's Ra9:_e__for Chaos
Schocken Books 1 1967);-pp. 33-34.
This can be
(Boston:
(New York:
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seen somewhat through my use of color balance.
continually frustrated by my own conceptions and the
inability to realize them, these paintings were not
as successful as they could have been.
However, I still
believe that my premise is sound and will be the criteria
for future explorations.
Painting is therefore ontological in scope and is
about the dialetics of perception.
It is intimately
connected to life and to t.he vmr:ld.
We know painting
as well as existence in a kinesthetic way.
It is a
belief in the actuality of painting as well as objects.
Painting is always in danger of either exhausting its
forms, or becoming relief sculpture.
In order for
painting to remain healthy, it is important that painters
keep the latter in mind.
Painting is a delicate balance
between existence and non-existence.
between figure and ground.
It is a tension
It is a tension between
organic and geometric, it is a balance behveen perceptual
experience and mental conception, but most of all -- it
is about man
as "being in the world."
Merleau~Ponty
made a statement about philosophy
which can be equally applied to painting:
"True
philosophy (painting) consists in relearning to look
at the world, and in this sense a historical account
can give meaning to the world quite as 'deeply' as
a philosophical treatise.
We take our fate in our
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hands, we become responsible for our history through
reflection, but equally by a decision on which we stake
1
our life, and in both cases what is involved is a
violent act which is validated by being performed." 13
13 Ma.ur ice r·1erleau--Ponty, "What is Phenomenology?"
in Pl:enomenolog_x_, . ed. by Joseph J. Kockelmans (New York:
Dbubleday & Company, Inc., 1967), pp. 373-374.
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
Arnheim, Rudolf. Visual Thinking. Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London: University of California
Press, 1969.
Burnham, Jack. The Structure of Art. New York:
George Braziller Inc., 1971.
Chipp, Herschel B.; Selz, Peter; and Taylor, Joshua
C., Theories of Modern Art. Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London: University of California
Press, 1970.
Greenberg, Clement. Art and. Culture. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1965.
Kockelmans, Joseph J., ed. Phenomenology. New York:
Doubleday & Company 1 Inc., 1967. "'""
Kubler, George.
T12,~...1~..!::§.P_~_o~_Tigte. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1962.
Merleau-Ponty 1 Maurice. PhenomeE_loloqy__ of Percept.ion.
New York: The Humanities Press, 1962.
Peckham I r·1orse. ~Ian Is Ra.se
Schocken Books, 1967.
~r
Cl_!aos_. New York:
Sartre, Jean-Paul.
Being and Nothingness. New York:
Washington Square Press, 1966.
Periodicals:
Bannard, Walter D.
"Touch and Scale: Cubism, Pollock
Newman and Still. 11 Artforum, (June, 1971) ,
58-66.
Plagens, Peter.
~~~l,
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"Some Problems in Recent Pain·ting. "
(Winter, 1970-1971), 160-162.
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PI.1ATE 1 •
PLATE 1 , a.
(det ail )
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PLATE 2.
Ph~TE
2,a.
(d et ail )
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PLATE 3.
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PLATE
PLATE 4, a.
4.
( detail)
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PJ..1ATE 5.
PLATE 5,a.
(detail )
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PLATE 6.
PLATE 6,a.
(det ail )
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PLATE 7.
PLATE 7,a.
(detail )
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PLATE
e.
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PLATE 9.
PLATE 9,a.
(detail )