A Mirror of the world: New Realism and the Ontology of Being

Abstract

The advent of photography appeared to mark the death of realist painting, seemingly surpassing its role of depicting the world. It followed that painters in the early 20th Century gradually moved towards abstraction where accurately portraying “reality” was no longer the objective. Yet there has since emerged a new movement in realist painting, one which embraces but also transcends the ubiquitous mass-produced images of the technological age. In doing so, the works produced by these new realist painters have come to not only represent the world but to forge their own existence within it. This essay will explore this new movement in realist painting by examining some of the concepts at its heart. One of these is what I will refer to as the “mirror of the world”, where paintings are able to depict more than just the empirical aspects of “reality”. Another is the “ontology of being”, which describes the physical act of painting and also the depiction in paintings of people in the world. The ontology of being also refers to the profoundness of being alive. I will discuss artists and theorists who inform or challenge my painting, and whose philosophical perspectives assist in understanding and contextualising it. I will begin with the mythological Greek figure of Narcissus, whose fixation on his own reflection in a pool of water has informed human societies for millennia. Following on from this, I will examine the concept of “cosmic narcissism”, where the world reflects its own image. This describes an “elation in existence” that is not self-aware but rather elated purely for the fact of just being in the world. I will also look at the theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who spoke of the painter’s living body as the centre of perception. When looking at the world, Merleau-Ponty said, the painter is completely integrated and immersed in the continuity of existence. I will examine the way the painter has the ability to reveal the invisible within a visible world, while also being an agent who creates a mirror-like surface that reflects it. I will discuss the return to realist painting in the last half century and its divergence from the realism established by the Renaissance painters. I will mention Leon Battista Alberti, who describes Renaissance naturalism as the ideal artform, where painting should resemble a window into space. He was also influenced by Ovid’s tale of Narcissus, with the beauty of painting as pure reflection. Alberti’s ideas do not satisfy the conditions for painting today, as art now fulfils a different role. However, aspects of Alberti’s theories can still be a useful source for realist painters. This essay will discuss the re-emergence, in contemporary form, of the sublime in 19th Century Romantic painting. It is an important philosophical concept in today’s world. I am interested in painting steeped in the natural world, and the immersion of the human form in landscape, embodying romantic ideas and a sense of the sublime. In the 20th Century, with photography’s ability to capture and depict images, realist painters have had to find ways to validate their practice. Painting dramatically influenced by the introduction of photography. My paintings respond to contemporary society as a commoditized culture, where omnipresent images lack authenticity and originality. Painting does something that a diluted copy of a copy cannot do. I will discuss three painters, Gerhard Richter, Wilhelm Sasnal and Peter Doig, who have found ways to transform photographs into a new kind of ‘image’. Rather than photography’s mechanical precision, these three painters found different approaches to painting, which transcend the corruption of the photographic image. I use photographs collected on the internet as a starting point for painting; but from these sources my paintings are born into the world as real objects.