Since the beginning of human existence, art has been a part of humanity... Paleolithic... Mesolithic... Neolithic... Classical Greek, Etruscan, and Roman... Early Christian... Byzantine... the Middle Ages... the Renaissance Greats... Baroque... Romanticism... Impressionism... Post-impressionism... Cubism... Surrealism... Abstract Expressionism. Each of these major art movements were a force of nature. Each art movement is a tributary, a fresh watershed of a River of visual expression flowing through humanity. Each movement flows into the next, and the "new" always echoes the voices of past movements in art.
Art movements are a product of their intellectual and social environment, and thus in the course of human history, paradigm flood shifts in human civilization and philosophy forward into new and fresh eras of time and thought.
After the end of the Modern period, today artists continue to refine painting and sculpture but they do not seek a new style of their own. Instead, they create in the technical manner of their predecessors... awaiting a new movement, a new current, a new watershed of words spoken with color and light in the River of Art.
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters." - Norman Maclean
In my way of painting, I seek to bring to bear all art movements together into a harmonious chorus of color, form, and light.
Visual art doesn’t stand on spoken or written words. The words in visual art are spoken in color, form, and light. Written and vocalized words only muddy what a painting has to say. What’s on the canvas should not be explained away with clever art-speak. Writing or speaking about it is an intellectual process. My paintings are not intellectual. They’re intuitive, painted under the tutelage of the spirits of bygone artists whose voices still echo through their works that we've all come to know and enjoy.
A painting cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. In short, any work of art is what it is. If it speaks to you, you’ll feel and understand it's own unique beckoning voice. If it doesn’t, it will not matter if someone supplies you with a whole lot of reasons for its importance or meaning. If the art work is any good, you’ll already know everything about it. If it is great, then you'll be drawn to it in a way that cannot be explained in a rational manner.
In contrast, if it doesn’t "speak" to you, move on, forget about it. It’s my failure, not yours.
Art is a visual exchange between the artist who paints it and the person who looks at it. It is a dialog between two entities, each bringing their part of the conversation together in a sometimes profound, yet subtle experience.
Regards,
Charles Burgess
Regards,
Charles
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