Transpressionism
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Transpressionism
Overview
Transpressionism is a 20th century movement in painting introduced by Guity Novin in 1994 (1)
Transpressionism defines itself in relation to the excesses of High modernism. The most notable characteristic of the movement is its attempt to engage humanism and acroamatics values that are of fundamental relevance to the world and interpret those with aesthetic notions of beauty, harmony and transcendence.
The main premise underlying postmodern art was the belief that all forms of origination, uniqueness, vicissitude, presentation, apostasy, defiance, non-conformity, and dissent have already been delved into. (2) In fact, the conceptual art of the 1960s was a reaction against the conventional art object in favour of a documented critical inquiry into the artist's social, philosophical and psychological status. (3) It also reacted against the commodification of art.
The Transpressionism foundation, on the other hand, is based on a belief that the artificiality of postmodernism was a deathtrap, while art is birth. This view has been articulated in the manifesto of the Transpressionism movement by the Canadian artist Guity Novin who argued that a judgment of delight in beauty is a social trait, and thus the viewer of painting must be involved in the creation of the sublime in art. In this regard the artist role is to provide a conduit for the observer’s imagination in order to give birth to a new aesthetic idea. Hence, postmodernism in its Traspressionism mode rejects the braggadocio of high modernism and its rejection of all artistic achievements of the past in favour of an adherence to a subliminal judgment contained in mystical collective recollection, and to the effigies in which it attains manifestation.
Description
In the aftermath of Post-Modernism it was understood that truth and beauty is co-created by various communities through the constant drive of evolution. Post-Moderns have asserted that there is nothing outside of our consciousness which we have not co-constructed. This resulted in the creation of a chaotic art scene. At least in the past, Modernism led to existentialism’s shared-reconciliation with the meaning of existence. That is to say, while existentialists questioned the meaning of their own existence, they could find solace in the collective-created truth. The existentialists did at least accept that there is an individual self, albeit one which is alone in a meaningless universe. Post-modern, on the other hand, led to the neo-existentialism, which questioned the reality of the community itself, since it asserted that reality is only a construct, and thus forsaken that existentialism-based solace. Transpressionism tries to find that lost solace. It considers "Love" to be the fundamental principle giving coherence to the otherwise random, spontaneous evolution of the physical and psychical universe. It argues that we can not ignore the remarkable acumen in the ecstatic traditions. There is something, in humanity’s collective memory, to be found and to be cherished. Not only does passion for art lift us up from inside, there is something radiated towards us from the viewers reaction that attracts us aloft. It provides us with a certain sense of cognition, and at the same time a perfect rapture.
Thus, by employing myths such as Clytie; a maiden who loves the Sun-god Apollo, is transformed into a sunflower, and who follows her beloved longingly with her eyes as he journeys across the heavens, Transpressionism tries to go beyond the dimensions of time and space to arrive at a vision of enlightenment and nirvana. This enchantment with such mythological universes is more than a testimony to the awareness of human tragedy. The resurrection of the legendary vistas, mythical ballads, and primeval rituals in this movement manifests itself in a premeditated rationale for a perception of a finer wisdom. The art is no longer a plea to the logical intelligence, but to the subliminal judgment, to the mystical collective recollection, and to the effigies in which it attains manifestation.
In the Transpressionism manifesto, Guity Novin has aspired to explore the Kantian concept of beauty as a “thing-in-itself.” Stirred by a transcendental vision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_idealism), Transpressionism is expected to conjure up a meditative state between the observed reality and its idealized representation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representationalism). The style appears to project a state of exuberance and energy evoked in a pensive mood. Nothing in this vista is expected to be disagreeable or hideous. The resplendent birds, the majestic steeds, the sumptuous figures of women/nymphs are cherished as a passionate fascination for each element of an idealized state that transcends the intuitive aspects of space, and time.
