Artist to Collect
Aaron Fink
www.arabelladesign.com
• page 125
previous page, Berries and Cream, oil on linen, 24" x 30"
A De-familiarizing Intimacy written by Kylie Serebrin Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary Art critic Meyer Schapiro once wrote: "Still life engages the painter (and also the observer who can surmount the habit of casual perception) in a steady looking that discloses new and elusive aspects of the stable object. At first commonplace in appearance, it may become in the course of that contemplation a mystery, a source of metaphysical wonder." This statement articulately expresses how the objects in Aaron Fink’s paintings are plucked from the landscape of the ordinary and elevated to a grander existence within the realm
page 126 • Artist to Collect: Aaron Fink
above, Banana Split I, oil on board, 30" x 40"
of the extraordinary. Like the Cubists, Dadaists and Surrealists before him, Aaron Fink is renowned for his intense examination of unassuming or mundane objects, which he decontextualizes and transforms into monumental objects of heroic status. In this sense, "art can remain humble and seek the heroic in equal proportions," he suggests. Paradoxically, the things he paints retain many of their definitive characteristics and references to the physical world, even while simultaneously being reconfigured by expressionistic painting gestures that abandon their conventionally recognizable forms. When viewed in series, Aaron’s paintings of a chosen item assume the status of icons, accumulating a collective power that vastly surpasses the apparent significance of the simple object that prompted them. Hats, flowers, pie, sweet peppers, banana splits and cheeseburgers are among the models that Aaron has investigated
Arabella Fall Harvest 2013
Banana Split II, oil on board, 16" x 20"
and reimagined in this fashion. With their exaggerated scale, subtly distorted shapes and explosive colours and textures, Aaron challenges us to push past our jaded sense of familiarity with these objects and to perceive their fascinating inner lives. The Artist’s Own Life Aaron’s life began in 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was born into an artistic family. His father was an accountant turned art dealer, and his mother was a visual artist. "My first ‘bedroom’ was actually the front room of the apartment we lived in, which my mother also used as her studio. So you might say I was raised on paint fumes – which probably in some part led me to where I am today," he notes with a grin. For Aaron, art was ever-present and unquestioned. Many of his parents’ friends were artists as well; thus, the social events of his childhood often included
www.arabelladesign.com
heated discussions about artistic ideas. "At the time, most of the concepts debated were beyond my comprehension, but this was the environment I grew up in, nonetheless," he explains. In elementary school, Aaron thought he would like to be a sculptor because he loved to build things. By the time he reached high school, however, he discovered painting and realized that it was his true calling. When graduation rolled around, Aaron’s dilemma was whether to choose a liberal arts school with a good arts program, or a designated art school. "In the end, I wound up going to art school at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and it was an excellent experience for me," Aaron states. He also attended a summer program at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine before earning his Master’s Degree from the Yale University School of Art. Upon completing his Master’s, Aaron supported
Artist to Collect: Aaron Fink • page 127
left, Cherries I, oil on board, 48" x 36"
himself by painting houses while he pursued his own art. Although physically demanding, house painting allowed Aaron extended periods of quiet time to meditate on his own thoughts. "Plus, it kept my painting arm in shape!" he reflects, wryly. In 1981, Aaron was offered his first solo show at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Hayden Gallery. This exhibition sparked further interest in his work, allowing him to finally support himself with the sales of his art. "If A Honeybee Could Paint…" Of Aaron’s unique style, art historian Patricia Berman has noted that "if a honeybee could paint, if it could express how overwhelmingly monumental the world appeared in relation to its tiny body, if it could somehow capture the dynamic
www.arabelladesign.com
above, Cheeseburger I, oil on board, 16" x 20"
complexity of color and texture as registered by the thousands of cells in its compound eyes, its work might look a little like Aaron Fink’s paintings." By this, Berman is referring to the fact that Aaron’s objects assume a hyper-stature, looming large in their isolating environments. Her analogy also speaks to the fact that the closer Aaron’s objects appear, the less familiar they become to us. "I like to work with recognizable items that most people can relate to, that to me also have some metaphoric value to them," Aaron explains. "In this sense, a painting represents the chosen object itself, but also suggests something beyond that thing." Thus, the forms in his paintings never have only one prescribed meaning; rather, they are symbols whose meanings shift and evolve throughout the viewer’s process of viewing them.
