Apogee Photo Magazine

Fantasy, Abstraction and Realism in the Visual Arts
Part 1: The Roots of 20th Century Art

by Alan R. Krauss

Recent advances in digital technology are having an impact on photography and art. Yet this influence is not unlike the effect photography had on traditional painting in the last century. This article explores the parallels and introduces the reader to examples of the resulting "modern photography."

Digital imaging may be art, but is it photography? This is a question I have discussed frequently with my cousin Norman. Norman is a photographic purist who believes you can measure photographic excellence by the degree to which you're able to capture an image with all of its expressive nuances at the moment of exposure. Norman maintains any subsequent manipulation of the image is "cheating". This notion is closely related to the perception of photography as a form of journalism­­the revelation of "truth," and in this regard, photography has certainly been a significant force in shaping our understanding of the 20th century.

"Pure" Photography versus "ART"

The "purist" approach to photography is epitomized by the many photographers who prove they utilize every square millimeter of film allowed by their camera format by including the clear areas surrounding the negative in their prints. There are, however, an equally large number of photographers who hold the point of view that, depending on the composition, a given image may work better artistically when cropped to a ratio other than that of their camera's format. For these photographers, cropping is considered legitimate as long as it enhances the image's effectiveness.

This disparity of outlook between the so­called purists and the self­proclaimed artists is nowhere more apparent than in the response to the development of digital imaging in photography. Some photographers view the digital imaging process as alien to photographic technique, while others such as Joseph Holmes hail digital imaging as a means of obtaining better control of the photographic process. In an extension of that viewpoint, photographers such as Ron Brown and Martina Lopez use the capabilities of digital photography to produce creative images which would be very difficult to achieve with conventional photographic methods and which clearly do not represent literal reality captured on a single sheet of film.

Photographers who rely solely on photochemical means to produce their images face a situation similar to that which confronted painters when photographic technology became available in the early 19th century. Just how important are purist values? What are you giving up and what are you preserving? This two-part article will examine the relation between digital and photochemical imaging by looking at the parallel issues raised by the impact of the development of photography on painting. This task requires a quick look at the artistic and functional purposes of both painting and photography.

Looking at a Historic Parallel?

Much of the painting of the 14­16th centuries, such as Boticelli's Adoration of the Magi, was of a religious nature ­­ frequently commissioned by the Church. Painters of this era often employed the use of allegorical elements portrayed in a realistic, although obviously unphysical manner to create the intended visual and emotional impact. Consider the unrealistic perspective and disregard for the laws of physics Joachim Wtewael's "Perseus and Andromeda" (left) or the crowd of onlookers (both earthbound and heavenly) which Albani envisioned as part of Venus's daily toilette. The painter's intent was clearly to make visible the invisible essence of the subject through the use of allegory.

Bread­and­Butter Portraits

As the hegemony of Catholicism waned in western Europe, secular subjects became more common. With a few notable exceptions ­­ such as the blatantly unreal works of Peter Brueghel and Hieronymous Bosch, ­­ European painting of the 16th­19th centuries generally attempted to provide a realistic picture. As always, artists needed to eat, and much work of the period was commissioned as portrait painting ­­ the goal being the immortalization of the subject who was often a wealthy patron of the artist or a famous person such as Hans Holbein's Erasmus (left) or the many portraits by Rembrandt. If the setting portrayed in the painting was more flattering than the actual environment of the sitting, the artist was usually considered to be exercising his "artistic license," and if a slight deformity happened to be minimized or a homely person grew noticeably more handsome, the artist may have been praised for the accuracy of his rendition or his insight in representing the "essence" of the subject.

The Show­and­Tell of History

Painting was also used as a tool of journalism. Much of our understanding of the Old West and early 20th century America is a result of the paintings of Thomas Hart Benton. Other painters recorded great events in history such as major battles of the Civil War. Our understanding of these events depends very strongly on the journalistic integrity of the painters and their success in creating images whose literal accuracy was not compromised to achieve visual effectiveness.

Modern painters such as Robert Summers and Gary Lynn Roberts have also portrayed the Civil War. It is impossible to tell from their paintings whether they are intended to be literally accurate, or whether they are based on the artists' conception. However, unless these works were based on photographs taken at the time, it is unlikely they are accurate in every detail.

