Black and White 7

Continuing the series of abstract expressionist paintings in a black and white motif, this is 7

Black & White #7, 30x40

More formal than previous entries in the series, this one has a lot of circular motion and seems stiff compared to the complete freeform Id of previous works. However, I need to keep working on new things and trying different approaches so this is all a good thing.

Painting Decline Abstract Expressionist Black And White

Another piece in the black and white series. This painting is 24"x36" acrylic, chalkboard coating and pastel on stretched canvas.

Part of the series of color-eschewed paintings, this work adds variable wording, which will change in the future. The dimensional effects are interesting to me as are the subtle variations in the darkest fields.

The Art Of Meaninglessness

Art's many styles are analogous to our philosophical bases in life: From romantic realism and impressionism (the two fundamentalist denominations of art) to expressionism (Pentecostal) to abstract (reformed) to abstract expressionism (the atheism of art). In this post I will explain the latter analogy.

For this exercise, I need to start with my working definitions which in themselves abstract the meaning of "abstract expressionism" - you may or may not agree with them but I need to have starting point that will lead to my conclusion at the bottom....

Abstract expressionism separates itself from other styles of art in two ways.

Abstract expressionism is first, expressionism; this art form represents the realm of the internal workings of the human mind. Expressionism by itself is art where the feeling or the emotional impact of a subject is brought to the fore, overtaking its literal form: It represents our reaction to the thing under consideration rather than the thing itself. One could understand this in some spiritual way but we know that thought, including emotions, is produced by the firing of neurons, alternately promoted or inhibited by the release of chemicals in the brain. And regardless of how you choose to look at it, it is completely subjective.

Second, as abstract art, it must do one of two things: It must in some way reduce a more complex or otherwise recognizable pattern of lines and shapes to a simpler form - to take the larger picture and reduce it to a subset that leaves behind the constructed meaning of the thing under consideration. For example, one may paint a frog in abstract by creating an entire work depicting the webbing between the frog’s feet - or a reflection in the eye.
In the OTHER meaning, abstraction may go in the opposite direction and give us a more complex view. As in Piaget's separation of concrete and abstract or formal thought. The field of mathematics, itself an abstraction of the material world, is further abstracted in such a way through Mandelbrot visualizations, as an example.

However abstract expressionism, since it is the abstract representation of an internal process, is in a literal way abstracting something that isn't there. We are now abstracting (in either definition) a piece of a process that cannot be seen; indeed by itself it has no meaning or overarching purpose and is ephemeral and random.

So now we have abstract expressionism defined down to its most literal, material state; it is the translation of random neural firings of the artist to paint and canvas. Or put another way, neuro-electrochemical reactions in their basest form - the form that exists prior to any supposed "meaning" is applied - is abstracted to a visual image created by paint and canvas: meaninglessness represented by nothingness; a thing that is actually NO thing at all - represented in a nearly formless way.

In this schema, all meaning originates entirely from the viewer of the work of art. Abstract expressionism now shows us the naked truth of our own desperate search for meaning and need to impose it even where none exists.

An atheist would say that all meaning in the world (not just art) is artificial. There is no grand scheme above or apart from the temporary constructs we create in order to be able to function in life. Likewise, abstract expressionism deliberately creates art without any intrinsic meaning.

Finally then, we see that abstract expressionism is the art of humanistic relativism: The meaning of this art is only that which we, as viewers, choose to give it.

Abstract expressionism gives us no object to worship, no form to admire, and offers no claimed meaning or salvation from the emptiness of reality. Ultimately, it is only us – and our artificial, ephemeral demand to apply meaning to a meaningless universe.

You see, to appreciate abstract expressionism, we must first accept the materialistic truth that all meaning is artificial, transitory and self-imposed.

And that is its beauty.

Black & White Abstract Painting # 6

Topographical abstract art is one way of thinking of this painting. Both color and actual clay material are used for three dimensional effect. This work is Krylon and kitty litter on stretched canvas, 24" x 36"

Even it today's world, where art education is almost nonexistent, there are no shortage of art clowns out there to tell you why ones work isn't this or that, or represents something else entirely. You can spare me all of that; my work is mine - I define it, it is me - that settles it.

