4: Freud and the Real Abstraction
Lucian Freud
Naked Man, Back View, 1992Oil on canvas, w137.2 cm x h182.9 cm (54" x 72")
Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), New York City, NY USA
Throughout the 20th century and still today, using the portrait as a vehicle for something other than a depiction of the subject became a new normal. Artists used portraits to convey their own artistic ideas, to investigate various larger themes, to do self-portraits by proxy...they swung the focus from the sitter's physicality to their mind to their surroundings to their history, and used this to say things about the sitter, the artist, the world of people, the world full stop, etc. As you might expect, the range of styles used exploded to accommodate. So, you got everything from photorealism to a level of abstraction that nearly obliterated the subject, works of all sizes, all media, works intended to be beautiful, or ugly, or beautiful in their ugliness or vice versa.
Of the ugly-pretty stuff, Freud1 is probably the best-known example. There's a lot to say about Freud, but bottom line his work was about:
NOTES:
1. Yes, it's a relation — Lucian was the grandson of famous/notorious psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
2. At least, usually. Probably better to say that if the execution is confident, if the artist has the ability to work differently but has chosen insistently to work this way, and if the work seems 'complete' in its current form, then the ugliness is probably on purpose. Obviously there are a lot of amateur schmucks who can turn out utter bullshit that's just the best they can do...not that I know any such people personally...*shifty eyes*
3. However! Full disclosure: I sincerely like the work above, but looking at Freud's overall output, I still think he's pretty overrated. End of the day we're all still thrown back on our own tastes and ideas, so to clarify, it's not disliking the work that I'd be hypothetically judging you for, it's for not bothering to wonder why a work is the way it is. If you do think about it, come up with some possibilities that make sense and still hate it, then you do you.
Of the ugly-pretty stuff, Freud1 is probably the best-known example. There's a lot to say about Freud, but bottom line his work was about:
- Intense observation from life. Even for small works, INTENSE.
- Exposing the 'ugly' mortal real-world flesh of his sitters...really, using their bodies to make them human.
- Exposing his own mind through the figure of his sitter.
When looking at art that isn't immediately 'beautiful', it's best to keep in mind that the ugliness is there for a reason2, and this goes doubly and triply so for portraits. There's a lot in human nature, biology, psychology that is ugly, and I have nothing but respect for artist who tackle that ugliness with an aim to put it in thoughtful context.
Which is just the nice way of saying that if we're in a museum, and you see a painting like this in a quick glance, say 'gross', and walk on with no further curiosity, you're perfectly within your rights to do that but I'm going to judge you3.
1. Yes, it's a relation — Lucian was the grandson of famous/notorious psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
2. At least, usually. Probably better to say that if the execution is confident, if the artist has the ability to work differently but has chosen insistently to work this way, and if the work seems 'complete' in its current form, then the ugliness is probably on purpose. Obviously there are a lot of amateur schmucks who can turn out utter bullshit that's just the best they can do...not that I know any such people personally...*shifty eyes*
3. However! Full disclosure: I sincerely like the work above, but looking at Freud's overall output, I still think he's pretty overrated. End of the day we're all still thrown back on our own tastes and ideas, so to clarify, it's not disliking the work that I'd be hypothetically judging you for, it's for not bothering to wonder why a work is the way it is. If you do think about it, come up with some possibilities that make sense and still hate it, then you do you.