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Lot Essay
“In contrast to the assertion of one reality, my work investigates how different realities interact and abrade. And the understanding is that the abrasions start with the medium itself.” (M. Tansey, quoted in A. C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York, 1992, p. 132).
Mark Tansey is deeply admired for his hyper-realistic, yet mysterious and inscrutable paintings. The artist creates this tension by drawing from his vast library of reference materials and deep knowledge of art history, in the process effortlessly traversing both written and visual history. Painted in 1986, Artist I depicts a young artist drawing an apparently human figure on what appears to be the wall of a cave. Though the subject matter seems to be straightforward, our sense of visual order is undermined by several dissonances. Why is the apparently prehistorical art work depicted within Artist 1 drawn with the facial features represented by a large circle? The subject is clearly capable of drawing rudimentary facial features, yet seemingly takes a leap forward in artistic practice by abstracting what could have been crudely, but representationally drawn. Another disconnect is the apparent light source which seems constant and directed, thus unlike a campfire which one would expect in a cave and more like a searchlight. Are we viewing Tansey’s representation of the first artist or his observation or perhaps belief, that every artistic endeavor is a new beginning? This is one of the many questions that is raised by this master artist/philosopher. In Tansey’s practice, what seems quotidian is puzzling, what seems palpable is disconcerting and dreamlike.
Painted in Tansey’s distinctive shade of alluring sienna, Artist 1 emits a warm glow, in contrast to an actual cave which would typically and predictably feel dark and cold, thus undermining our conventional expectations. While there is an almost an antique vibration at first glance, the directed light forces the viewer to coldly examine the virtual artist’s intentions as well as Tansey’s. The sienna palette masks a detached, intellectual investigation into the nature of art which washes out the distraction of multiple colors allowing us to consider the implications of the disconnect between the apparently obvious and what is just below the surface.
While his is a much less obvious form of surrealism than that of Dali or Magritte, it is surrealism nonetheless. Tansey is often categorized as a Post Structuralist, as well as a Post-Modernist, but one may consider Tansey’s practice as intellectual surrealism with an art historical focus. Tansey can negotiate and summarize decades of art historical knowledge in a consumable format, by using an invigoratingly intricate and textured painting style.
The tangential presence of art and history–of a picture within a picture–a clash of disciplines and attitudes, a clash of realisms and realities. "I am not a realist painter," Tansey has declared, expanding, "In my work, I'm searching for pictorial functions that are based on the idea that the painted picture knows itself to be metaphorical, rhetorical, transformational, fictional. I'm not doing pictures of things that actually exist in the world. The narratives never actually occurred. In contrast to the assertion of one reality, my work investigates how different realities interact and abrade. And the understanding is that the abrasions start within the medium itself" (M. Tansey, quoted in A.C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, C. Sweet (ed.), New York, 1992, p. 132).
Nothing could denote history–actually, prehistory–in a more tactile fashion than a cave painting. But, Artist 1 is a painting of someone making a cave painting unlike any we have seen before. One wonders if the protagonist of this painting is an avatar for Tansey himself making something contemporary and thought provoking from that which is traditional and rudimentary. The artist overturns our expectations despite the apparent simplicity of the scene he renders. When considering Artist 1, Tansey demands the viewers full engagement, and in doing so, we are rewarded with a creatively absorbing meditation on the nature of art.
Mark Tansey is deeply admired for his hyper-realistic, yet mysterious and inscrutable paintings. The artist creates this tension by drawing from his vast library of reference materials and deep knowledge of art history, in the process effortlessly traversing both written and visual history. Painted in 1986, Artist I depicts a young artist drawing an apparently human figure on what appears to be the wall of a cave. Though the subject matter seems to be straightforward, our sense of visual order is undermined by several dissonances. Why is the apparently prehistorical art work depicted within Artist 1 drawn with the facial features represented by a large circle? The subject is clearly capable of drawing rudimentary facial features, yet seemingly takes a leap forward in artistic practice by abstracting what could have been crudely, but representationally drawn. Another disconnect is the apparent light source which seems constant and directed, thus unlike a campfire which one would expect in a cave and more like a searchlight. Are we viewing Tansey’s representation of the first artist or his observation or perhaps belief, that every artistic endeavor is a new beginning? This is one of the many questions that is raised by this master artist/philosopher. In Tansey’s practice, what seems quotidian is puzzling, what seems palpable is disconcerting and dreamlike.
Painted in Tansey’s distinctive shade of alluring sienna, Artist 1 emits a warm glow, in contrast to an actual cave which would typically and predictably feel dark and cold, thus undermining our conventional expectations. While there is an almost an antique vibration at first glance, the directed light forces the viewer to coldly examine the virtual artist’s intentions as well as Tansey’s. The sienna palette masks a detached, intellectual investigation into the nature of art which washes out the distraction of multiple colors allowing us to consider the implications of the disconnect between the apparently obvious and what is just below the surface.
While his is a much less obvious form of surrealism than that of Dali or Magritte, it is surrealism nonetheless. Tansey is often categorized as a Post Structuralist, as well as a Post-Modernist, but one may consider Tansey’s practice as intellectual surrealism with an art historical focus. Tansey can negotiate and summarize decades of art historical knowledge in a consumable format, by using an invigoratingly intricate and textured painting style.
The tangential presence of art and history–of a picture within a picture–a clash of disciplines and attitudes, a clash of realisms and realities. "I am not a realist painter," Tansey has declared, expanding, "In my work, I'm searching for pictorial functions that are based on the idea that the painted picture knows itself to be metaphorical, rhetorical, transformational, fictional. I'm not doing pictures of things that actually exist in the world. The narratives never actually occurred. In contrast to the assertion of one reality, my work investigates how different realities interact and abrade. And the understanding is that the abrasions start within the medium itself" (M. Tansey, quoted in A.C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, C. Sweet (ed.), New York, 1992, p. 132).
Nothing could denote history–actually, prehistory–in a more tactile fashion than a cave painting. But, Artist 1 is a painting of someone making a cave painting unlike any we have seen before. One wonders if the protagonist of this painting is an avatar for Tansey himself making something contemporary and thought provoking from that which is traditional and rudimentary. The artist overturns our expectations despite the apparent simplicity of the scene he renders. When considering Artist 1, Tansey demands the viewers full engagement, and in doing so, we are rewarded with a creatively absorbing meditation on the nature of art.