On the Topic of Modernism

I often define my painting as Modernist. Not in the furniture, architecture, or literature sense, but it's Modernist in the sense that I aim to express on canvas what my relationship to it and to the world is, and incorporate formal aspects of painting in with.

Modernism is not a word used frequently in contemporary art, but I feel that with the outrageous and overwhelming volume of post-modern art that's out in galleries now, I must intentionally steer the viewer away from inferring any of his or her preconceptions or ideas about what the average contemporary artist should be.

I proudly take the stance that painting is, in its own right, still pure and modernist, in this very Postmodern world. Even artists like Cecily Brown and Dana Schutz deal with paint on canvas, whatever the subject matter they express, it comes down to the pigmented textures, expressions, form, shape and color.

Postmodernism states that everything has been exhausted, explored and acheived in modern art, therefore it's open season on anything: copying, appropriating, even stealing is a-okay. Postmodern visual art became popular about forty years ago.

I think this painting by Degas is as poignant today as it was when it was painted. And so, that's how it goes when one focuses on the human form and the human condition. There's nothing Postmodern about Birth, Life and Death.


Edgar Degas, "L'absinthe", 1876 Oil on canvas, 92 x 68 cm; Musee d'Orsay, Paris