In today’s art class we discussed non-representation. The teacher showed an image by Piet Mondrian of a house and a tree by the river where everything as obvious since we had clear representation. He then moved to this image where it was quite obvious that the subject was a tree. And then we had this where the subject might be more questionable and this where we can no longer even claim the painting is about a tree. But it’s interesting that starting with the first picture and having that as a reference, we kept seeing trees in all the canvases.
By the way, the woman I mentioned last week, the non self-conscious one, is a nudist. And she’s a therapist. I thought that might add a bit more color to her description.
As I sat in class, looking at the modern paintings, I kept thinking about how unappealing they were to me. I’ve always been a fan of Renaissance paintings. I love studying them and finding out about the history and the time period and why the painter thought to put that specific image. The paintings of that period are all about symbolism and if you have studied some art history, you can know the story behind each symbol. To me, that’s like sharing a secret between the painter and you. Even though, I know that everyone of that period knew the specific symbols, people who don’t study art history don’t know them and can’t look for the specific clues, like the image of Michelangelo’s face on the dead skin in The Last Judgement. To me, that’s like having a sneak peak into the painter’s mind. When I look at the modern paintings, I just don’t see that. I’m not saying that one has to, I’m just saying that I like to.
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