Art and Image

James Ensor, Seascape, 1880

Hello group-- to consider in terms of what we make and discuss in VS280-- a quote from Jed Perl's article in NYRB (Jed Perl, The Perils of Painting Now, NYRB, 24 September 2015)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/sep/24/perils-painting-now/

"Much of the trouble in the visual arts today comes from our increasing dependence on the Internet, where all the richness and complexity of an artist’s painterly surfaces is reduced to pixels. Paintings are flattened out by the Internet. And the paintings that “take” to digital reproduction almost invariably trump the ones that demand the direct response of a human eye. The Internet, with its clicks and links, threatens to deny us the gradual, evolving, unmediated acquaintance with an artist’s actual work that I’ve had with Baker’s. In order to understand an artist’s work, we need repeated opportunities to see how qualities of surface and texture—what might be called facture—do and do not reflect deeper impulses."

____
I'm using three James Ensor paintings from 1880 as an example.  The one above is probably most accessible. (what do I mean by this?)  Here's another Ensor with a few more direct challenges:

James Ensor, 1880

You can see Ensor's struggle in the work--and at the same time, that seeing the original is the only way to go. So, take this as an encouragement. There's a very good example in the Berkeley Museum (reopening in January 2016)--shown here in a not-so-great photo:

James Ensor, Seascape, oil on canvas, 8 7/8 x 11 in., 1881. (BAM collection

Looking at this painting has always been one of the reasons I return to visit BAM.

I think about this issue every time I post an image of a painting (or other work which depends on touch). Seeing the qualities of an original is indispensable. The German writer and critic, Walter Benjamin, wrestled with this almost a century ago. He used the term "aura" to talk about the qualities of an original work seen "at a certain distance." Benjamin intends the word "distance" to have many meanings...
____

Note that Perl, in the article, uses contemporary examples.