In earlier cases of historical depictions, such as Jacques-Louis David's paintings of The Death of Socrates (1787), "The Intervention of Sabine Women" (1799), or his 1814 portrayal of Leonidas at Thermopylae, the painter was sufficiently removed from the actual event that it is highly unlikely that the portrayal is accurate. Whereas "The Death of Socrates" presents a scene which is at least plausible, "Leonidas at Thermopylae" certainly does not represent our modern perception of the Spartan army which perished in the battle against the vastly larger Persian army under Xerxes. David's paintings are journalistic only in the broadest sense, but they are definitely art.

With the advent of photography, the painter faced a dilemma: Why should he spend hours or weeks of time to create a picture which at best was not as faithful a reproduction of the scene as the one snapped by the photographer in less than a second? Some painters such as Hopper and Wyeth continued working in the realistic style of their predecessors, but others began developing a specifically "modern" style of painting.

Abstracting the Image

With the advent of photography and its capability of rendering fast, precise images, many 20th century painters attempted to turn the limitations of their medium into an advantage. Since they were not bound to preserve inconsequential details which would be automatically recorded by a photograph, they could leave these out, abstracting the essence of an image as they saw it. Their final product might or might not correspond to the literal image as recorded by a camera. The painter was free to create new visions, and in so doing, illustrate new ways of looking at things. As Paul Klee put it, the intent was not to reflect the visible, but to make visible the unseen. With this goal, painters reverted to the earlier style of painting in which allegory and the presentation of presumably invisible objects (such as angels) were used.

The Light and Dark of Impressionism

Impressionist painters such as Renoir, van Gogh and Gaugin were primarily interested in the effects of light. The subject matter, as in the case of Monet's haystacks and lily pads, was often incidental. Cezanne, although originally affiliated with the impressionist school, eventually separated himself from this movement, preferring instead to define the reality of his subjects without the "confusions" of human perception. In an attempt to bring order out of the perceived chaos resulting from "accidental" properties imposed by our senses and the circumstances of the moment, he sought to create a "higher reality" devoid of the effect of light and atmosphere on his subject.

With the beginning of the 20th century, painters such as Kandinsky and Di Chirico created images which, by their "unrealism," provoke emotional responses which would be difficult to achieve by literal representation. The fantastic landscapes of Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali, and Kay Sage suggest other, hostile worlds which, by their very barrenness and apparent danger, create a strong emotional response. Max Ernst and Renee Magritte depicted improbable situations such as a man with a bird cage in place of his head in a manner which said, "In my world this exists" and also, "This world is no more absurd than the one you recognize." Henri Matisse used perspective distortions and incongruous juxtapositions which offer us a world whose laws of physics and geometry differ dramatically from ours.

Cubism Leaves Appearance Behind

Cubism developed partly as a response to certain characteristics of Cezanne's work. The idea was to attempt to separate the substance from the appearance of the subject. In the words of Henri Matisse, "There is an inherent truth which must be disengaged from the outward appearance of the object to be presented. This is the only truth that matters..." Juan Gris, Jackson Pollock, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger and Marcel Duchamp painted in the cubist style. The subject matter of their paintings is often unrecognizable except on a totally subjective "gut level", upon which they were attempting to communicate. In "Nude Descending Staircase," (left) Duchamp attempts to convey the effect of motion by portraying the multiple positions and body configurations presented during the course of the descent.

Many of Pablo Picasso's early works, such as "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon were in the cubist style, employing, for example, simultaneous frontal and profile presentations of the body or face as in "Woman in the Fish Hat." However, Picasso also broke new ground in the use of distortion and non­representational imaging as a means of presenting an underlying truth about his subjects.

Other painters eschewed representational painting altogether. Joan Miro imbued geometric forms with life in his exotic representations of what might be taken for scenes under the seas of a strange planet. Piet Mondrian produced totally abstract geometric combinations of colored rectangles. Mark Rothko built his career on various representations of one or more fuzzy­edged rectangles against contrasting monochromatic backgrounds. Painting had broken the bonds of the expected.

References:

Ron Brown, http://www.xmission.com/~photofx
Photo Electronic Imaging 39 No. 7 (1996) p. 6

Robert Summers - Lee's peninsula campaign "The First Victory"
http://www.world-wide-art.com/

Gary Lynn Roberts - Valiant Men of the Confederacy "Crossing Lick Creek"
http://www.world-wide-art.com/

Paul Klee, http://www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/klee/



Click here to continue to Part 2