{"id":6784,"date":"2014-06-09T11:09:03","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T09:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=6784"},"modified":"2014-09-22T15:38:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T13:38:45","slug":"from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2014\/06\/09\/from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"From NYC subway to the Pallant House: Nicholas Sinclair&#8217;s artists reassessing Andres Serrano&#8217;s homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-6784 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2014\/06\/09\/from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless\/sir-anthony-caro-london-1992-photo-nicholas-sinclair\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Sir-Anthony-Caro-London-1992-Photo-Nicholas-Sinclair.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-6785\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-6785'>\n\t\t\t\tNicholas Sinclair, Sir Anthony Caro, London, 1992.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2014\/06\/09\/from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless\/gillian-wearing-photo-nichols-sinclair\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Gillian-Wearing-Photo-Nichols-Sinclair.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-6786\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-6786'>\n\t\t\t\tNicholas Sinclair, Gillan Wearing, 1998.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2014\/06\/09\/from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless\/paula-reago-photo-nicholas-sinclair\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Paula-Reago-Photo-Nicholas-Sinclair.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-6787\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-6787'>\n\t\t\t\tNicholas Sinclair, Paula Rego, 1998.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2014\/06\/09\/from-nyc-subway-to-the-pallant-house-nicholas-sinclars-artists-reassessing-andres-serranos-homeless\/sir-anthony-caro-bw-nicholas-sinclair\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/CFA-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Sir-Anthony-Caro-bw-Nicholas-Sinclair.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-6788\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-6788'>\n\t\t\t\tNicholas Sinclair, Sir Anthony Caro, London, 1992.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The perceptive article below has been sent to Conceptual Fine Arts by artist and lecturer Geoff Hands. It moves from our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=6667\" target=\"_blank\">recent post<\/a> criticizing Andres Serrano&#8217;s project in New York City&#8217;s subway, connecting it with the exhibition dedicated to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicholassinclair.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nicholas Sinclair<\/a>\u00a0currently at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/pallant.org.uk\/exhibitions1\/current-exhibitions1\/delonghi-print-room\/nicholas-sinclair-artist-portraits\" target=\"_blank\">Pallant House<\/a>\u00a0and with some of CFA&#8217;s main topics: the relation between contemporary art and the art from the past, the artwork&#8217;s morality, the selfie practice and the discovering of art out of what we call &#8220;the tourist flock&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>I was introduced to Andres Serrano\u2019s photographs of homeless residents of New York City here, on the CFA website. The portraits are impressive and politically provocative. The strength of his language is contained within the engaging 5X4 foot images, doubtless using a sophisticated, \u2018high-end\u2019 camera. The strengths I perceive are contained in the varied, but calmly posed, expressions of some of the poorest residents of the second richest city on earth. Initially, these images contrast totally with the portrait photographs I was looking at recently at Pallant House where a fantastic collection of British modern art is held. In the UK you are advised to visit the National Portrait Gallery in London to see a huge and impressive collection of portraits of a wide range of British cultural luminaries. But at Pallant House the portraits of artists by Nicholas Sinclair are truly \u2018at home\u2019 under the same roof as a small but astounding collection of paintings.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>One consequence of looking at and experiencing good quality Art (in this case through the medium of photography) is to send one\u2019s thoughts elsewhere. Seeing Serrano\u2019s and Sinclair\u2019s portraits provoked me to think about portraiture generally. Portraiture interests us all even if we would rather not see our reflection in the mirror on certain occasions. Currently, a cultural obsession for making\u00a0Selfies\u00a0appears to dominate the reasons for owning an Apple or Samsung smartphone. Julian Stallabrass, in the London Review of Books, has recently commented that, \u201cPhotography, unthinkingly and endlessly made and shared, pollutes awareness of the real world and suppresses memory of anything other than the moment when the image is captured.\u201d Fortunately, the imagery of Serrano and Sinclair offer extremely loaded and poignant views of humankind. Their chosen moments are contrasting but equally engaging. Of course, all forms of portraiture are mediated by objective and subjective uses and readings. We need ID and, thanks to the invention of photography, can leave our familial images behind for future generations to contemplate. Even\u00a0Selfies\u00a0have role to play here, however diminished their ultimate interest may be.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Historically, the richest development of the portrait image was located in the domain of the fine artist \u2013 especially since the Quattrocento. An early example, Masaccio\u2019s (possible) self-portrait in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, introduces the individualised human face, open to scrutiny by the observer (and God?) for centuries to come. Photography, arguably, replaced painting and sculpture as the dominant medium for all subjects revealing and expressing the human form \u2013 the face especially. For those who may mourn the passing of the \u2018great age\u2019 of portraiture, from the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th\u00a0century, to Expressionist introspection of the early 20th\u00a0century, the photographic image may appear inadequate at times. Here,\u00a0time\u00a0may be an issue. Most often, a split-second records the image. What would Rembrandt have thought? He\u00a0is attributed with saying, &#8220;The deepest and most lifelike emotion has been expressed, and that&#8217;s the reason [the paintings] have taken so long to execute.