Artist to Collect: Aaron Fink • page 129
above, White Orchid, oil on linen, 24" x 30"
The Subjectivity of Reception According to Aaron, it’s extremely important for an artist to recognize and embrace the fact that the viewer brings his or her own experiences, understandings and expectations to bear on a work of art, and that – more often than not – the viewer’s interpretation is not the same as the artist’s own intentions. "This is the truly phenomenal thing about art," he notes. "It fosters a dialogue about humanity, itself. Art is culture’s great mirror, in that it reflects back to us the feelings, passions and visions that we all feel, however uniquely we experience them." One interpretation many viewers do tend to agree on is that many of Aaron’s represented objects seem anthropomorphized or personified.
page 130 • Artist to Collect: Aaron Fink
right, Korean Bonsai, oil on linen, 40" x 30"
Often, his motifs are endowed with the voluptuousness of flesh, or with forms that evoke the human body. For instance, he has depicted flowers in various shades, shapes and textures. Some are delicately coloured, while others emanate vivid hues. Their forms differ, as well – some spread openly, some remain tightly furled; some are sharp-edged, others display soft, rippling curves. What unites all of these examples is a fleshy suppleness that highlights their bodily or ‘humanoid’ connotations. Aaron’s objects are also animated by the energy that seems to burst from within them. Appearing to emit warmth and light unto their environments, the ‘things’ he paints appear to be endowed with internal vitality or life force.
Arabella Fall Harvest 2013
www.arabelladesign.com
• page 131
right, Peony I, oil on board, 24" x 18"
right, Peony II, oil on board, 40" x 30"
page 134 •
Arabella Fall Harvest 2013
www.arabelladesign.com
• page 135
previous page, Crimson Rose, oil on linen, 30" x 40" left, Red Rose in Water, oil on board, 14" x 11"
The Contradiction of Reality vs. Representation The contours of Aaron’s heroic and energetic objects vibrate with the traces of paint that permeate them from the background, while the colours and textures from the objects’ insides simultaneously ooze outward from their centres. The surfaces of his paintings reveal paint that has been thickly applied, scraped, peeled and smoothed, causing foregrounds and backgrounds to fuse and revealing interwoven layers of colour and form. In short, the models in Aaron’s paintings are re-shaped into formal, visual elements, whereby they become explosions of colour and texture. Yet, these tangles of shapes still cling, loosely, to the recognizable, undulating forms that inspired them. "My paintings become vehicles for the medium itself, whereby I hope the viewer will become enmeshed into the materiality of the paint on a more abstract level. In other words, on one hand my paintings are illusions of objects. On
page 136 •
Arabella Fall Harvest 2013
www.arabelladesign.com
right, Red Orchid, oil on linen, 24" x 30"
the other hand, they are statements on the nature of the paint," Aaron states. Aaron is fascinated by the inherent contradiction in painting between the represented image and the materiality of the paint. "In any painting," he explains, "there is the object depicted – the image that gives the viewer a sense of illusion – but there is also the flatness of the two-dimensional surface upon which the material (i.e. paint) is applied." The emotional reaction evoked by Aaron’s art is often rooted in this contradiction between artistic illusion and the act of painting, since the painting process simultaneously and paradoxically creates and undermines an artwork’s ability to convince us that what we’re seeing is real. His works, therefore, force the viewer to reflect on how persuasive and how unreal representations can be, at the same time. For Aaron, the act of painting is the act of creating a parallel world that is inspired by, but does not recreate, the physical world we inhabit every day.
Artist to Collect: Aaron Fink • page 137
Defying Boundaries On occasion, Aaron’s subjects refuse to be confined by the two-dimensionality of paint on canvas and they emerge, instead, as three-dimensional sculptures or ceramics. Though these sculptures exist as concrete or ‘real’ objects in the physical world, they – like Aaron’s paintings – have less to do with evoking a convincing likeness of their corresponding models than they do with expressing unexpected or de-familiarizing transformations to the items that inspired them. With their exaggerated scale, creatively distorted forms and unusual textures, Aaron’s sculptures function much like his paintings: to underscore their status as handmade artworks and to make the viewer’s engagement with something ordinary feel strange and exhilarating. As intellectual as Aaron’s practice might seem from the outside, for him, creating great art boils down to emotions and instincts. "Barnett Newman once said that ornithology is to birds what art theory is to artists," he states. "In other words, when an artist is truly creating, he or she is doing it on a deep and intuitive level. If the artist is working in a more doctrinaire or cerebral way, the process and its results will be less authentic and more superficial – and it just won’t fly." Luckily for us, Aaron’s expressionistic energy, instinctive gestures and insatiable curiosity about the world around him allow his work to continue defying labels and expectations. His art, consequently, soars. Witness the ordinary become extraordinary by connecting with Aaron Fink at: www. aaronfink.com, afinkart@aol.com or 617.561.0018. For galleries carrying Aaron Fink’s work, contact: Galerie D'Avignon Montreal, Quebec www.galeriedavignon.ca 514.278.4777
right, Red Hibiscus, oil on board, 30" x 40"