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| Maria Linzoain |
The two exhibitions currently at IMAS are an interesting juxtaposition of modern and post-modern currents of thought. Maria Linzoain’s artwork represents the modern, with its abstract expressionist representation of space, its Fauvist color palette and modernist philosophy. One of the primary ideas that developed in modernism was that rational inquiry could reduce everything to its essential elements. Once established, these principles were thought to be universally applicable. In art, they became the principles and elements of design taught in art schools and artists like Rothco, O’Keefe, the Albers, and Mondrian became ambassadors for these principles.
In addition to the foregoing, Linzoain combines the existentialist idea that every individual must find their own meaning in life with the Objectivist theories of Ayn Rand that promoted a narcissistic preoccupation with ones own happiness and welfare. Linzoian utilizes saturated color and expansive gesture within an ambiguous background to represent her existential quest for self realization and expression. The central, and usually solitary, figure is the locus of action and movement, while the exterior landscape is reduced to only its essential elements.
If you are a fan of modernism, then you will find Linzoain’s work very appealing, because she reproduces this style very effectively. Ron English’s artwork is intentionally anti-modern in that it rejects the essentialist narrative of modernism. His work represents the failure of modern ideology.
English employs a majority of the artistic devices of postmodern in his artwork and projects. He has bulldozed his way through much of the iconic imagery of the last two centuries, appropriating it for his own use. He recontextualizes these images by juxtaposing seemingly unrelated objects. For example, he places Mickey Mouse faces on Marilyn Monroe’s breasts in one of his paintings. The image makes a blatant and crude reference to our culture of consumption. American style prudery is unsettled by English’s “cow girls” with their multiple teats waving at them in his larger than life digital prints. Text initiates a redirection of thinking from viewing the image as an anthropomorphic depiction of a cow to viewing it as a grotesque genetic mutation of a human female caused by the consumption of bovine hormones.
It is unclear to me what English was trying to accomplish with his “street art” excursion to the Mexican side of the border, because it seems to have been more insulting than politically or artistically informative or meaningful. Ron English is up til August 14 and Linzoain is up til August 7.
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| Ron English |
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| Ron English |