Shane Guffogg: Self-Portraits, Part 3 (conversation between Victoria Chapman and artist continues)
In Part 3, we enter the worlds of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. I spent time researching the artists and some of their life experiences that shaped many compositions and self-portraits. I had more questions for Shane Guffogg, which he carefully shared his personal takes on, giving me a deeper understanding. This led me to draw curious parallels between the artists of the past and Guffogg, parallels that reveal more and more about his work.
V.C: Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was another artist that advanced modern art, but not without hardship. It took until almost the end of his career for the public to understand his work. Matisse also created self-portraits, utilizing different styles and mediums: etchings, paintings, simplified line drawings, etc. I learned from my research that Matisse valued painting the relationships between objects rather than just the objects themselves. He’s known for his still lifes and portraits. He eventually made paper cut-outs, which would become the most-known works of his career. The artist was also known for painting his own spirit into his works; not his recognizable face, but his presence within the scenes he painted. He not only recreated the world around him in a dazzling array of colors and lines, but he also painted a life force within it. In the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, which is decorated in colored stained glass and black line drawings, Matisse displays his version of Stations of the Cross. The colored stained glass cascades on the visitor, sharing space within the white walls – color from the light is the environment.
Abstract Expressionism and Freedom (Conversation between Victoria Chapman and Los Angeles based artist, Shane Guffogg continues)
VC: We finished Part 4 entering the uncharted waters of Abstract Expressionism, a movement that incorporated beauty and violence. I was awestruck with the opening monologue of Emile De Antonio’s art documentary film; Painter’s Painting – The New York Art Scene 1940 -1970
The monologue begins …
“They say the problem of American painting is there was a problem of subject matter. Painting in America kept getting tangled up in the contradictions of itself. We made portraits of ourselves when we had no idea who we were. We tried to find God in landscapes, and we were destroying them as fast as we could paint them. We painted Indians as fast as we could kill them. And during the greatest accomplishments in technological history, we painted ourselves as a bunch of fiddling rustics. By the time we became social realists we knew that American themes were not going to lead to a great national art. Only because the themes themselves were hopelessly absolute. Against the consistent attack of Mondrian and Picasso, we had only art of half-truths lacking conviction. The best artists began to yield rather than kick against the pricks. And it is exactly at this moment, we finally abandon the hopeless constraints to create a national art, that we succeeded for the first time to do just that. By resolving a problem forced on a painting by the history of French art. We created for the first time a genuine art of magnitude. And if one had to ask what made American art great, it was American painters who took hold of the issue of abstract art – a freedom that could get with no other subject matter and finally we made high art out of it.”
Shane Guffogg: Color Part 4 The beginning of the twentieth century
(Conversation between Victoria Chapman and Los Angeles based artist, Shane Guffogg continues
As we continue with the discussion on color, in part 4, we look at color opening new possibilities at the beginning of the 20h century. During the early 1900s, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were known to be rivals. Matisse was leading the charge of Fauvism, the term that translates to “wild beasts” and represents the movement’s vibrant usage of strong color. During this time, Picasso had abandoned the Blue period, launching himself into a new palette, coined the Rose period, only to be followed by yet another shift in his work, due in part, to Matisse. Henri Matisse received a lot of attention for the paintings he was creating – some of the criticism scathing, some not. Picasso had his own reaction, as he began to create works that simply lacked color. But there is much more to this story and I asked Shane Guffogg his thoughts on these two giants of the 20th-century art world. The artist shares his ideas on the subject while revealing what influences his choice of colors. Guffogg’s answers are insightful, revealing yet another layer about his own work.
