British philosopher Alain de Botton once said that one of the most ridiculous ideas hovering in the modern world is that art should be for its own sake. Instead, he said, art should be a tool to teach, inspire and improve our society.
Canadian photographer Jeff Wall and British artist Gary Hume newly displayed at the Pinchuk art center prove that even though contemporary art is often more puzzling than pretty, it’s also encrypted with loftier ideas.
Personal exhibitions of both masters started in Pinchuk Art Center on Feb. 4, and will run through April 1.
If you are like most people, you probably feel baffled by the abstract shapes, random lines and nebulous objects dubbed as art. But artist Gary Hume promises revelations for those who put forth an effort.
Hume remarked that he wished that every visitor would wear lead shoes before entering his show, so that they would be forced to linger in front
of his paintings and ponder introspectively. Instead of revealing the meaning of his paintings, he entrusts the viewer with freedom to experience his art with pure emotion, which is not difficult given the arresting nature of candy-colored paintings.
The inspiration for Hume’s work are doors, particularly hospital doors and has created life-size versions of doors in all colors and shapes. One of them, entitled A Couple, involves two shiny aluminum strips with two green circles. Having trouble deciphering a couple here? Hume offers help solving the mystery: it’s an old couple who met at the hospital and despite sicknessea and age have a pleasant conversation.
Another artwork inculdes multi-colored fragments of a rainbow jumping out of white walls. Don’t look too hard for a message; Hume claims the pieces of the broken rainbow are meant to simply be looked at.
Hume is also bold enough to put a large aluminum circled covered with black glossy paint entitled “The Whole”, explaining that it encompasses the entirety of the universe. Why paint elaborate paintings he asks? It’s has all been done before.
In a work representing Osama Bin Laden’s death, Hume stretched his conceptual boundaries painting green surface with colorful balloons and a brown rectangle in the corner. With no sign of a terrorist the work became Anxiety and Horse. Right next to it, the president is represented by rich blue with two black dots and one white.
In the pastel-colored series American Tan, Hume exposes the invisible imperfections of sports cheerleaders, admired as models of beauty and fitness in the US. But instead of taut bodies and blond hair there is a sculpture of a leg fragment, bent unnaturally with a pompom on the end.
Hume’s cheerful colors sometimes clash with faceless figures, fragments and distortions of the human body implying that even seemingly perfect people, relationships, and feelings have flaws, but are often masked by superficial beauty.
Jeff Wall
Unlike a National Geographic photographer , who waits for a perfect moment to shoot his photograph, 65 year old Jeff Wall artificially creates the setting selecting every detail, prop and planning his composition in advance. His photographic tableaux, as he calls them, reflect the slice of his Vancouver society, Wall follows classical rules of composition.
Instead of Greek and Roman heroes in imperial settings, ordinary modern Canadians appear siphoning fuel and dancing in sports gyms. Some compositions stunningly resemble some classical masterpieces.
A photo called Boxing, of two teenagers boxing within a pristine modern interior , is awfully similar to Jacques Louis David’s Oath of Horatii, and position of people on the grass in Tatoos and Shadows allude to Manet’s Dejeuner sur L’Herbe.
When Wall saw illuminated ads against light boxes around Europe, he decided to mold his photo transparencies over the boxes, making his kind of photo even more similar to a bulky tableau. Six of those are displayed at the Pinchuk center.
Wall is fascinating because he reveals quirky pockets in his society, so foreign and even repelling to us. In the vast-scaled Band and Crowd dorky nerds and hipsters with beer are spaced in the gym hall frozen in awkward moves to the local band rocking out on guitars. Often these pathetic scenes make you cringe but also provide the voyeuristic pleasure of stealing a secret peek behind the curtains of a troubled community.
Wall examines the themes of maturity and pubescence marking adulthood with the photo “Pawnshop” where a middle-class musician makes the painful sacrifice of giving away his guitar.
Wall’s forte, without doubt, is zooming in crisply and precisely at mundane scenes and objects imbued with issues moving and pertinent universally.
Undoubtedly, both exhibitions are worth visiting — even just to see that modern art does not have to be repulsive. Wall’s photos will be easier to comprehend. They open up a world that many Ukrainians would find intriguing. Hume’s masterpieces will be well received by those with a vivid imagination.
Pinchuk Art Center
1/3-2, Velyka Vasylkivska / Baseyna vul.,
tel.: 590-08-58
Open Tuesday through Sunday from12:00until9 p.m
Admission is free.ore details on http://pinchukartcentre.org/
Kyiv Post Staff Writer Maria Manzhos can be reached at[email protected]
