The large scale works of Marquez nearly always reflect his sinical observation of modern society. Using appropriated paintings (in this case Picasso’s Guernica), hidden imagery in shadows and reflections, “Slash, Bangbang, Boom” is a contemporary commentary on today’s society. He depicts a puppeteer as a joker (reflected in the mirror) standing behind a table or stage manipulating the marionette Pope. Cast in the shadow, is a scene of violence and despair. The artist implies the powerlesness of organized Religion to keep peace (in particular the Catholic church) or perhaps he alludes organized religion is actually the cause for the unrest.

Parallel to my own work rooted in abstract expressionism is my unexplained obsession with this gravity less, chaotic, loud yet whispering large scale work by other artists. I have posted a link to Cvijanovic for a quick comparison to Truman Marquez. I say ... Painting lives to the Whitney Biennial 2010. I dare you!

LOVE POEM, TEN MINUTES AFTER THE END OF GRAVITY
Adam Cvijanovic

ADAM CVIJANOVIC'S COLOSSAL SPECTACLE

Belshazzar's Feast Adam Cvijanovic

Adam Cvijanovic’s
COLOSSAL SPECTACLE
29 MAY- 3 JULY 2008

Adam Cvijanovic at Bellwether has been added right in the Artist's links column.

BELLWETHER is pleased to present ADAM CVIJANOVIC’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery. Working in his favored medium of Flashe and latex paint on Tyvek, Cvijanovic will transform the main gallery into a stage set, surrounding viewers with theater flats depicting his interpretation of a scene from D.W. Griffith’s epic film, Intolerance, in which tens of thousands of Babylonians are overcome with the realization that they are about to be invaded by the Persians. Painted in a purple grisaille evocative of silent film, this gigantic painting installation explores themes of aspiration, ruin, cultural evolution, and the folly of creative hubris.

Cvijanovic’s inspiration for this exhibition is based upon the dramatic rise and fall of a cinematic pioneer. Fresh from the controversial success of The Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith invested all of his wealth into a massive four-part narrative film called Intolerance. It was by far the most expensive cinematic undertaking of its time, due largely to the enormous, lavish set for its scenes of ancient Babylon. The film proved too challenging for audiences of the early 20th century and as a result Griffith succumbed to financial ruin, and the set of Babylon faced a similar fate, condemned to loom over downtown Hollywood for over a decade.

In this exhibition Cvijanovic conflates Griffith’s experience as a filmmaker and visionary with Los Angeles’s slow, entropic transformation from an untamed land full of promise to a city whose identity is defined by an increasingly commercial entertainment industry. In addition to the main painting installation the exhibition will contain two other components – a triptych painting of the rural, wild landscape of Hollywood as it was nearly a century ago, with Griffith’s set dominating the background, and a room of storyboard-style paintings on Mylar depicting everything from scenes from Intolerance to the gas stations and parking lots of contemporary Los Angeles. The overall effect is of a collapse in time, in which the dramatic deterioration of Griffith’s vision is aligned with the less spectacular, but more profound, societal transformation of Hollywood.

Cvijanovic’s decision to create a work of this scale and content – a contemporary historical
painting based upon a film whose imagery was itself derived from the history of painting – comes at an important moment in the discourse of art and politics. The theme of hubris that pervades this exhibition applies to a range of eras and subjects, from the artist’s struggle with his own ambitions and creative ego, to the present-day conflict in Iraq – the modern-day Babylon.

Similarly, Truman Marquez has been working on work colossal in size. "Jet Rain Drill Rig", and "Eleven" which are both large scale works created in response to modern society and "Horse Down" depicts the artist's own struggle and defeat. I have added a link to Truman Marquez and to Cvijanovic in the Artist's Links (see right) for a quick access to study comparatively.

Truman Marquez , Eleven (study)

Cvijanovic does not propose a reconciled solution to this issue, opting instead to meditate upon the complex emotional and political implications of our choices as people and as nations.
Adam Cvijanovic has exhibited extensively in the US and abroad, including solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Notable group
exhibitions include Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes at the Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, USA Today at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Adam Cvijanovic and Peter Garfield: Unhinged at Mass MOCA, Massachusetts. Cvijanovic will also participate in the upcoming PROSPECT.1 Biennial in New Orleans, and the Liverpool Biennial at Tate Liverpool.

THE HOTEL CHELSEA

The New York neighborhood called Chelsea takes its name from the estate of British Army Captain Thomas Clarke, who retired to the then rural area after the French and Indian Wars. He named his estate - on the west side of Manhattan near the Hudson River - after London’s Royal Chelsea Hospital for soldiers. By the 1850s the land was divided into lots and developed. Today the area is a thriving neighborhood of brownstones, tenements, tree-lined streets, restaurants, and art galleries. In the midst of all this stands the Victorian Gothic beauty of the Chelsea Hotel. The hotel has always been a center of artistic and bohemian activity and it houses artwork created by many of the artists who have visited including the work of Truman Marquez (posted on and linked to this blog). The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note. The twelve-story red-brick building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative that opened in 1884; it was the tallest building in New York until 1899. At the time Chelsea, and particularly the street on which the hotel was located, was the center of New York's Theater District. Within a few years the combination of economic worries and the relocation of theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building was purchased and opened as a hotel.

