Art Reviews

The Oakland Press March 7th, 1982
FEATURES/ART

Realism:

Three artists capture its elusive meanings, each in his own way

By JUDITH WEINER Press Special Writer

Artistic realism. Loosely defined, it suggests the artist's faithful attempt to reproduce people, places and objects as they really are.

Underlying the notion of realism is the belief that material objects exist in themselves, apart from the sness of them - mind's consciousness of they have have an objective reality. Three Detroit area representational artists, Roger Blair, Stephen Goodfellow and Mel Rosas, envision images that have form, line, color and texture yet their individual notions of realism defy a fixed definition.
To understand realism's latest expressions, it's important to look at its origins.

Realism as a classification for an art movement has survived many generations, changing requirements to suit the age.
The German Expressionists of pre- and post-World War I intended to proclaim aim the e evils of their society by exaggerating and distorting images. This Freudian type of realism continues to hold meaning for this present Atomic Age of potential 1 cataclysmic upheaval.

Yet for the baroque artists of the 17th century, realism was a rebellion against the elegance and artificiality of the Mannerists. Baroque artists sought for a realism akin to naturalism that heralded the representation of man and nature understood by the senses and emotions and through a "new" perception of space and infinity. They secured an unidealized observation of life.

Realism in art is kaleidoscopic. Ways of seeing are multiple

Roger Blair, who is affiliated with Mullaly-Matisse Galleries in Birmingham, views today's realism as being used

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than can easy ilgst identity with that man want to how the nuage a. to convey that all is not abstract.
Stephen Goodfellow, who is affiliated with the Xochipilli Gallery in Birmingham, is also aware of this global anxiety. He looks at decade's in this period as an age of accelerated change, a time when social phenomena change before one's eyes and labels are hurriedly attached before the social spectrum again changes color. Being skeptical of names, he adds. "Call art styles what you will, time becomes the judge work that is shallow and dull eventually becomes discarded and that which stirs the human soul will always be treasured.

Mel Rosas, who is affiliated with the Cantor/Lemberg Gallery in Birmingham, is an assistant professor of art at Wayne State University. He considers the decade "as a period lacking humanism." His sense sense of contemporary realism explores a kind of neutrality" in his glimpse of present-day urban conditions.
Because the guidelines for realism in art are generous, inviting interpretations that range from objective to subjective truth, from photographic to fantasized truth,
artists like Blair, Goodfellow and Rosas exemplify freedom of expression. Their work challenges the mythic notion that the pure imitation of nature is a necessary principle of realism.
Blair is a nostalgic realist. He trusts his his head and heart simultaneously. Blending his acute eye for form with tender feeling for what he observes, he snatches moments in time and space and records them. In "Boy on Steps, Blair, with bidi! longing to freeze the
event, watches his son climb cement steps. He captures on the canvas a moment that could seem maudlin, but Blair maintains his distance by focusing on the boy's movement rather than on his facial features. Blair, a self-taught artist, maintains a balance between objectivity and subjectivity. He considers nature to be the best qualified teacher.

"If a person really sees what he is looking at, it remains only mechanical process to transform that image into a painting." he explains.

However, his skill as a technician. is imbued with a sensitivity for his subject matter. "I only paint those things which I know well, and have lived with. I feel that this is a must, in order to impart a presence into one's work." In a painting of a barn,

Their work challenges the mythic notion that the pure imitation of nature is a necessary principle of realism.

articulates the

Blair carefully outline of the barn's form, which at first glance is reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth's style. But a closer out of view of a world slightly Stephen Goodfellow clearly dhares Blair's inclination to paint that which he knows well.
Everything that I've experienced, hoped and feared is reflected in my work. My pictures come from the soul!" he explains.

What Goodfellow sees is not a photographic image and what he paints is not an objective rendering or interpretation. Goodfellow is a fantasy realist.
He slashes, satirizes and criticizes. He wants to raise the hairs on the backs of the human race, and with a grin from ear to ear, he questions those who blindly questr follow. His paintings include images of the human form that are round and d exaggerated, bearing a simple primitive force.

Realism emerges in paintings like in which he harshly "Tomato attacks the deceptive politician who uses language to sway submissive followers. However, Goodfellow is not without hope. In the audience is the unrevealed rebel who aims a tomato at the fraudulent speaker; the tomato hangs suspended in space, inches away from the politician's head. The speaker's supporting cast members are depicted as crafty aides with eyes that seem to convey the notion that tricky strategy can outwit the public.

