Over the summer, I was lucky enough to take a painting workshop in the Atelier Studio Program in Minneapolis. In this week-long workshop, I probably learned more about painting the human figure than I ever had before.
The Atelier in Minnesota and other states is a school founded by Richard Lack, a realist painter who revitalized classical painting and created the term “Classical Realism.” The Atelier schools focus on a high level of development and craftsmanship in the traditional skill of drawing from life.
However amazing the finished pieces from Lack looked, they didn’t seem to be doing anything new and didn’t seem to fit in our contemporary culture.
One of the things Lack was motivated by was a reaction to modernism, abstract and ‘formless’ art.
While part of me agrees with him and loves the Western canon, I can also recognize that classical painting is now stale and that the old masters have exhausted everything that can be painted in that way.
While I agree art has to keep moving in time, I also have issues with contemporary art.
Though I would agree painters like Pollock and Rothko did something new and necessary, I struggle to receive any inspiration from their pictures. I also feel similar with many examples of installation art and found-object art.
Not only are the traditional forms lost, but also the detailed skill in making them. Everything in a modern art museum seems to be unfinished, or pointing to something that is beyond the art piece. It is a reflection of the modern condition.
Most pieces these days feel like exercises in destruction and a seeking for what is next in our chaotic time. In our digital society, we are now so oversaturated with images that we can reference any piece of art from all over the world at any point in time with just a Google search, but the actual art being created seems to reflect nothingness.
So the question is: when will this endless destruction end and where are art students to look when trying to create something new?
Within postmodern art it is too easy to be derivative while pretending to be new. Much of the found art has already been precipitated by the Dadaists almost a hundred years ago, and pop art was mastered by Warhol. This time in art seems to be post-postmodern, post-ironic and all of those oversaturated phrases common to contemporary philosophy and art.
It is a confusing time for artists trying to make something original, especially in the world of visual art. The intrusion of technology also has us asking if we should really use the old media anymore or switch to new ones.
Our biggest innovations in visual culture are now virtual and tech design, from logo designs to Airpod cases. None of these designs are art pieces by themselves without the product.
Is there still a future for stand-alone art pieces, for the age-old arts of painting, drawing, and sculpture?
I certainly hope so because, for me, art represents one of the most fundamental pieces of humanity.
Sonnek can be contacted at [email protected].
