Intellect IS the Movement

In the last post, Omega commented...

"The 'intellectual' wins the prize. Simon Starling won the Turner Prize because, it is said, he thinks deeply and does research. The beginnings of a new art movement?"

In this time of the "information age" with the world-wide-web available in the majority of homes and college becoming a fore-gone-conclusion for many children- Can the "intellectual" be the lone survivor of the art world? Hasn't it always been that way? Isn't this just another time in the ever-developing history of art to recognize the "intellectual quotient"?

Over the course of time and experience, I have run across numerous individuals that are masters of technical skill in the "traditional mediums" of visual art. Unfortunately, many have been unable to master the thought-process behind the creation aspect of "new" ideas. They are simply content to rehash and recycle "safe"methods of art-making- without purpose.

I have spent the last ten years developing a unique style of work based around concepts of philosophy, literature and religion and how they interact with the basic needs of individuals. Not needs such as water and air, but necesseties to stay humans from the brink of madness. Voltaire said, "If there was no God, then man would have to invent him". My own work is an exploration, how do humans cope with the most basic concept of mental survival within the land in which they live.

My paintings, "Einstein: Man is Here for the Sake of Other Men" and "Sangre de Cristo: Wandering Gentiles of the Southwest" are examples of this mental survival. The Einstein painting displays humans living in the midst wilderness, yet huddling together to form a society. The Wandering Gentiles painting narrates the struggle of thousands of "crypto-Jews" trying to find their way in the "new" wilderness desert of New Mexico. There have been Jews in New Mexico for 400 years and a number of them have been hiding their identity for nearly as long. Both of these paintings visually recreate the image of human mental survival. People doing anything they can to cope. Ironically, though people often attempt to "go it" alone, they are always in the company of others attempting a similiar course.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the "intellectual humor" of Jon Stewart and his place as a performance art. Maybe the new art movement is a combination of intellect and irony. It is only natural for me as a painter, to want that movement to be more tangible in the traditional venues of visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture). But the strongest movements transcend all mediums and are embraced across not only the field of fine arts, put the spectrum of society.

If this is the answer: intellect and irony as the catalyst of a new art movement, what is the next step? A name?

Theorists. Sagest. Rationalists. - DN