tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post7123275823268945242..comments2023-06-14T07:49:15.087-04:00Comments on Artdeal Magazine: Being There: Martin Mugar's FireAddison Parkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-21182775294015909932013-05-01T13:52:10.013-04:002013-05-01T13:52:10.013-04:00It could easily be said that Martin Mugar's wo...It could easily be said that Martin Mugar's work needs to be seen to be experienced; except that the obverse is just so much more true: the work needs to be experienced to be seen.Addison Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-21156136838039636032013-04-26T07:58:58.498-04:002013-04-26T07:58:58.498-04:00It is of course completely appropriate that you sh...It is of course completely appropriate that you should express a certain mystery regarding your own work. Leon Polk Smith said that that was why he kept his work around, because he had so much to learn from it. That you are compelled to do it is as it should be, as how could it be any other way? You are not illustrating some idea. Absurd to reduce that to making the work compulsive, as though Michelangelo's ceiling was compulsive. Some may find the work daunting, even intimidating, and react defensively as your creative drive might leave them feeling wanting, even sluggish. I can only suppose Chillida had this affect on EVERYONE. Richard Tuttle went so far as to suggest that his work was pursuing him, not the other way around. Your mystery says as much.Addison Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-70039835093940612312013-04-26T07:13:49.465-04:002013-04-26T07:13:49.465-04:00It is probably the abstract imagelessness that esc...It is probably the abstract imagelessness that escapes everyone.It is something that I think about. I remember thinking that even flat abstract patterns a la Hofmann was an image.<br />My spell check tells me that imagelessness is not a word. Good for you, you have coined a new word.<br />Martin<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-33260403629782046322013-04-26T07:07:21.442-04:002013-04-26T07:07:21.442-04:00I am always happy to have you inquire into the wor...I am always happy to have you inquire into the work trying to understand what it is about.In many ways the work is a mystery to me.I am probably not aware of all that goes into it.<br /><br />What you said made me think of how I really want these paintings to act on the viewer.I am doing them for myself but at some level for good or bad I still want them to be like a great Rembrandt of Titian.sometihng complete.There is so much thinking and waiting going.However, It made me think of two comments on the work that always haunted me.One by McKee in Ny who said they were well crafted.Is that good or bad?the other was from a curator at the danforth when I left something off for one of those shows they sponsor in the early summer.I cant remember the words exactly but she seemed disturbed by the lack of gesture.I don't smear the paint or move it around.I make those strokes from some deep sense of breath or meditation,beyond the hand. a slow sort of waiting and marking of time.And a belief that they will all add up.Maybe there is too much being held back,too much patience, that I should express something.I said that about your work:that something happens in them but you don't try to express anything .You create an event for the viewer.But as you said about Snyder and Fishman you are not trying to create a cure for cancer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-78638156878621447372013-04-26T07:03:46.869-04:002013-04-26T07:03:46.869-04:00It is worth adding that one of the reasons I don&#...It is worth adding that one of the reasons I don't look at Martin's work as painting per se is that Martin is busy changing the way we look at painting. And he is doing that with paint. Felt paint. This is deceptively radical stuff. There are a lot of artists who have obviously tried to change the way we look at art, but they did it by abandoning painting. Martin Mugar has gone, even burst, through the wall that so many painters hit, painters who either crashed and burned or turned back. That no one can see these paintings as paintings is a testament to how far out over the edge he has gone. My own response is one of following the work out past that edge, and leaving the painting behind. I can only see the bigger picture. Which is why I haven't talked about the more physical application of thick encaustic paint that attains a somewhat pastel appearance through the thoughtful and felt process of articulating an essentially diffused abstract imagelessness. Addison Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-10504054086125733242013-04-25T12:26:11.463-04:002013-04-25T12:26:11.463-04:00Which gets me back to the beginning: Martin Mugar&...Which gets me back to the beginning: Martin Mugar's work shines a light. Martin Mugar's fire burns bright! Martin Mugar's fire gives warmth and light! Addison Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20588196.post-79635777911070105592013-04-25T11:11:22.015-04:002013-04-25T11:11:22.015-04:00What is it about Martin's work? If I were to s...What is it about Martin's work? If I were to stick my neck way out, what would I say? Because I don't respond to it the way I respond to painting per se. If I force myself to ask "what is it" then, if I confront myself about what is really going on, then I think that I still come back to the same place.<br />I think of these paintings more like machines. They are motors that purr with Martin's joy of making them. They are his "all right with the world" machines. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. I like the experience of that. <br />For all of their objectness, they are machines. I don't like them so much for what they are as what they do. Like cars. I'm not one of these people that like cars for what they are. I like them for what they do. <br />This is the paradox that gives this work some of its kick. It seems object-like, it seems decorative, but it is really not at all, it is really something else. Like a machine or motor or organism. More than a sign that points to something else, the work is like some generator, some solar panel, some music box that what it makes is something you can't see so much as feel or experience. They are elaborate in that regard. Like the fireworks at the 4th of July. They are an experience, an event, staged at great lengths for our benefit. What they are is what they do. Good will fireworks. Yes, like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory they really make happiness. They are Martin Mugar's happiness machines, and I, for one, am truly grateful for them.<br />Addison Parkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17761481663107145487noreply@blogger.com