JIM THOMPSON 1977

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "JIM THOMPSON 1977"

은하 돈
5 years ago
Views:

2 Henry Geldzahler famously said of Andy Warhol s work that people have a longing to see the familiar codified in some way. This is among the truest things uttered about how fine art works, in particular how Pop Art works. Pop established an inexhaustible image system from within which artists can draw new subject territory. It will never go away. Pop is constantly replenishing itself and reflecting the new, which is in stark contrast to the desperate, recursive exhaustion of formalist painting as it looks for fresh perspectives on canvas though gesture line and color. Painting provides an intepretable and pleasurable visual structure that serves as a delivery vehicle for ideas. Painting for painting s sake is for me an effete pleasure akin to wine tasting that owes its survival to the utility of art as decoration and the absence of footholds necessary to support legitimate intellectual inspection. I recoil from the refrain the work is about what painting can do that so often attends discussion of contemporary abstract work. While I acknowledge that one of the fundamental utilities of art is to afford viewers a peaceable remove from the world a space for intellectual contemplation I find art s fundamental utility to be the illumination of life and of the world, and that meaning is no enemy to contemplation. I did not study art in college or in graduate school. I did study literature, aesthetic theory, and literary theory in both. The only theory or definition of Art that I studied that could not be disproved in some way was the Institutional Theory (Dickey & Danto), a tautology that claims Art is what the Art World says it is, evidenced by Duchamp and Warhol, etc. My practice looks to objects, images and narratives that function in every way like art while remaining outside of what art is deemed to be solely as a result of their context. I champion miscegenation amongst design elements, entertainment, and art. I also embrace an Emotionalist (Tolstoy) position on art. Movies, music and television have conditioned in me a heightened sensitivity to the evocative. I like to moved and to be communicated with. I have no reluctance in declaiming that this is chiefly what art is and has been for, at the end of the day. I am fascinated by the indelibility of impressions formed during childhood and adolescence. It is my intention to excavate these most durable memories and document them through painting and sculpture, and to examine their recontextualized form. My practice is therefore experimental in nature. The first series of images I have produced are the baseball card paintings, all taken from the year, all from the card publisher Topps. The paintings intend to be faithful to the cards in both size and image, any changes to the look of the original cards are the result of happenstance or error. The selection of as the source year for the card paintings resulted from personal memory ( was the year I actually collected baseball cards) and excellence in graphic design, which contributed in no small way to the durability of the memories I suspect. The card paintings intend to be evocative, and I suppose that creating a state of thoughtful reverie is their clearest intention. The card paintings surface ways in which male heroism is coded, and by virtue of their age they show the changing face of male heroism and male beauty. Like all pillars of memory, the card paintings summon not only the then and its Proustian swirl of associations, but the gulf of time between the then and the now. They are about aging in a narrow authorial sense (my aging.) They are about value. They are about the men themselves, and their exploits. They are about what painting can do.

3 77 Burt Hooton, oil and 77 Bucky Dent, oil and 77 Dave Lopes, oil and 2.75 inches, Sixto Lezcano, oil x 77 Bob Boone, oil and

4 77 Steve Garvey, oil and 77 Fred Lynn, oil and 77 Willie Randolph, oil x 77 Dave Concepcion, oil x 77 George Foster, oil x 77 Steve Carlton, oil x 77 Ron Cey, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, Frank Tanana, oil and

5 77 Eddie Murray, oil and 77 Darrell Porter, oil and

6 77 Freddie Patek, oil x 77 John Montefusco, oil x 77 Joe Morgan, oil and 77 Ron Guidry, oil and 77 Rick Burleson, oil x 77 Graig Nettles, oil x 77 Manny Ganguillen, oil x 77 Bob Ghich, oil and

7 77 Hal McRae, oil and 77 Reggie Jackson, oil x 77 Doug DeCinces, oil and 77 Rico Carty, oil and 77 Steve Yeager, oil and

8 77 Bill Russell, oil and 77 Thurman Munson, oil and

9 77 Don Sutton, oil and 77 Jerry Remy, oil and 77 Mike Schmidt, oil and 77 Ron LeFlore, oil and 77 Reggie Smith, oil and

10 77 Nolan Ryan, oil and 77 Rico Petrocelli, oil x 77 Johnny Bench, oil and 77 Dock Ellis, oil and 77 Greg Luzinski, oil x

11 77 Mickey Rivers, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 77 Dusty Baker, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 77 Phil Niekro, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x

12 77 John Lowenstein, oil x 77 Rick Monday, oil and 77 Richie Zisk, oil and 77 Cesar Geronimo, oil x 77 Tommy John, oil and 77 Carl Yastrzemski, oil x 77 Mark Fidrych, oil and 77 Amos Otis, oil and

13 77 Luis Tiant, oil and 77 Dave Kingman, oil and 77 Jim Hunter, oil and 77 Rich Gossage, oil and 77 Rollie Fingers, oil and

14 77 Mike Flanagan, oil and 77 Ken Griffey, oil and

15 77 Al Bumbry, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, Don Gullett, oil and 77 Ed Figueroa, oil and 77 Garry Templeton, oil and 77 Gary Carter, oil and 77 Sal Bando, oil and ink on canvas, 3.75 x 2.75 inches, 2013

16 77 Mike Cubbage, oil and 77 Toby Harrah, oil and 77 Mike Torrez, oil and 77 Chris Chambliss, oil x 77 Andy Messersmith, oil x

17 77 Rick Dempsey, oil and 77 Paul Splittorff, oil x 77 Oscar Gamble, oil and 77 Mark Belanger, oil x 77 Lou Piniella, oil and 77 Larry Gura, oil and 77 George Scott, oil and 77 Brooks Robinson, oil x

18 Installation at Charlie James Gallery, March 2013

RONBO's 1980 Player Appearance Grid Atlanta Braves 04/09 04/11 04/12 04/13 04/14 04/15 04/17 04/18 04/19 04/20 04/22 04/23 04/24 04/25 Opponent at CIN

RONBO's 1980 Player Appearance Grid Atlanta Braves 04/09 04/11 04/12 04/13 04/14 04/15 04/17 04/18 04/19 04/20 04/22 04/23 04/24 04/25 Opponent at CIN Atlanta Braves 04/09 04/11 04/12 04/13 04/14 04/15 04/17 04/18 04/19 04/20 04/22 04/23 04/24 04/25 at CIN at CIN at CIN at CIN at HOU at HOU vs CIN vs CIN vs CIN vs CIN vs SDN vs SDN vs SDN vs MON D N