| This dissertation is an original creative project of twenty two oil paintings, a series of drawings, and a 99 page text that places the works of art in biographical, formal, historical, and theoretical contexts. I have identified three issues which are central to my concerns as an artist---speed, aggression, and density. I define and expand each issue through detailed analyses of important works by canonical artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Georg Baselitz. As an introspective platform, the introductory biographical section situates the three central issues---speed, aggression, and density---in my own life experiences and painting practice. Following this, each separate issue is subjected to detailed critical and theoretical discussion, which is rooted in the thinking of a wide range of writers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Gaston Bachelard, Jules Laforgue, Konrad Lorenz, and Sigmund Freud. By analyzing pictorial strategies, modes of execution, and surface qualities of fourteen paintings by other artists and three of my own in the context of theses thinkers, I tease out the connection between theory and practice in the visuals arts. My interpretations have both practical and aesthetic ramifications, and I offer an approach to the understanding of modern painting that is both personal and theoretical. |
