PoetsArtists

Q&A David Jon Kassan

Grace in Profile | oil on paper on panel | 21 x 26 inches

How do you feel about formal training?

I think that formal training is very important, there are so many different varieties of formal training today that it the subjective choices with whom an artist studies informs how they want their work to look and feel. A strong balance between a high level of skill and concept is really important in my opinion. Having the skill can help an artist to do the artistic gymnastics to create outside of the box. Do you have a ritual or specific process you follow when creating art? maybe just lots of observation and thought around who the subject is that I am painting. How do you bring emotion across to a flat surface? The emotion in my pieces is all brought about by the

“My work is a way of meditation, a way of slowing down time though the careful observation of overlooked slices of my environment. It is the subtlety of emotion in my acquaintances that inhabit the aforementioned environment which intrigues me. My paintings strive for reality, a chance to mimic life in both scale and complexity. Taking the abstract form from the streets where they get lost and moving them into the gallery space where they can be contemplated as accidental abstractions.”

Self Portrait at Age 30 (detail) oil on panel 40” x 26”

Brush Back oil on paper and panel 24” x 23”

Jorg Dubin

Review by Grady Harp

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back - Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

THE QUESTION is often posed ‘What is the current period of art in which we are living?’ – a query that reflects art history’s predilection to categorize movements such as Impressionism, Expressionism, Abstraction, etc. But the current state of creative art in the 21st century defies such tidy shelving: perhaps it is the speed of communication or the ‘right to reason’ that, say, Twittering provides that tosses all labels to the wind and settles on each artist the individuality that precludes labels. Such is most assuredly the case with Southern California artist Jorg Dubin. His fascinating, probing canvases are at once representational portraits, realistically rendered in oil on linen with an attention to detail that is rare among his contemporaries.

MAN WITH A BLACK HAT

And yet the quality draughtsmanship of the type Dubin achieves is not what makes his works unique: fellow artists such as Lucien Freud, Eric Fischl, Avigdor Arikha, Odd Nerdrum among others treat the figure with great style and technique. What Dubin brings to the easel is an extraordinary sense of exploration of the psyche of his models, or better said, a flux of interchange between what the artist brings to the session with the model coupled with the visual stimuli that blossom as he pulls the figure into his world of inimitable imagination. A man of quiet unassuming exterior, an artist who is always ready to credit the influences of other artists in his mastery of his craft, Jorg Dubin has that manner of thinking that is best described as being an existentialist: his quiet demeanor as well as his finished strange and haunting paintings attest to the concept that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his/her emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. He is fully capable of painting the outer likeness of his model with careful attention to realistic near- photographic detail, but his fascination or obsession with the darker aspects of each of our personalities finds its way through the gradual layering of paint, bringing focus to the psychological person beneath the physical appearance of the model. Not that Dubin pushes his paintings to distortion in the manner of Francis Bacon or Jenny Saville or Cecily Brown: his sense of organizational detail and story telling requires that he allow his model to first be approached as a recognizable figure, often a figure with surface flaws or variations in form that either age or other enemies have altered that figure, before the mental and emotional data take over. Yet for all his realistic representation he is unafraid to alter the effects of lighting, of setting, and of brush technique to add that element of mystery, an invitation to the viewer to take the imagery yet further than the clues the artist has presented. Dubin’s canvases emerge, then, from a mind ever alert to idiosyncrasies as well as a technique that allows him to enter realms unavailable to many figurative artists. In Walls, Doors, Reflections the elements of his craft are combined in a painting depicting the artist on the left, the malleable model in the middle, and Stephen Douglas (one of Dubin’s primary teachers and influences) on the right: the story unfolds as the painting is studied closely. In Well Seeker Revisited the model, perhaps at rest from a pose, reflects in an odd series of doors and mirrors, a figure rendered with the utmost detail coupled with a flowing, dripping, ? decomposing atmosphere. Dubin’s many large scale portraits include figures that may appear disturbing, as in Draw where an ominous heavy male ready to use the gun tucked in his belt seems to emerge from a shadowy background, not unlike our fears of the night, or in Entrance –the seated female, knees together, sits before a purse on the floor ajar to reveal a rather raw red hint of a story, or Produce, the full figured female sits anchored by a chain to a nearby water bird. But he is also able to uncover the whimsical or fantastic aspect of his models in other paintings, as in Girl with a Pink Balloon (a seductive blond model atop a child’s building block), Man with a Black Hat (a seated man with a horn that allows appreciation of Dubin’s control of detail in tandem with his ‘post-modern’ approach to peripheral ambiguities) or Knight or B.I.G., portraits of great dignity and gentle deportment of figures who might in other artist’s hands become threatening. Jorg Dubin is a fine colorist whose matrices allow him to at times seem as random playing with pigment, perhaps offering some relief from the intensity of the central subject matter – the examination of the human being as a container of experience, of change, of countless possibilities of inner turmoil or joy: what the exterior presents is only the beginning of the endlessly fascinating characters he brings to our attention.

“My paintings are about humanity. My art is concerned with Peace and Justice and the Truth about the Human Condition. My paintings are realistic in form as well as content in order to powerfully communicate ideas and feelings.”