This landmark has attracted famous guests and residents. It is both a birth place of creative modern art. Bob Dylan composed songs while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso chose it as a place for philosophical and intellectual exchange. On the other hand it is famed for its guest engaging in illegal, illicit and bad behavior. Poet, Dylan Thomas died of alcohol poisoning on in 1953 while staying there and where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols may have stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death on October 12, 1978.

Visitors and residents of the Chelsea Hotel include Eugene O’Neil, and Arthur C. Clarke (who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while in residence). Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead passed through the hotels doors in the 1960s. Virgil Thompson, Larry Rivers, William Burroughs, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Patti Smith, Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas, and many, many others stayed here too. Marquez recalls staying in the same room as Thomas Wolfe. Perhaps these ghosts residing here have influenced guests through osmosis.

The hotel is located on West 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in the heart of the art infused Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It is centrally located between Greenwich Village and Midtown. From the front door of the hotel, one can easily walk to the Chelsea art galleries, the Meatpacking District, the Flatiron building, and Union Square. A short taxi or subway ride will bring you to Times Square, Central Park, Greenwich Village, Soho, and other New York City destinations.

The Chelsea boasts a selection of accommodations. Its rich history as home to greats in literature and art is reflected in the rooms that are filled with natural light (often floor-to-ceiling windows), eclectic period and modern furnishings and a sense of spaciousness. Artful décor can reflect the Belle Epoque or Today, as there is a legacy in each. It is completely modernized with Air Conditioning, Cable TV, Comfortable Parlors in the Suites, Studios with Kitchenette, Full Ensuite Bath or with Shower, Rooms with Shared Bath, often Work Areas with Desk and Ample Lighting Daily Maid Service.

Truman Marquez', Some People Never Go Crazy,

prior to "Context" deconstruction exhibition

While the opening night deconstruction offers a public gifting of the art segments,

the cut outs reveal wall text and "under-painting" of seated figure shooting himself in the mouth. The figure is presumably the artist "going crazy".

Artists and collectors alike often speak of the last great “movement” in art and the next. Perhaps the “movement” we are in the midst of today is the “Commercialism Movement”. No matter what the astronomical price of the week, we can rest assured it has been artificially driven and inflated by the “king makers” ie. the dealers who guarantee auction houses a minimum for contemporary works sold to establish a market value. While this new paradigm sets the monetary value of fine art, the quality of the art is diminishing. The investment angle has become more monumental than the work itself in our pervasive commercial society. Collectors are buying art with the hopes it will increase in value. They're looking to inflate their egos by owning the next best thing even if they don't like it, respect it or understand it. It is no wonder artist are going of the deep end and making works with dung and bodily fluids or desecrating and gifting art. Buying art for too many is no different for some than buying real estate to flip or commodities trading. As an artist there are days when I’d like to erase the word “market” from the English language and as the recently appointed promoter for painter, Truman Marquez, I understand the art market – like it or not.

I came across the Fine Art Adoption website at DC Art News and found the public gifting of art conceived by NY artist, Adam Simon to be a revolutionary concept. It is a site which hosts portfolios of a select network of artists offering works available for adoption. This has brought an experience from last fall to mind when I met artist, Truman Marquez. It was at his sophomore solo show at CAN NY where the paintings exhibited were deconstructed at the opening. The attendees removed segments of the works with artist issued knives and templates exposing works behind the canvas and leaving the works in ruin on the walls. This public gifting art marked a turning point for Marquez also disgusted with the commercialism of the art world. He, like the creators of fine art adoption are just a few of the many artists and collectors who are disgusted with the “Commercialism Movement”. Below is an article I wrote following “Context” at CAN NY last November.

Performance art and public gifting of work – a catharsis
An accounting of Context at New Art Center, NY on November 8, 2007

