THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 9th FEBRUARY 2021: DAY 317

New painting: "The things that I have seen."
Oil paint on canvas, 254 x 254 mm.

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 9th February 2021.
Part 26: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion. 
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime

However, another artist whom I have been interested in for a long time and whose work has once again found a place in my recent research is John Martin. Martin can in many ways be considered as the English ‘Friedrich’; both were painting dramatic, ‘Romantic’ landscapes at about the same time and in both cases these landscapes included, significant, human figures. Having said that, the way in which these figures are portrayed as interacting with the landscapes in the paintings differs greatly, even to the point of contradiction.

Martin was not just a painter of Romantic or spiritual scenes, he was also a religious painter. His works set out to capture a religious sublime by taking as their subject’s biblical passages or stories. This making his paintings something akin to altarpieces; these were paintings created to instruct and often to intimidate an errant flock. They are very much paintings of fire and brimstone and the inhabitants of them are victims caught up in Martin’s divine infernos; they are actors, at best, they spectators of the scene.

Friedrich’s paintings by contrast owe their spirituality to something very different. Friedrich seeks the sublime through encounters with nature, a common theme in German art. Consequently, the figures in his paintings play a very different role; if Martins figures are spectators then Friedrich’s are observers. In fact, Friedrichs figures are often almost so far outside of the landscape that to an extent they break the fourth wall and join us in the gallery, beyond the frame.  These are cool, contemplative and very Germanic paintings, paintings in which it appears that their inhabitants are themselves on a quest for the sublime.

To be continued...