\u201d But that\u2019s not really the point, because technology and historical context has always affected the production, the use and the \u2018consumption\u2019 of the image (we have Walter Benjamin\u2019s, \u2018The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction\u2019 to credit for enlightening us on this matter). Surely, the amount of time taken to make a portrait is irrelevant if the picture not only serves its purpose, but also has qualitative attributes that enhance the powerful humanism and emotional impact of the image? Or, if photography is still contentious in its relationship to painting, does the contention that I assume some may have, refer to\u00a0skill? This point about skill crossed my mind when I was in the audience listening to a lecture given by Sinclair at Pallant House for his \u2018Portraits of the Artists\u2019 exhibition. I shall return to this notion of skillfulness later.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I have presented quite a long pre-amble for a small, but remarkable, exhibition of portrait photographs of British artists on show at Pallant House in Chichester. I am quite sure that seeing the exhibition alone would have prompted thoughts about portraiture generally. More specifically, the link to fine art would have been evident as the subjects of Sinclair\u2019s photographs are 20th\u00a0century British artists, now being augmented by younger artists who develop the tradition into the 21st\u00a0century. But this ongoing project (now in its second stage) does pose a moral question. Are the Serrano pictures more important and valid than Sinclair\u2019s? Do they have a greater relevance in a societal context? Serrano\u2019s New York series of the homeless exposes a sense of wrongness inherent in capitalism and in spite of the American Dream. Ideally, these photographs should not be possible in a society awash with material and monetary wealth. Serrano\u2019s portraits must provoke anger and despair in the viewer. Pity is useless if it does not lead to social and political action. Art is equally useless if it does not enhance some aspect of what it is to be human.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Compared to Serrano\u2019s subjects, a set of photographs of 3 or 4 generations of British artists pales into insignificance. But on another level, there is a moral tale to be told in Sinclair\u2019s work. The photographs celebrate the creative and \u2018self-actualized\u2019 aspect of being human &#8211; attributes that make existence worthwhile as identified in Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs. These are images of society\u2019s creative Shaman\u2019s. Their practice transcends basic existence and enhances the lives of those who are willing to share in the experiences offered by their varied practices. Sinclair\u2019s portrait photographs tell a moral story, with an internal narrative that is ultimately positive and progressive. Sinclair\u2019s narrative is essentially visual and it requires his skills as a\u00a0director\u00a0and a photographer to create the images that can realize his intentions. Sinclair was trained as a fine artist in the UK in the 1970s. He is obsessed with painting (amongst his other interests) and he reveled in the lecture theatre, which doubles as a storage area for the collection, where the audience was surrounded by dozens of paintings. This was rather telling, as there is an aspect of the\u00a0aficionado\u00a0with regard to painting that underpins his photographic language.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sinclair has a slightly self-deprecating character: \u201cI tend to think like a painter\u201d, he told the audience. But he is a painter who happens to use the photographic medium (predominantly with film and the silver gelatin print \u2013 masterfully produced it is worth noting) rather than paint. Sinclair\u2019s portraits are exemplary examples of visual skills in composition and\u00a0mise-en-sc\u00e8ne. The \u2018decisive moment\u2019 is recognized (he will select from many negatives); and he will allow his subjects to \u2018be themselves\u2019; personalities often revealed in body language and the gaze of the eyes. He is skilled in preparation, both before the shoot when he will research his subject thoroughly, and during the setting up of the composition via an interaction with the sitter. The image begins to be pre-visualized once he enters into conversation with the various artists in their respective studios.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Two examples, both of Sir Anthony Caro, are worthy examples of Sinclair\u2019s\u00a0constructivist\u00a0sensibility. The first, in black and white, presents Britain\u2019s greatest abstract sculptor posed beneath curving lengths of metal. Caro\u2019s eyes engage with the lens, and therefore the viewer, in supreme self-confidence. The image has an internal geometry worthy of Mondrian; only here, the vertical and horizontal lines support the circular rhythms of the sculptor\u2019s preferred material. Even the inside edges of Caro\u2019s jacket lapels take part in the curvilinear gestures. The metal thought bubble above Caro\u2019s head bares witness to the great conceptual mind that formed his work. The second, in colour, again intelligently sub-divides the square and has a Braque-like quality in its controlled exposition of cool hues: browns, greys and whites re-construct the picture space that Braque presented in his late atelier masterpieces. Visually suggesting the dynamism of Caro\u2019s achievements as a sculptor &#8211; a strong diagonal sub-divides the square.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sinclair\u2019s photography proves his sensibility as an artist who\u00a0creates\u00a0paintings with the medium of photography. His book, \u2018Portraits of Artists\u2019, published by Lund Humphries in 2000, is now out of print. I hope that in the future we shall see a second edition, updated with a selection of today\u2019s young artists.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The perceptive article below has been sent to Conceptual Fine Arts by artist and lecturer Geoff Hands. It moves from our recent post criticizing Andres Serrano&#8217;s project in New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1796],"tags":[1732,1740],"class_list":["post-6784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mapping-the-artscape","tag-andres-serrano","tag-nicholas-sinclair"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}