Subjectivity and authorship : surface and materiality in painting and drawing

Abstract

This research will trace changes in approaches to pictorial space, image surface and materiality from the seventeenth century to the present. It focuses on the rise of modernism in the twentieth century, which saw the gradual flattening of pictorial space and an increased importance placed on an artist’s individual sense of touch. This research questions how these changes impact on the viewer’s experience of an image.

How is an artist’s intention to communicate emotions and ideas reflected through their handling of surface, the materials they choose and the processes they employ? What influence does an artist’s interaction with materials and image surface have on locating the viewer and how do these choices made by the artist affect subjectivity and authorship of an image?

In researching the work of other artists and when making my images, I focus on the importance of what is unique to the nature of each medium, and question how this uniqueness becomes part of the content of the work.

While acknowledging there are a number of places this story could commence, I have chosen to begin with Claude Lorrain, before discussing Cézanne, Giorgio Morandi, Tony Tuckson and Luc Tuymans.

The practical component of the research will encompass painting, works on paper and sculpture.