To explain her motives for introducing Transpressionism Novin wrote"I did my undergraduate studies during the late 60s, where a definite penchant for modern and postmodern art predominated in the art academia. ... There thrived a culture that scorned figurative painting and representational art. What mattered in art was an appearance that could provoke a shock reaction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_value) from the observer. Beauty and the judgement of delight in beauty were considered tolerable concerns; but the judgement about the generality of delight in the object was dismissed on the ground that it would lead to vulgar. The critics questioned the validity of painting as artwork (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_of_art) and used a plethora of pejorative adjectives such as archaic, stale, or sterile to describe any kind of beautiful painting. … In my Transpressionism works the main emphasis is on the composition, and the harmony of curved spaces which in their dynamics introduce a unifying possibility... Like Kant, I strongly feel that the beautiful is what pleases because it can also pleases others, and therefore taste occurs only in society, and that in every case of beauty particularly in painting the object must please in itself through conceptual reflection, and not through impression. So I think the preamble to Transpressionism manifesto should include the following: "In painting, sculpture, indeed in all formative arts...in so far as they are beautiful arts, the composition is what is imperative. It is not delight of sensation which establishes the foundation of any characteristic of taste, but entirely what entices through its form."(4)" (5)
The Role of the Viewers
Transpressionism expects of its viewers to be as involved, in the creative process of aesthetic ideas, as is the artist herself in her exploration. According to Transpressionism beauty of a work of art emanates from an aesthetic judgement that originates from a rational taste. Since it would be next to impossible to represent a rational idea as a sensible concept in a painting, a rational collective-attempt to explore “the beautiful” should lead to realization of artist's aesthetic idea. The objective of artist is, thus, to initiate the first move towards creating aesthetic ideas. Furthermore, the artist work must allow its viewer not just to 'understand' the work conceptually, but to reach something like the same excited yet harmonious state of mind that the painter had in creating. The observer, as in the words of Oscar Wilde, “occupies the same relation to the work of art that he observes as the artist does to the visible world of form and colour, or the unseen world of passion and thought.(The observer’s comprehension of the work ) is creation within creation.” (6)
Concluding Remarks
In summary, in viewing a work of art, the Transpressionism argues, the observer must be aware of it as art. However, it does not stop there since the work must also radiate the artist's aesthetic idea otherwise art will only augur artificiality. The viewer of Transpressionism must treat “the work of art simply as a starting point for a new creation. It does not confine itself... to discovering the real intension of the artist and accepting that as final. And in this it is right, for the meaning of any beautiful created thing is, at least, as much in the soul of him who looks at it, as it was in his soul who wrought it.” (7)
In the words of Guity Novin "The circular forms of Transpressionism allow me to reason and to interpret in a mythological dimension that defies the representation of time, since no point in a circle is a beginning, middle or end. Inside this cosmic time I hope to recapture the being of Being and the spirit of freedom. I may not be successful, but I gamble with my art and from time to time our communication is spontaneous."
External links
- Guity Novin's Website (http://www.guitynovin.com)
- Official Site of Transpressionism (http://www.transpressionism.com)
Sources
- Library of the National Gallery of Canada, File on Guity Novin (http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/SEARCH/BASIS/aich/user/www/DDW?W%3DARTIST+PH+WORDS+%27guity+novin%27+ORDER+BY+EVERY+AR/Ascend%26M%3D1%26K%3D27966%26R%3DY%26U%3D1)
- Library of the Vancouver Art Gallery, File on Guity Novin (http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/SEARCH/BASIS/aich/user/www/DDW?W%3DARTIST+PH+WORDS+%27guity+novin%27+ORDER+BY+EVERY+AR/Ascend%26M%3D1%26K%3D27966%26R%3DY%26U%3D1)
- "Artistic Underground Surfaces" on Brock Street, by Frank Berry, The Queen's Journal, Friday, October 9, 1981.
- "A Heritage from Ancient Persia" A cririque of Guity Novin's exhibition Lost Serenade at the Brock street Gallery by Don McCallum,The Whig-Standard (http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/),Vol.2, No.51 Kingston, Ontario, October 3, 1981.
- "Circles of Time, A Conversation with Guity Novin", by S. Motazedi, Shahrvand (http://www.shahrvand.com/EN/Default.asp?Content=ABEN), Toronto, Vol.10, No 532, Friday Nov. 2000, P. 30.
- "A Piece of the Blue Sky, Guity Novin; The Quiet Artist in Vancouver" By R. Mahjouri, Paivand (http://www.paivand.com/contactus.htm), Vancouver, Vol. 6, No. 228, Friday Aug. 18, 2000
- Le Carnaval de la licorne (http://www.aaao.ca/huard.htm), Julie Huard (http://www.servicedulivre.be/activite/Salonregionslivre/auteurs-srl/huard-outaouais.htm), Collection " Fugues/Parles", Les Edition L'Interligne, 2001.
- The Transpressionist work by Guity "Pears in Blue" was selected for the Canadian Edition of the Abnormal Psychology by T.F Oltmanns, R.E Emery and Steven Taylor, Prentice Hall, Toronto, 2001, Chapter 10, P.335. See: Credits Page 713.
References
- 1. See: The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, February 12, 1997, page A16, The Art, Art and Entertainment Across Canad, Ottawa. It states: "Transpressionism. Genesis of a new movement in painting. Exhibition of recent painting by Guity Novin, 'Dream-Reader's Dream'. "Guity Novin, hailed as the originator and founder of Transpressionism, a new movement in painting that transcends beyond impressionism and expressionism styles, awakens a sagacious insight bearing on the inner world of appearances." P. Peault-Stein.February11th to 28th. Artex Gallery 55 Byward Market Square. Ottawa
- 2. see: David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989
- 3. See:Robert C. Morgan, Art into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art, Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 1996
- 4. Kant, Critique of Judgment, 14. 224
- 5. About My Work, August 1999, Guthenham Gallery, Granville Island.
- 6. Oscar Wilde, The Creatic As Artist (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/E800003-007/)
- 7. Oscar Wilde, op.cit
Categories: 1944 births | Living people | Canadian artists | Canadian painters | Women in art | Iranian painters | Contemporary painters | Iranian artists
