Bleckner has been described as nervous, overwhelmed by self-doubt and insomniac. He is Jewish, gay, and an activist for AIDS organizations. Since about 1985 many of his paintings have addressed the subject of AIDS- both documenting it as a historical phenomenon and commemorating specific individuals who have died.
His philanthropic efforts have enabled many community organizations to perform their vital work. Currently, Bleckner is president of Community Research Initiative on AIDS, a non-profit community-based AIDS research and treatment education center. Ross Bleckner currently lives in New York City.
Brothers' Sword, 1986, oil on canvas, 108 x 84 in.Bleckner’s painting style is classified as Neo-Conceptualism. The idea fuels the process of production, but the resulting physical object is viewed more as documentation of the idea. By this definition, the purpose of the artwork is to engage the viewers' mind rather than their eye. Ross Bleckner's paintings blend abstraction with recognizable symbols to create mediation on perception, transcendence and loss.
Bleckner using traditional oil-painting techniques manipulates the paints by using light over dark glazes to create transparencies, resulting in a three-dimensional viewing experience. This technique enhances his fixation with light by creating a dense and rich ground on which floating ambiguous forms suggest movement toward the identifiable. However, Bleckner has done some series in watercolor as well.
Memory of Larry, 1984, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 in.Ross Bleckner's large-format pictures utilize both graphic designs and representational images such as flowers, birds, cells, drops of water, oceans and chandeliers. These are represented in front of an abstract background and he often uses flickering light to create challenging visual experiences. Bleckner gets inspiration from everything he looks at and a lot of his own work as well as his mistakes (Sussler).
Throbbing Hearts, 1994, oil, powdered pigment, wax on canvas, 96 x 120 in.For Bleckner the canvas is "a place where countless different meanings cross and enter into relationship with one another." (Sussler)
Tolerance, 1998, oil on linen, 120 x 108 in.
Overexpression, 1998, oil on linen, 84 x 72 in.
Bird Installation, 1995 - 2003, oil on linen, variable sizes
5 comments:
I think it is probably huge for Bleckner to be Jewish, underconfident,(supposedly), gay and sad. That is a lot to deal with as a person and then as an artist. I find his patterning to be astounding considering the above personal descriptions of him which would indicate chaos internally and personally to me. That he can deliver such organization on canvas as the strips in the ones we were shown, is amazing that he could make those tiny little lines. They are very engaging yet somewhat uncomfortable to me to view, visually. I am crazy about the fushia colored spots on the one canvas. The color is so brilliant it is different and yet somewhat the same as the strips. The cells, seem to me to be very deep in regards to his aids work. Huge life style he leads while being an artist in New York at the same time. Selene
I think that Bleckner's personal experiences inform his art -- im not quite sure what Selene means by him being underconfident -- obviously the various aspects to his identity such as his religion and sexual orientation are a part of who he is and inform and inspire his work and influence the message and subject matter he chooses to express in his art -- look at his work i am struck by the idea of memory -- in the painting the Memory of Larry -- his use of light transparent washes over dark illuminates this concept -- i think this is a great example of using paint to visibly express a concept abstractly -- he doesnt need to paint an actually recognizable image of Larry to capture his emotions and thoughts about that person and thier memory -- i think he is a great artist to examine for our current painting and examine how we can use painting to express our memories and how we can manipulate the paint to convey certain emotions.
In answer to Rachel's thoughts about my remark about his underconfidence.....i read about him in another source and the article referred to him that way. I think his art is amazing and brilliant and i also think working with Aids as he did was probably difficult. His sense of organization in some of his pieces is amazing to him in light of the life experiences and loss that he had. selene
I love that Bleckner's work is deeply personal. As I gazed at Memory of Larry, the emotion and passion that when into the painting was clear. Just as Rachel mentioned, Bleckner doesn't need a specific image in order to successfully portray how Larry made him feel. Tolerance is a bit more concretely interpretable. The image of cells coexisting, each one touching the other and essentially holding one another together -is truly beautiful. His painting emphasizes something I've been reminded of these past couple weeks, and that's the importance of accepting and respecting the differences of others. Without other people where would we be as individuals? We need one another and Bleckner's work helps me to better appreciate this fact.
I think Chris may have mentioned this in class, but Bleckner's are the first paintings we've looked at whose titles I am really struck by. In some ways I am reminded of Pollock's paintings which are entirely abstract but exhibit titles like "Autumn Rhythm"...similarly, Bleckner's paintings are generally composed of ambiguous forms, yet their titles suggest a more specific interpretation or intention from the artist. "Memory of Larry", "Tolerance", and "Throbbing Hearts", for example, are very loaded, powerful titles that send the viewer in a certain direction regarding the way they will make sense of the image and respond to it emotionally. I think this is very interesting- that titles can hold so much weight in the way a piece will be perceived. They speak along side the artwork, or perhaps they speak for the artwork.
On another note, I think Ross Bleckner's paintings are really beautiful. And really sad. I tend to respond much more strongly to artwork when I know something about the artist- not even about them "as an artist", but as a human. I can identify with Bleckner's expression of suffering. And someone I am very close with has AIDS- I have seen him suffer so much, so when I read about this artist and his life, the work itself resonates more and more intensely for me.
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