Steven Daluz "The Sublime"
- 1. “Importance of the Sublime in Today's Painting”
- 2. “Is the Sublime of any importance in today's painting? I definitely think so. We live in a time of much chaos: political friction, economic concerns, environmental issues, terrorism -- there is a lot of anxiety out there...yet, there is a kind of longing for something more -- a desire even for art that makes us "feel" -- to connect with something beyond ourselves...”
- 3. “I suggest we consider an option that has been explored in the Romantic Era, during the period of Modernism, by the Abstract Expressionists and, yes, even by purely conceptual artists. I am suggesting that we consider the Sublime, as a current, accessible, and relevant mode of representational artistic expression. Great philosophers and scholars in aesthetics refer to the sublime as a quality of greatness. It refers to greatness beyond measure, transcendent and awe-inspiring. Nothing compares to it. It is "ungraspable" Something that is sublime is capable of causing amazement, awe, and wonder...”
- 4. “We live in a digital world now. A "technological sublime" is surfacing, yet, many in the world still long for that which is made by human hands -- one of a kind. As representational artists, we are free to express with or without those technologies. However, unlike fast-paced visual effects in film and video clips, a painting slows things down -- not only for the artist, but for the viewer. It freezes a moment in time, allowing for great contemplation... Some figurative painters working today who raise the sublime with their work do so in ways similar to 19th Century Romantics...others approach it from a different perspective, re-imagining what it can mean in the realm of representational art...”
- 5. “Beyond the natural, earthly realm, we can consider the massiveness of the cosmos. Truly, this is something we can barely begin to put in any meaningful perspective. It is sublime, not because it concerns the real, but because it reveals the limitations of our attempts to put our minds around it. As Kant said, we are "A finite humanity cast into an infinite world. " The aesthetic idea is a presentation of the imagination to which no thought is adequate." “I believe the sublime offers a contemporary conduit, for representational artists to explore their ability to transport the viewer in this present age.”