Juxtapoz Art & Culture - April 2016_

DAVID LIGARE JUXTAPOZ.COM (^) | 103
is so out of fashion today. I love that; I love doing something
that you are not supposed to do.
But, as you know, many artists and critics would find your
position reactionary and conservative.
Yes, well, I find those who are caught in the conventions
of contemporary art to be conservative. So there, right?
My own personal perspective is not one of conservatism.
Indeed, realism itself, the representation of present day
life, is not that interesting to me. So many artists have done
that. The insistence that art must be a reflection of the life
around us has become narrow and narcissistic. It is a form of
chronological chauvinism.
But we are also bombarded with an increasing number
of images every day. Every year, the average number
of images a person is exposed to is incredible. And that
decreases the amount of time you can give to each image to
analyze it.
The attraction of a painting is that it gives off its information
slowly. History painting as a new radicalism would merely be
another stylistic shift if it wasn’t something hugely needed
to redirect the culture. Just as Modernism—particularly
Surrealism—made us more aware of the irrational world
inside and out, we must now become desirous of the rational.
Conservatism and fundamentalism now own the irrational.
Liberal politics and aesthetics need to redirect their cultural
energies away from a whole litany of easy cliches toward
what the Chinese have called a “passion for learning.” Art
education that teaches only how to emulate images seen in
Artforum is like teaching math by arranging random numbers.
There is a science to seeing, just as there is to biology. Light,
form, color, physiognomies of plants and animals, and even
perspective, are all very teachable. Realism aside, they teach
us how to look carefully at something, analyze and then
recreate it using knowledge of the extant elements. The
student is not looking for a mere “impression” of something
but the fundamental truth to its existence.
David Ligare: California Classicist is on view at the Georgia Museum
of Art through May 8, 2016.
davidligare.com