Q&A Max Ginsburg

MAX GINSBURG Crossroads oil 26” x 40”

What are your thoughts on today’s realism? I welcome the revival of realism. During the twentieth century it has been disfavored and prevented from developing, which resulted in crude and amateurish realistic art. In the past twenty years realism has been improving due to the growing number of academies and ateliers and some of the art schools which are teaching traditional realism using more structured curricula. But realism today is still compromised, meaning badly drawn and badly observed work. Nevertheless the new opportunity to develop realistic skills, after a century of drought, is a positive! Realism today is represented in various ways. One way is an academic or classical style. Another is photorealism. Then there is painting that is loosely called “representational” that is usually a mixed bag of abstraction and realism. Many of these works are exhibited in galleries if they are considered “saleable”. But what about good paintings that are “not saleable”? As for representation in museums, curators are conditioned to accept art that is in vogue. And what is often accepted in one century is denied in another . Traditional realism with strong social concerns is not well represented. This is the tradition of Old Masters likeCaravaggio, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Goya, Kromskoi, Bouvaret, Repin, Kollwitz. This is the kind of painting I am trying to do and promote in and about my historical time period. How much time does a painting take to finish? Depending on the size and subject of the painting the time spent could vary from one day to six months or more. Where do you find your inspiration? My inspiration comes from the subject, the idea and the artistic design or image. Sometimes I might be inspired by another artist’s work. For example, I recently did a painting called “Torture - Abu Ghraib”. This was based on the tragedies at the Abu - Ghraib prison in Iraq. Revealing the truth about these criminal acts was inspirational, much in the same way that renaissance painters were inspired to paint the crucifixion torture images depicting man’s inhumanity to man. I was also inspired by the crucifixion paintings of Old Masters like Caravaggio and Rembrandt. Do you have a ritual you follow before each new work is started? I have no ritual, but I’ll explain my procedure in a later section. What do you hope art historians will say about your work 300 years from now? I hope art historians will get it right when it comes to realism. Most of them today are at a disadvantage because theydon’t see drawing or form, they don’t have an aesthetic feeling for realism because they have been “educated” mostly from a “modern art” point of view. I’m hoping for better educated art historians in the near future. On the other hand, judging by history, a flop during one century can be a success during the next. And the critics fall in line like sheep conforming to the vogue of their historic period. As for what critics will think in 300 years, I will leave that to the fantasies of science fiction. Have any of your mistakes become a success? In my painting if I make a mistake I try to correct it. Of course it is possible that a critic might deem a bad drawing as a creative success which I see as a mistake. But in my style of painting there are often nuances of tone or color that are not always applied with deliberate brushwork that create beautiful passages of atmosphere or texture. I would not call this a mistake. I would rather say it is a by-product of experimentation or subliminal painting. What are you working on next? I am always painting studies from life, especially when I give workshops and demonstrations. I am now in the process of painting a 50” x 70” painting of people at a bus stop. In my studio photo, you’ll probably see the blocking-in stage of this painting. After this I plan to paint an anti war scene as well as an anti poverty painting. How did 2009 treat you? In 2009 I gave a several workshops and demos. Previously I taught from 1960 to 2000 at the School of Visual Art, the Art Students League, NYC and the H.S. of Art and Design, NYC and thought I would no longer teach and only paint. However, I decided instead that promoting these workshops would eventually bring me a “little needed fame” for my exhibition ambitions and ... besides I do enjoy teaching! In 2009 I had an exhibition at the Dayton International Peace Museum’s Gallery, OH and in 2008 I had an exhibition at the Martin Luther King Labor Center, Gallery 1199, NYC. In 2011 I will have a Painting Retrospective Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown OH. Actually my present interest is in promoting my type of social realist paintings through public venues rather than commercial galleries. Judging by the audience reactions my work received at my shows there is quite an enthusiastic response. People identify with my paintings and say that they don’t see realism like this today. And of course the reason is that this kind of work is not condoned or promoted by the art establishment.

Homeless oil 25” x 40”

Explain your process.

Max Ginsburg in studio 2010

In the case of my figure compositions my process could vary from one idea to the next. Sometimes I work only from life and sometimes I will use photographs. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. In the case of my“Torture - Abu Ghraib” (Oil on Stretched double primed linen), I got the idea after seeing those horrible torture photos that American soldiers took at the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq. Old Master crucifixion paintings became some of my inspiration. They symbolized man’s inhumanity to man through their depiction of Christ being tortured. I then began making sketches in pencil from life (models posing), and from my imagination until I worked up a composition in pencil. Then I drew a one inch grid over my drawing. Based on the proportion of my sketch I calculated what size to do my painting - 46” x 32”. I then proceeded to stretch my canvas. Then I drew in charcoal my larger grid on the canvas in proportion to my sketch grid. Now I could notate where each figure was to be placed, and then sketched the figures loosely in charcoal, making adjustments all the time. At this point, I would go over the drawing again but with a large bristle filbert brush using an oil wash. Then I would block in the figures using the same large brush painting in oil and working from life. I also had the costumes and props ready to paint in the painting along with the models who usually posed one at a time. Only the lunging dog was painted totally from a grainy Abu-Ghraib photo off the internet. This block-in became Torture - Abu Ghraib oil on stretched double primed linen 46” x 32” an underpainting over which I proceeded to do my final painting. The final painting required compositional and drawing adjustments constantly. Finishing the painting is not merely a matter of rendering, but of constantly observing, building and correcting form, color and values. Hiring the models became rather expensive so sometimes I worked from photographs I took of these models. Sometimes I used other photo references as needed. When the darker colors sank in I sprayed on some retouch varnis