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Yvo Jacquier :: IDEOREALISM
« An idea is a dream with a happy ending.»
Assessment of an Epoch
At this end of the 20th century, the ideorealists take note of the dictatorship of an official, hegemonic Art, confirmed and approved of by countries that believe themselves 'developed'.
The single-minded, authorized thinking which is felt to justify it is the object of a discontent as collective as it is discreet : nothing seems to cast doubt on this gargantuan system. "Contemporary Art" has a Mona Lisa smile. Will its smile still be in place in a century?
No grounds for No in the Figurative (NIF)
At a moment when science attains the age of reason, Art has had scientism inflicted upon it and fallen into the most tragic of illusions: the No in the Figurative.
« NIF »
The utilization of a referent (the concrete) 'deprives the artist of his liberty', which he cannot fully envisage except by eliminating this referent. The artist is no longer there to deliver to humanity his vision of the world, since the world for him holds no further interest. He thinks of himself as an absolute creator while ignoring the example of Creation itself.
As ideorealists, we consider that this attitude, instead of leading to creation, imprisons the creator in a form of schizophrenia. The schizophrenic expresses himself, but he is the only one who understands. Moreover, often, the attitude of the artist imprisons him in Autism. The ideorealists therefore propose the opening of a branch of the faculty of medicine (psychiatric service) within the fine arts schools, the faculties of plastic arts and art history, as well as making available long-term monitored living facilities for candidates who simply must finish their postgraduate studies in marginalisation.
Scientism has not waited for the end of the twentieth century to win over artistic thought: iconoclasm implies a notion of progress in Art. This iconoclasm is the constant in a century which has not ceased to contradict itself.
At the end of this road, a perfecting of intellectual marketing:
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Conceptual Art
It is not lacking in discourse ; on the other hand it is lacking, by definition, in the Concrete.The ideorealists are tempted to bring to all of this a touch of poetry by prolonging, through action, a line of thought whose lack of achievement they denounce. This is ICONOPHAGY, version HARD. This action is constructed as it arises, since automatic poetry is the privilege of the surrealists.
« When such a "clever lad" exhibits a pile of coal, symbol of high-calorie promises, the ideorealists display the immaculate whiteness of a bodystocking: the mind will then enter into combat with the material! Around a fire which is always dead, a dance begins, where long arms stretch out their flames, and long songs stretch their souls. This is the rite of INCANDESCENCE. At its height, the phenomena implodes: The great wizard falls and everyone follows him down !
Then ceasing to disperse, the troupe wishes to spread and share its joy, mixing its mists inspired by the moods of the public. Shared between mother prudence and sister curiosity, the crowd opens the way to the end of the story. The ideorealists go forth to accomplish their last ritual: that of INDECENCE. Everyone sheds their worn out skins, and makes a heap of their dirty garb. The symbolic is at last accomplished opposing the textile Ying of a pile of dirty clothes to the coal mining yang of a heap of coke, henceforth soiled by the minds of the great white wizards. »
Extending the discourse of a great sage, the ideorealists rebaptise the notion of "concept" by renaming it DECEPT.
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The Triptych of Liberty
In its developments, Art could present itself as a triptych: a central panel with two folding side sections that close themselves over it. In the closed position, the two side panels cover the central space.
On the left, the figurative tradition which preoccupies itself above all with the subject. On the right, the "analytic" tradition of 20th century, which preoccupies itself above all with the means of expression, even if this means suppressing them.
When one opens the side panels, as if opening one's eyes, the central panel finds itself framed by these two counterparts of the pictorial dialectic. It is twice as wide as the two other panels, but finds itself, up to that moment, overshadowed. One could ask oneself if the two side panels don't define themselves "one against the other", if one does not demand opposition to the other to justify itself. We may also ask about this double face.
The central panel feeds on the figurative while posing the question of means : it's the synthesis of preoccupations and occupations. It's on this panel that the ideorealism engrave their signs. Their questions are declared, their assertions are clear.
