The Heat of Art

It’s hard to distinguish oneself in a crowded world. It’s also very honorable to engage in the pursuit of art and attempt to make powerful, meaningful, and maybe even lasting statements, given this daunting fact.

The current Upfront Gallery exhibition gives voice to the visual creations of North Dakota State University and Minnesota State University Moorhead graduating BA and BFA art students. The eclectic show was juried by Plains Art Museum Director Colleen Sheehy.

An exhibition of university student art reveals what these practitioners are learning, experiencing, executing, and now, displaying. After four or five years of art instruction, studio production, and portfolio evaluation, what are some valid viewer expectations? What, also, is a critic to look for now that the work is out of the classroom and on the gallery wall or floor?

Two things come to mind rather quickly: one expects a certain technical proficiency in the chosen medium, and in addition, one looks for originality of conception, in other words, personal vision. That said, do the artifacts at the Upfront measure up to these rather standard expectations?

Yes, and no. The temperature of the overall exhibit is cool. I am using the term cool in contrast to the idea of heat. Poet Robert Bly describes what he calls a “drop into cultural sleep” in contemporary society. “We are not experiencing a drive upward into intensity,” he says, but a diminishment of heat—the “heat of passion,” for example, or “the heat of love,” the “heat of community,” and the “heat of concern.” How does Bly’s analysis relate to the visual images being reviewed in this exhibit?

As I say, the overall coolness of the exhibition is striking. The artifacts displayed contain images that include an empty chair sitting alone in a room; itty-bitty prints of the cosmos; discarded objects piled up; non-objective white and grey abstract swirls of pigment; free-flowing inkblot-type organic clusters of paint; finely detailed animal prints; plus more. Mostly, what is human is absent. When the human being does appear, in one particular work, for example, the degrading fashion in which the two individuals are portrayed is hideous in the extreme.

It’s not that the artworks alluded to above don’t have positive attributes; they do. Some are very well-executed (proficiency); others exhibit a strong sense of design or an intimate knowledge of the subject matter (personal vision)—a digital print is an example. The artist juxtaposes technology saturation with scattered phrases like “collective living.”

One intriguing painting even suggests visually the ideas expressed by Bly. In this work, Decaying Structure, vague images of human personages exist as faint and far away remembrances under the beautifully textured painted surface. In Do You Speak the Truth, a human is present, in this case a young woman. Her mouth is taped shut in good feminist-cliché fashion, and written on the tape is the word, “Jesus.” This work does have something of a presence and connotes multiple meanings, even if the taped up signifier isn’t news, though the religious negativity engendered seems cursory and unduly harsh.

In visual art terms, heat is generated through abstraction and figuration via the use of powerful shapes or vigorous lines or unusual and personal color schemes, to name a few tropes. Or heat can be summoned up where humans are present, especially in images where they interact. Maybe they could be touching one another, or taking stock of each other, or comforting one another.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I think too much of Robert Bly’s observations and art, or of Paul Tillich and his engaging conceptions and art. I often ask with Tillich, when viewing artworks, “What are your ultimate concerns?”—you artists. Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking of the crowded world and the type of images it takes to shake up a sleeping viewer. Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking of the cold reaches of contemporary culture. Maybe I should just accept at face value the works that students are putting out. Maybe the act of making art is enough of a statement itself.

Just say, then, that many of the student works might be a little cold and in need of a little heat to warm the viewer up. Just say that a move upward toward intensity is in order. If there are slight failings to report, that only means that the quest isn’t over; that the journey that began with an interest in a laudable pursuit has just begun.

By the way, I did see a painting that had been juried out of the show in an Upfront Gallery side room. This was one hot little number. The analogous color scheme was toned perfectly for the heat the center female figure generated. In fact, in this Munch-esque work where the human person takes center emotive stage, a certain proficiency and personal vision were nearly perfectly in sync. If you get to the Upfront this weekend, and I hope you do, why not ask to see the hottie?

Reviewer’s Note: As a critic, I’ve never written a review without naming the artists, but in this review, my aim was to focus on the themes of the artworks and certain aesthetic topics. I invite you to attend the exhibition where you can connect the content of the review to individual student artists. The Robert Bly quotes are taken from a personal interview with the poet in June of 2000.

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INFO:

What: Tri-College Baccalaureate Juried Exhibit
Where: The Upfront Gallery  
When: Nov. 10-Dec. 7 Gallery Hours: 12:00-7:30 Tues.-Sat.
Why: 701.364.0934