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Category Archives: Art Commentary
Art Philosophy : The Penalty of Greatness
Every human endeavor has its aficionados, and its purists. It has its own Taliban, too, who will punish you if you fail to follow in the line of orthodoxy. In painting, one orthodox view is that you must do ONE thing and one thing only, and to do otherwise will incur penalties.
This is one of the things that has held back my art, so I’m told: I am fluent in many styles, from my own special version of abstract expressionism to expressionism to classical impressionism and the all too hip abstract impressionism. You can’t do that in art.
The Art Taliban tell me that unless I become known for one thing, I will never get anywhere. This conflict goes to the meaning and purpose of art, and how it diverges between the collector-commerical artist cabal and myself.
Art investors often look at one of a kind paintings like stock purchases: They want they want 15% minimum annual return on investment, the uniformity of McDonald’s french fries and the brand name recognition of Sony. But art isn’t stock, it’s the soul of an artist.
I am my art, and one thing that I’ve discovered in my life is that I’m not the kind of person who is good at being only one thing. My mind reaches too far for that.
I have a good relationship with collectors and sometimes I even feel guilty that I’m not “branded” enough for their tastes. No one should think that I have any hostility toward art investors, far from it. But somehow I must strike a balance between living the one life I have successfully, and being a successful producer of value-added, investment quality art. The latter is the icing on the cake for me but the only thing that matters to the investor, the former is what I need to survive.
Abstract Art Explained
- Abstract Art
- Art in which objects, people, and/or places are depicted in simplified arrangements of shapes, lines, textures, and/or colors. Abstract art may or may not bear a resemblance to its subject. "Paint is paint and canvas is canvas, they should not pretend to be otherwise." The cleverness in abstraction lies in the fact that the human mind attempts to interpret the abstraction, finding patterns and images that aren’t really there. As a result, a good abstract painting will appear differently in the minds of individual viewers.
Interpretation of abstract art has both an academic and a popular side. Academically, we look at abstraction for the use of color fields, symmetry and apparent planes. For the fan, however, interpretation is a lot more fun and involves finding the shapes created by ones own mind from the material provided by the artist.
- Abstract Expressionism
- Expressionism is a style of painting
in which the emotional, non-objective qualities of an object are given preeminence. Abstract Expressionism takes all of the brakes off of the flow of human consciousness and creativity. In abstract expressionism the painter
shows his personality through the use of color and shapes. This being the case, abstract expressionist art does not consist of painting
an object or image, but is instead a study in color and interplay of paint and canvas. See also: Art Definitions.
Abstract Expressionism is generally divided into two major types:
(1) Action Painting strives to show paint texture
and the movement of the artists. Jackson Pollock is an example of an Action Painter. He dripped
and poured his paint to create his work.
(2) Color Field Painting is concerned only with shape and color and tries new and creative ways to express these basic elements. Among
practitioners of this school, Mark Rothko stands out through his use of rectangles and colors in his paintings.
Willem de Kooning and Jean Debuffet experimented in both sub-styles, and today 
we have Tracy Emin who primarily works in installations and
Chriss Pagani who works in a subset the artist invented called object-oriented or perceptual puzzle abstraction.
Abstract Paintings : The Reality of Abstract Art Philosophy
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.
This is my unique discovery, unheard of in the world of art OR psychology — until now. When you hear this information someday from some inflated ego with a sheepskin 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
Art Review
Paintings from the edge: The latest selection of abstract paintings in the new “object-oriented” abstract expressionist style developed by the artist, as well as abstract impressionism, classical impressionism, expressionist and neoexpressionist works. This site also contains an extensive collection of watercolor sketches of Oregon scenery by artist Chriss Pagani. But there is more here than beautiful wall candy … No ordinary outsider artist, Pagani has developed a concept of abstract art as a mind-expanding drug. In this style, paint ? watercolors, oils and acrylics ? blend the use of real objects with abstract shapes and colors to produce a neurotransmitter high. This is an entirely new way of looking at abstract art.
Your only defense is to understand the process and tirelessly work against it.
This reversal of logic is the norm rather than the exception in human thinking. That’s why so many are fanatically devoted to all kinds of religions each of which claims to be the one and only truth. In this case, “truth” means “the idea I started out liking and and will now find excuses to defend.”
If you’ve ever wondered why people who seem intelligent can look at the same set of facts and reach opposite conclusions, now you know.Presented here is a small sample of work in several styles from one unique artist … this site offers a potent mix of art brut blended with neuroscience, impressionism, expressionism, fauvism, neuro-linguistic programming and a healthy dose of heavy-duty philosophy about life, God, and meaning … It isn?t just art, it?s lifestyle … It isn?t just paint on canvas, it is Timothy Leary meets genius artists Picasso, Jackson Pollock & Willem De Koonig. –Christa Haight review of Abstract Paintings.