THE PERFORMANCE

It was with an authoritative gesture and a sharp blade that Marquez began the performance of his last experimentation with performance art. With irreverent authority he looked away from Call me Horse for Now while cajoling the audience with synthetic exhilaration he made the first decisive and expansive incision. The sound of the canvas tearing resonated like a mortal scream or the first cry of a newborn. Simultaneously the death of the painting surface gave birth to the newly created dissected and deformed works with wall text and secondary imagery. His year’s accomplishment hung mutilated before him as did his psyche when he surrendered control to the audience. This public gifting of art was undoubtedly disturbing for Marquez, exposed and incapacitated, as he and months of his most expressive work lay vulnerable to the desecration before him. The unabashed audience began to remove random pieces of the first canvas and four others with the provided templates and blades. While many coveted the forged segments referencing the masters, Gauguin, Cezanne, de Kooning and Pollock, others became more noticeably intrigued by the secondary works beneath the paintings which emerged with each cut. It was not the deletion of imagery but the addition of the windows which became more vital to the performance and the work as sub-messages in the form of wall text, found objects and paintings relevant to each piece were revealed with successive cuts.
The addition of the secondary plain in Context, contrary to the pure evisceration of work in the first performance, ConTemplate - 2006, contributed a new dimension both physically and intellectually. The participants rewarded with possession of each painting-ectomy were duped as it was evident the nothingness left behind possibly had more relevance to the finished piece and henceforth a greater significance. The removed segments became diminished out of context and of meaningless importance, henceforth value.

Marquez surrendered himself through the sacrifice of his work (a metaphor of the physical artist’s body and psyche) as an eager audience with disregard enthusiastically carved with a growing hunger like a feeding frenzy of piranha. A few participants abandoned the templates all together and feverishly carved and threaded sliced strips of the canvas intuitively into slits while the greedy covetously removed multiple segments. In a statement Marquez said, “…the paintings are surrogates for the artist, his person, his thought, his creativity. Offering up the canvases to be cut, the artist, metaphorically speaking, offers himself.” This intense emotional experience marks a psychological purging necessary to more clearly define himself and his impending work – a catharsis.

THE WORK
In Severed Voting Fingers Marquez implies a possible conclusion to the Iraq war. The fallen soldier lying dead in the shadows of severed fingers is a metaphor for the ineffectiveness of Western intervention. Furthermore, as a reminder of hopelessness, the crouching Iraqi woman severing her own “voting finger” along with others before her whose severed fingers on the bloody floor cast the shadows, speaks to the fear and uncertainty of democracy and surrender to insurgents. The wall text reveals the number dead and wounded (possibly in vane) while the surface of the painting accentuates dispiritedness of human sacrifice.

Call Me Horse for Now: The artist incorporates the segments of de Kooning, Pollack, Gauguin and Matisse before which are being taken by the figures with jousting poles in harlequin garb who surround a horse (representative of Marquez) charging through the center of the painting. The horse, analogous to the artist seeking direction as he charges away from the painterly elements referencing art history.

Kalashnikov Orb: Nail Rain Series: The depiction of Christianity under threat. A praying figure of a monk crouches near a corner in the shadow of an enormous orb with the lifeless body of Christ appearing in the surface of poles attached to its surface. Within the shadow of the orb’s poles is a hidden image of a Kalashnikov rifle referencing the violence of fundamentalist religious fanatics suggesting the doom of Christianity while nails are weightlessly suspended in a space without gravity of a surreal world.

METAMORPHOSIS
The works of Marquez are compelling on their own exclusive of the performance incorporating the audience deconstruction. Socio-political and religious references swathed in surreal, optical illusions with an emphasis on an intriguing physical and intellectual perspective form a haunting beauty juxtaposed with disturbing grotesqueness. While the deconstruction aspect is essential for the revelation of the supportive work beneath, one might view the performance reprehensible as the unscathed work is significantly compelling on its own. Furthermore, the egregious desecration before preliminary consideration of the imagery is disturbing. Concealed imagery and the consequent artist intent is too easily misunderstood and then in a fleeting moment the ephemeral paintings are gone.

The performances were initiated as a psychological experiment to strip the artist of his control rendering him defenseless and exposed to reach a better understanding of self and artistic direction while perpetuating the public gifting of art and making an important commentary on the "Commercialism Movement". Normally paintings and artists are venerated, untouchable and guarded against mutilation but like a self-inflicted torture, Marquez watched while participants took control allowing himself to become completely exorcised to ultimately reach a catharsis. Marquez’ temporary psychosis spawned by “Contemplate” and “Context” marks a departure as he is resurrected to redefine Truman Marquez. More about the works of Truman Marquez on his Blog.

Jet Rain Drill Rig, Truman Marquez

View more works at http://www.trumanmarquez.blogspot.com/or at http://www.trumanmarquez.com/
Place cursor over image and click to enlarge for detail.

Marquez makes a poignant visual commentary on the US dependency on foreign oil leading to an “in the red” budget crisis. On the surface of the poles which pierce the orb on the left of the composition is the face of a dollar bill and subliminally, in the poles’ shadows, an image of an oil rig representing a possible attribution for the unstable dollar. The orb encircled with war jets, casts a cornered shadow upward revealing the image of a dead American serviceman. The socio/political work represents the artist’s view of the financial devastation of the US caused by the dependency on foreign oil which lies beneath the war in Iraq. Despite the monumental size of this work, an intimacy is created by the cornered composition and confined space within which the elements are arranged.