Since March I have been occupied with commissioned paintings. Firstly I was asked to paint a version of Heironymous Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights', the famous right-hand panel, but with a twist. The customer wanted it to be reworked to include references and imagery inspired by the lyrics of The Rolling Stones. This was rather ambitious in the 3 month time-frame I was allowed but now, having not looked at the picture in a while, I am quite pleased with the result. There are 66 such references, I kept many of the original Bosch images and swapped others. I am not going to point them all out, fans of the band will find some very obvious, others are more subtle. Some are derived from song lyrics, others from band photos and record covers or key events in Stones history. The finished painting is 16" by 40"
The next painting, just completed is another for my regular customer E. Findlay whose father served in world war 2. Operation Bluecoat was the attempt to break out from the Normandy beach-head in 1944. Muir Findlay of the Scots Guards was a crew member in a Churchill tank. The countryside was very difficult for tank warfare with hedges and sunken lanes laying across the planned routes of advance. Crews were 'black and blue' or sometimes knocked senseless by the buffeting received within the confines of their tanks. With infantry often unable to keep pace in support and sometimes finding it impossible to communicate with their tanks there was much need for improvisation of new plans. On Hill 226 south of Caumont whilst tank officers assesed the position and briefed the crews there came a devastating counter-attack from the highly advanced German Jagdpanther armoured artillery. With greater range, more powerful engines and precision optics on their powerful 88mm guns they easily outclassed the British Churchills, often making a kill with each shot. The 3 German guns destroyed 8 Churchills in twenty minutes, Muir's tank was hit but he was able to escape though fellow crew were not so fortunate.
Does this mean I like his work?
No, there is a deeper level of understanding, there is dirty wire under the polished gallery floorboards.
To fully understand his prominence one must be aware of the cold war context in which Mark Rothko rose to fame. American abstract expressionist painters were funded and promoted by the Farfield Foundation and the CIA during the 1950s. This promotion extended to the funding of art periodicals throughout Europe, in Britain the magazine 'Encounter' , unwittingly edited by Stephen Spender was funded by the CIA. Its mission was to position American art so it became favourably viewed by left-wing Europeans who (it was thought) might otherwise be swayed by the Soviet realism of the era. (not just tractors, read all about it in 'The Cultural Cold War' by Frances Stonor Saunders)
Abstract expressionism therefore is not prominent on merit but rather at the will of US foreign policy makers.
Such soft power is obvious enough in the output of Hollywood and the US music industry, and there is a healthy public awareness of this. Not so in art, this important perspective on the rise of US abstract painting is mysteriously ignored by the media.
It is assumed that large scale gestural painting is the very emblem of 'freedom' in art but I contest that this aesthetic is the deliberate drowning out of a language to replace it with a repetitive shout. A shout emanating from a suspicious place. These painting fail to communicate anything, there is no scope within their narrow vocabulary. Art as a vehicle for engaging a mass audience with important content has been replaced with a 'heroic' biography of an all american 'underdog' whose greatest preoccupation is the huge rectangular daub. Meanwhile your consciousness has been subtly altered in accordance with the aims of the CIA. 'Gard' bless the USA.