inner space expansion

INNER SPACE EXPANSION
a book proposal
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpt9eg6lv2j2vhc/inner%20space%20expansion%20buch.pdf?dl=0

if i would be an independent artcollector or museumscurator this book  would be a catalog of the mayor works of my collection.

i enjoy the detection of new uplifting forms  of expression, of new levels of virtuosity and new aesthetic flavors. this joy guides the selection process of the images of my virtual collection.

i grew up in the pre-digital age  where only personal contacts, the visit of exhibitions and artfairs , browsing in art magazines, catalogs and books could lead to the discovery of emerging outstanding art that could satisfy the requirements of my personal taste. 

i saw millions of artworks of dead and living artists on my yearly rounds through the halls of artfairs, but it happened only very seldom that i encountered  paintings which i wanted to add to my imaginary collection of „true and timeless art“.

in the course of a few decades, exhibitions worldwide had focused increasingly on new hybrid media. weird spaceconsuming installations drove the art of painting off the stage alltogether. no space was left for  detailed soulful imaginations projected with oldmasterly skills on canvas or panels.

only then, when the internet opened windows into the studios of artists from all over the planet, it became apparent that a multifacetted creative universe parallel to the official contemporary  artscene had established itself online, providing public exposure not limited anymore by the tastes and commercial considerations of the art world. 

i joined facebook in 2008. naturally many of my friends are visual artists.

almost all  companions of my 55 year journey through the wilderness of contemporary art as a professional painter, have today a facebook page and it is very easy to share preferences and new discoveries.

in this way  original and outstanding talents comes to my attention quite frequently. also art that had impressed me in the pre-digital age, but had faded out of my awareness, appears miraculously in postings of new friends.

the  interplay of the  inner worlds of my generation and the one before, with the creations of the younger emerging talents, presents a fascinating growing tapestry of insight into the human selfimage, expressed with traditional and digital means.

obviously we are living in a time where many boundaries in the spectrum of art are dissoving : beween the three distinct painting styles THE REALISTIC, THE PHANTASTIC, and THE ABSTRACT, between painting and sculpture, between the real and the virtual. 

what wants to appear instead is a vision of the everexpanding space of creative freedom.

vienna november 2014                                                              D E

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list of artists included in this book:

1913    Fabrizio Clerici ( 1913 -1993 )

1919    Johfra  (1919 - 1998 )

1930    Ernst Fuchs

1932    Franz Bayer

1932    Abdul Mati Klarwein (1932 – 2002)

1936    Robert Venosa (1936 - 2011)

1939    Isaac Abrams

1941    Erol Denec

1942    De Es 

1945    Olga Spiegel

1946    Richard Rendl

1947    Hanna Kay

1952    Mark Henson

1953    Laurie Lipton

1954    Alexsandr Kosteckij (1954-2010)

1948    Friedrich Hechelmann

1950    Wolfgang Harms

1951    Shala Rose

1951    Robert Steven Connet

1952    Richard Marquand

1953    Bernard Dumaine

1953    Natalia Rudnizka

1953    Fitnat Katircioglu

1953    Alex Grey

1954    Philip Rubinov Jacobson

1954    Tuco Amalfi

1954    Wolfgang Widmoser

1956    Julie Heffernan

1956    Scott Facon

1958    Hermann Smorenburg

1960    Ivan Titor

1960    Steven Lombardi

1963    Andrew Gonzales

1963    Nad Wolinska

1967    Maura Holden

1967    Boris Indrikov

1968    Oleg Korolov

1968    Peter Gric

1969    Fulvio Di Piazza

1970    Yatoshi Sakamoto

1971    Dan Seagrave

1973    Kris Kuksi

1976    Ali Banisadr

1976    Michael Divine

1976    Eduardo Calzado

1977    Hiroyuki Saito

1977    Android Jones

1978    Amanda Sage

1979    Dennis Konstantin

1984    Adam Scott Miller

1988    Adam Psybe

many artists in this book are known as  „phantastic realists“ or „visionary artists“ . this style offers figurative, narrative and symbolic content in mysterious  or  otherworldly settings. it rearranges the objects of real life in unreal magical or absurd ways.  phantasy  is the building site of heaven and hell and the playground of the dreamers.

the material of which  a phantastic world is made of  can look as natural and realistic as much as the skills of the painter allow it. or it can appear to be glassy, translucent, metallic, hot or cold, hard or soft. 

it can melt and get out of shape  till no recognizable object is left. even the last contoures can dissolve  till the only thing  that still appears to be real is the „illusory space“, the threedimesinal effect of the image in the viewers mind, made out of colors ,textures,light and darkness.

thus  phantastic reality can turn into abstract reality made out of patterns and movements , spots and lines and colorvolumes.

some artists start as „phantastic realists“ but over the years turn „phantastic realistic abstracts“. maximal art is phantastic, realistic and abstract at the same time.