Abstract Expressionist Black & White

Abstract expressionism is the point at which paint becomes an end in itself. It plays with the mind, it teases, it does not yield...



An original acrylic hyper-modern bit of abstract expressionism in black and white/muted colors, 30" x 40". It is action painting a la Jackson Pollock without some of the complexities and densities of Pollock. Yet it still has depth of its own.

Artist: Pagani

Art Sucks

In reviewing the state of art today, I can honestly say that it sucks. It may seem strange to read that an artist thinks art sucks, but there you are. It isn't because there isn't anything interesting to be done in art, it's just that those who are the gatekeepers of success - the art critics - have an entirely different agenda: They (many, anyway) don't really want to see more abstract art/impressionist art/pop art: They want an "act" - a character without content; something/someone who will be a professional buffoon.

I finally settled on this point by looking at a big shot art site, seeing who is being proclaimed the latest genius of art. The work I saw there was jarring to me. It was plain, flat and cartoon-like. It was very much like the stuff I was doing when I was ten years old. Close enough that if I sent one of those paintings to the hot professional art web site and said it was done by this guy, I'm quite sure they'd put it on their site as another example of the great man's genius.

I'm decades beyond that now but this person is the new genius of art?!? Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I was ten it was "okay for a kid" and probably if I still painted like when I was ten nobody would care.

So I realized that people are just randomly declared to be some sort of genius based on criteria having nothing to do with creativity. ....Like another artist who paints red squares. That's it - that's the big work of genius. Oh yeah, she calls them things like "A Dozen Roses" - never mind that they look like the same red squares she called Carnations or Sunrise or whatever, it's GENIUS! I should be grateful for even getting to see her work.

Yeah. Now do you see why I have said that art sucks? That and the fact that art is mostly useless. 99% of art is either bullshit like this or mindless wall candy: Pretty waterfalls and barns with lots of yellow light - bright and shiny and signifying nothing.

This leads me to the discussion of the bifurcation of art itself: You have, in America, a population that has basically zero art education pitted against a small but over-educated group of art elitists.

For the general public anything that makes a "pretty picture" is great art. There was a scandal among watercolorists recently; turns out one of their top award-winning watercolorists was simply producing ink-jet prints of photographs and selling them as original paintings as well as entering them in prestigious art shows and winning with them. Even the photographs didn't belong to the artist (which is how she got caught). Such is the demand for pretty pictures by the masses.

On the other side, you have some elitists who seem eager to promote the most brazen pieces of non art, such as the previously cited squares on canvas. Now, we can all admit that when it comes to paint, Dadaists have long since covered all of the possibilities in the the general sense of style. You name it, they did it.

So with nothing new under the sun, many elitists feel compelled to tout art based on its complete lack of creativity, spontaneity or anything else that might be unique to the artist even if it is in a familiar style. Thus in the critique world, it is no longer about art but about how in-your-face someone can be in declaring paintings with a total lack of creativity to be works of art genius. It's performance art where the top artists do nothing except take bows for having failed to offer even a hint of an actual performance.

Thus I have finally distilled the essence of success in art: Start by acknowledging that, stylistically speaking, everything has already been done. You cannot invent a style. You CAN express your own inner creativity in any style you choose, but the trend in art critique circles today is to dismiss all such efforts.

Acknowledge the realities - Then.... give up.

Being good or doing something that expresses YOUR creative impulses will likely get you nowhere. For example, every abstract expressionist has his/her own ideas and style for spreading paint on canvas so even if their works are "Pollock-like" in a generic sense, they are still unique to the artist. This is not sufficient for today's art critics (generally).

To be a genius in the art world, you just need to have the brass balls to put a dot on a canvas and call it "God Speaks To Abraham" or whatever. Or, paint a square and call it a bouquet of flowers. Or paint nothing on the canvas and call it "Seascape." Then sell it with a straight face: Demand recognition of your incredible genius.. maybe drink heavily on top of that, just for dramatic effect. Dismiss obvious comparisons to the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes as the babbling of mental midgets. Piss on another artist's work and get arrested. Be seen at power parties. And above all, avoid creative thinking like the plague.