In this too, the ideorealists choose ICONOPHAGY. To integrate instead of rejecting or dis-integrating. To understand instead of excluding. The ideorealists reclaim the right to create. And, "without permission from the institutions", the right to speak. Now, you lack but one term for the jumbling of categories to be complete.
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The True Abstraction, or abstract synthesis
The term 'abstract' has been purposely diverted from its etymological vocation, to make reference to the non-figurative only.
Representative painters no longer have a vocabulary as soon as they completely leave the beaten path of the total figurative. Due to the imposition of a "novlang" worthy of Orwell's "1984", the artist must choose his camp between the "dunces" and the "intellos".
This obscurantism, born of the obligatory closing of the triptych, pushes the debate into the absurd. The Artist must choose between his father and his mother. The NON-RIGHT to abstractive synthesis appears even in the everyday language.
This elitism is a form of decadence, and it produces the same type of hereditary defects as inbreeding. For the same ills, the same remedies?
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The Lesson of Traditional Arts
Every artist is the product of a history. To better understand his own, the ideorealist goes to the school of those who really live theirs (ICONOPHAGY version SOFT).The Traditional Arts are the example of a serene equilibrium between the quest for representation and the preoccupation with means.
The social status of these arts is so obvious it allows us to dream. The traditional artist doesn't necessarily have the status of Artist, as defined by western society in 1999. He is conscious of accomplishing a communal mission. He represents his community as surely as the 'work' represents something precise and sometimes even alive for this community.
The work itself is a part of the status of the community, which defines itself through the community. He (the Artist) says the essential, he practices it. He makes present the thing, the being or the divinity (African statuary). If they were only a lesson in collective autosuggestion, Traditional Arts wouldn't have this obviousness (often aesthetic) for the members of another community that we are. There is in the intention of the authors something indissociable from the result. This "near nothing" is imperceptible without the notion of the sacred.
« Art gives flesh to the Sacred.»
The double game of community acceptance and the sacred will produces a particular aesthetic:
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THE Aesthetic of accomplishment.
For the ideorealists, this is not a concept ‚ it is a reality. The Traditional does not discuss ‚ it experiences.
Kant approached the principle of aesthetics by noting that it saves... Certain detours of western history would have set the tone if "those who have no history" hadn't preserved it. One example among examples: African statuary. Aside from its exotic reference, African statuary, with others, has permitted the 20th century to break out of the Form. Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism... African statuary has served as a plastic reference, as an alternative vocabulary to that of Classical Art.
The analysis is complete of this first earthquake and of its aftershocks (Raw Art, for example). The ideorealists pose the question of the genesis of this Art which speaks so much to us, and of which so much is spoken. Second great earthquake!
The serial and traditional aspects inform us of the extent of a practice in space and time: the object finds its equilibrium having been continually reproduced, re_thought, re-envisaged on the one hand, and experienced by the community on the other hand. The plastic equilibrium is parallel to the social equilibrium. When it is judged socially accomplished, the object finds its formal equilibrium.
MODERN ART has broken with Classical Art to liberate the primordial vigour of inspiration. There is reason not to be content with this, and to pursue, devoting the time without giving in to haste or social pressure, to cultivate a certain Wisdom... without moderation! The aesthetic of accomplishment establishes itself.
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The Consequences of Western Inconsequence
The question arises of our "influence", through our Art, on traditional civilisations who haven't yet been absorbed by the industrial west. "They" see not only our cars and our advertising.
For the countries who are candidates for absorption, our culture enjoys a status comparable to that of our technology, which can be summed up in one word: COVETOUSNESS. The West couldn't have found a better strategy to disintegrate the cultural barriers with their social consequences than exploiting this influence.
In eliminating the sacred from its official Art, the industrialised world attacks traditional societies at their foundations, preparing them for the arrival of an ideology of cheap rubbish which cannot be assimilated by their true culture. We sum up this phenomenon with a little joke:
« Civilisation is culture without the sacred.»
In this respect "their" opportunity can lie with us as "our" opportunity does lie with them.
Pont-Aven, September 1999.
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