Other Voices
Other Voices: Squeak Carnwath
Written by Andrew Katz Katz
Hers is an on going commentary on life, work and love summed up in the subtitle of her first book: lists, observations and counting. She is a 21st century citizen and an artist who worries and struggles and dreams like most of us but especially painters and poets and other artistic types. These folks look for both purpose and place in a world that is overwhelmed by an inflated marketplace in which every thought, action and deed is translated into a liquid currency. At the same time it is a world saturated by a valueless media that divides us up into two distinct groups, between stars and criminals. Carnwath's paintings are in fact a personal refuge from this mayhem. Each is filled with insights and humor; quiet thoughts and poetic phrases and a vast array of imagery from the most mundane object like a glass to the ever inviting picture of a tree. Though our common language has been reduced to " texting " and while the cavalcade of banal images diminishes their true impact, the power of pictures is equally diminished as the impact of words, just so much more data to absorb and file. Carnwath is still able to fortify her thoughts and thereby her pairings in paintings built with ideographic pictures and simple words. Her pictures are intimate like Vuillard’s wallpapered interiors, and colorful like Matisse’s still life models-always modulated, balanced and remarkably soothing even when the words get big read loud. Great painters refuse to give up. We are constantly surprised and delighted when they succeed in their craft, as if we are dismayed by the fact that this old school practice still retains its magic and power. While the international market is hot for painting-values have reached staggering numbers at auction houses-the belief in painting seems to have dwindled when one sees what is presented by young artists at current art fairs. Its as if painting is divided between jumbles of inexplicable forms or the narrative of some gruesome reality. Painters have as much of a chance at success as poets; statistically it is some 1in a 1000. There is a certain attrition rate because the art and craft require time, concentration, commitment and the chance collision of a painter's thoughts jelling with the time and representing the temperature of the moment. Imagine Ab Ex arriving in the 60s, or Pop Art being made in the 40s, couldn't work. Styles have meaning. Carnwath recognized that phenomenon and hers is a style that is very much of the moment. Her long plaintiff scripts in which she emotes on day to day life have much in common with Marina Abramovic's performance work: long arduous hours of silence and stillness. Both are hard work. Both artists demonstrate a willful and powerful exposure of self. Carnwath seeks the same meditation on the present moment as Abramovic. And like Abramovic the paintings demand a certain silence and stillness on the part of the viewer to read and translate and figure out what is happening or being portrayed.
Images have meaning, words carry a message, add nuance color, formal arrangements, combined all transmit a code which when combined unlike the riddle of the Sphinx have many solutions but no single answer. The viewer is free, in fact encouraged, to interpret--to weave his or her own storyline from the scenes portrayed and the information provided. The silver silhouette of a candelabra, the emblem like image of a sinking ship, handprints, or the grid of numbers or the alphabet suggest references, point to ideas that are on the mind of an adult but presented with a certain innocence-not naive-but as if we are witnesses to the very the act of a discovery of these objects, color sensations and the mysteries of symbols. You Call This Happy, 2001 is a case in point, or a decade later Sampler, 2010.
When we think of the west we think Park, Diebenkorn, Brown, Wylie even Chicago--no single West coast aesthetic exists among its painters instead a strident group of individuals who have charted their own course and mapped out their own vision. Here too stands Carnwath. A woman's voice is not always so acknowledged or honored. We don't seem to trust women as innovators or thinkers furthermore we don't deny their talent yet we exclude them from consideration in the larger pantheon of cultural movers and shapers.
What I really like are the large almost colorless canvases that contain a cascade of words whether the list of names in Obit, 2000 or Promise, 1999 or Manifestation 2005. So perhaps her roots lie in a literary realm with great women like Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman or Hannah Arendt? As a society we have abandoned critical thought; stepped away en masse from the threshold of ideas. The joy and pleasure of contemplation and the passion and energy in the exchange ideas has been almost nullified. We now assume that all artists seek to mimic or live a Warhol career, a career full of irony, titillations; playing to audiences by the repeated use of popular culture as a source and manipulating that imagery to taunt and tease ad nauseam. (Perhaps playing to one's audience is not all that intriguing but it is a sure bet route to success these days.) Ms. Carnwath brings us back to think, wonder and maybe even read aloud. Perhaps there are other painters like Carnwath who cherish the world of ideas. We allow it, even expect it from the Europeans we admire yet here at home we seem dismayed by the very notion of such a thing…and then by a woman! Think of Anslem Kiefer or Gerhard Richter. We ignore even resent history, we shy way from literature that is not slapstick or kitsch and we admonish those among us who have political values that could make their way into our art. Should we divide the art world today like our political parties between red and blue artists? After all as Carnwath quips in a recent title, Memory is a Color, 2007
--- Michael Klein is a private dealer and independent curator for individuals, institutions and arts organizations.
A
Written by
Andrew Katz Katz
More stories
View all
THE MAGAZINE
Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists
Call for Artists
Submit your work for consideration
New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.
Your gateway to new art
Discover tomorrow's art stars, today
PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION
$179/YEAR
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION
$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH
Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.