That's all there is to it - at least when it comes to pleasing the art eggheads. You can express the formula for critical acclaim thus: Doing nothing + being a piece of shit as a human being + vaporware marketing = art success

Creative people have a harder time doing this than used car salesmen, so it is better if you are not actually an artist. After all, if you have creative impulses, you'll be tempted to let your Id flow - and that will doom you to be dismissed as "just another ___/wannabe..." fill in the blank.

Or ... you can give up - in a different way.

Here is where I am at: I've worked extensively in impressionism and photo-realism, cartoon art and caricatures. My realistic bird paintings and dramatic impressionist landscapes of the past have won many awards (and sold many paintings and prints). I spend more time than I'd like on what I call RETAIL ART; things that the masses will buy such as cartoons, caricatures, and landscape paintings. You can make a living at this. I do.

However I also know that my creative juices flow most freely when I delve into pure abstraction. It is what makes me happy. When I'm doing nothing but retail art, I feel stifled, imprisoned and handcuffed. So in order to save what's left of my sanity, I spend more and more time letting my subconscious pour itself out onto canvas in the form of abstract expressionist paintings.

So I will be happy - and the art world isn't going to care.

The Reality Of Abstract Art

We've all heard the criticisms: "People paint abstracts because they can't draw," and "My four year old could have done that." I even heard the art-nazi host of Oregon Art Beat, K C Cowan, make the former statement and she should know better than this! Of course, the fact that she hosts a show about art doesn't mean she knows jack about art, does it? No, it's just public television. Obviously she has no understanding of abstraction whatsoever, and that is truly pathetic.

I am not exclusively an abstract painter, but my abstract work is far and away the most difficult and challenging of my painting projects. Creating the exact work of my vision can be frustrating in the extreme, and anyone who says that I must do these difficult works because I can't draw is an idiot - or at least knows nothing of my body of work.

Drawing is an entirely separate skill; what is required for abstraction is a new way of thinking. As for the halfwit who might say their kid could do it, I say, bring it on! People make statements like this can't produce, because while anyone including your no-talent kid can slather some color on paper, it still doesn't meet the criteria of good art until it is arranged and juxtaposed so as to produce an appropriate mind effect.

Now this is the key: If - and only if -abstraction is done very well, we have in abstract painting the purest and truest interface between visual arts and human consciousness. It is the bleeding-edge of art and science melded together. Most people don't understand this: They may assume that if they don't understand a work of art, there must be something wrong with it. But my knowledge of the workings of the human mind has led me to envision the interactive nature of visual input in the form of matrices of colors and shapes, with the brain - and thus human consciousness. You see, it isn't what the painting "represents" that is important - unlike impressionism -but what it does.

Up until now, you didn't know how or why abstract art occasionally induced strong emotional reactions. You may have dismissed this effect because you didn't understand it. Now you are beginning to see the truth: Good abstract art forces the brain to create new neural pathways to try to fathom the unfathomable. To brain wave patterns emerge. The colors, the lines, and the patterns - all from seemingly beyond the world as it is understood - cause the activation of new neural pathways by the millions.

This is the fourth generation of art theory: a schema of intuitive action and juxtapositions of concrete patterns in a holistic approach resulting in a convergence of brain science and art - of architectures and spatial relationships with neurons and dopamine. It isn't just art, it is mind programming. And that is what makes abstract art the most powerful force that the creative mind can unleash.

Finally, abstract art stands alone in being - in its entirety - a creation of the human mind without reference to worshipful images of the material or the imaginary worlds of mythology. It does not require belief in invisible friends or imagined spirituality to appreciate: Where other art styles offer obeisance to things in heaven or on earth, abstract art works with the purely materialistic chemistry of the human mind. No overinflated human-aggrandizing theories of meaning or purpose need apply.

When you hear this information someday from some inflated ego with a diploma who tries to tell you he just figured this out, you'll know from whence this information really came.

You can find further in-depth discussions about abstraction and my new theory elsewhere on this site, starting with the Abstract Paintings page.


THIS ...is art.

-- Chriss Pagani