Democracy I Totalitarianism

Posted by: Michel Luc Bellemare

Democracy/Totalitarianism

Articipate Endowment Fund Grant Recipient
Michel Luc Bellemare

@ Shenkman Art Center

Color-Realism and Pure Abstraction Painting
February 5th to 25th, 2013

Vernissage February 5th 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.


Description:


The primary critique of 99% of all contemporary pure abstraction paintings in the last 60 years, i.e. abstract-expressionisms, is that its images and its titles are merely decorative artifice & self-indulgent exstentialist non-sense, devoid of meaning, devoid of social or educational elements that speak to this 2012 contemporary age. 60 years after its initial splash and broo haha, today\'s abstract-expressionism and neo-abstract-expressionists are exercising an obsolete useless lexicon that is quite redundant and incapable of describing anything substantial and relevant to its viewer\'s existence in this post-industrial age, of market fluctuations, of massive lay-offs, of part-time temporary workers and the all-consuming rise of the post-modern cultural facebook narcissists etc. Subsequently, Color-Realism is an evolutionary and revolutionary development of the Ab-Ex corpse, a new lexical interpretation of pure abstraction, capitalizing on its multi-dimensionalism by utilizing its radical subjectivity to say something meaningful and relevant about comtemporary society, and to the contemporary viewers, that speaks not immaterial nonsense but pragmatic material facts about current sociological, philosophical, economic, humanist conditions etc.


\"Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it (Marx)\". \"Art is the continuation of philosophy via other means (Michel). Art is real
actions that revolutionize conventional standards, specifically conventional practices and aesthetic standards (Michel)\".

The concept of democracy is a complex one, where throughout history there have been many interpretations and applied models such as communism, anarchism, socialism and even fascism, all of which claimed to be living embodiments of the concept of democracy. Opening a mini blockbuster in the nation\'s capital, this exhibition titled Democracy/Totalitarianism will examine the concept of democracy in relation to totalitarianism as it is today, utilizing the technique of pure abstraction painting. With its all over technique pure abstraction painting lends itself well to the pictorial dipiction of concepts like democracy and totalitarianism, i.e. the totality and egalitarian dispersal of paint across the picture plane. As a result, pure abstraction painting in the form of color-realism is the means to best exemplify the conceptual essence of concepts and the problematics of living in this contemporary moment in time.

Michel Luc Bellemare holds a Ph.d. in philosophy and is currently a part-time professor in the department of visual arts at the university of ottawa. He has published 3 books, artworks, i.e. The Machine (2005), Nomologism (2006) and Color-Realism: (The essence of color and reality) (2009) which are housed in the National Art Gallery of Canada, and the National Library of Canada in Ottawa and his artwork can be found in the A.G.O. and N.G.C..