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Mel Rosas, assistant professor of art at Wayne State University, sees realism in urban settings

Goodfellow is a shrewd observer of human nature. Although he sniffs danger in the empty rhetoric of politicians, he also reveres language as a means of honest expression Words, as a means of communication integrate with visual images. The inclusion of emblemat e pictures, hieroglyphics, veals Goodfellow's belief that images represent verbal communication

In two different paintings, the ancient Egyptian gods, Osiris, god of life, and and Ambs, god of death, are given contemporary functional jobs Osiris as a milkman and Anubis a factory worker. They symbolize like the nature and the source ord lies with the techno fatally advanced power of mechanized society.

Goodfellow does not know what to think about realism as a vilable label for art of this decade. Hle explains his ambivalence over definitions, "Classifications of particular art styles are rapidly dissolving into a meaningless porridge."

Mel Rosas is less uncertain about the realist label. He sees realism in painting as he sees it reflected in literature: Its function is "to make us look at nature."

Rosas is an objective realist. He takes something of little significance and makes it significant, granting special attention to urban settings, focusing on rooftops, street corners, trash cans, city signs and scrap yards.

The human form, which fills. Goodfellow's canvases, has been abandoned by Rosas. He concentrates on non-living, manmade objects.

namage objects.

Like Blair, Rosas responds to line as an identification of form but unlike Blair, Rosas eli minates the natural environment from his vision. His deliberate screening of living matter suggests his response to this era's depersonalized "We are contemporary society living in a low-key, neutral time.

(Image): Stephen Goodfellow of Highland Park and his 'There Go Our Boys Again'

(Image): Roger Blair sees today's realism as transitional from the past

responding to nature." explains Rosas. His neutral attitude emerges in his formalism. As an observer of the commonplace. he aims "for a quiet, visual realization." The content of his art often dictates the composition of his pieces. Geometric shapes and patterns develop from the inherent forms structure, dimension and size -- of the objects themselves. Rosas is drawn to an image nosas is drawn to because because of its form. Then the image becomes significant. This fusion of form and content is revealed in the vivid watercolor, olor, Abajo," which displays graffiti, arranged without a regular pattern yet still maintaining a a particular spatial form on dark and dingy wall. In Spanish is sprawled phrase.

"Abajo La Prositni"Down with prostitution). Paint is splashed against the wall upon which the graffiti is written. Rosas says that he was first attracted to the external surface of the lettering before he even considered the moralistic message of the phrase itself.
Rosas' images aren't selected for their narrative statement. His non- romantic images of non-human objects lack expression, which suggests the dehumanization of contemporary life. His realism is a detached expression.

The role of the realist as a creative contributor to art has been attacked and ridiculed. Is the realist painter simply copying? Where is the fresh vision? Rosas believes that any realist is interested in some kind of response to nature and that "response is the first act of creativity.
The role of the realist can be viewed as that of an anchor. During periods of great turmoil, the realist functions as a source of clear vision. Blair explains that the realist gives the viewers "a recognizable thing to hold to, to comfort them."

Whereas Blair and Rosas consider their roles as artists clearly marked, Goodfellow remains somewhat quizzical. "There are two ways of achieving immortality: One is procreation, the other is the survival of an idea or concept. My work will have to stand on its own, it has to justify itself," he admits.

To represent a source of stability and security in a confused era could present an overwhelming responsibility for any artist. The prophetic vision of the sensitive artist is a perplexing issue. Blair assumes this responsibility, which he thinks is an awesome one: "The demands on the realistic painter are so much greater now than ever; to become more proficient, to hone his skills, to maintain a feeling of freshness and spontaneity, but most of all to allow his feelings to flow naturally.""

Art, in general, reflects the concerns of its culture and age. Roman sculptors, fascinated with individual traits of a person, sought for realism in the expressive, often mapped lined faces as a means of interpreting the personality of the sitter.

Nineteenth-century realist painters looked at the squalid, often seedy side of life as a view of the real world. The noble and democratic subject for the 19th- century realist was the worker and peasant. Practical concerns excited the artist.

Rage, violence, social protest and satire are often found in the work of contemporary American realists. Both Goodfellow and Rosas are
Still Life her and Veronte restory Gallery 47 Williama

Group art show Monday-Saturday, Thursday through Gallery 22 22 B. Long Lal Bloomfield Hills 61310

Workshop The B the realists who focus on commonplace and sometimes the vulgar in an attempt to cynically portray today's culture. Yet a sense of order execution and in concept underlines other contemporary realists, like Blair, who remain more and traditional to conservative. The pursuit of refinement and craftsmanship seems to supersede the need to protest for these realists. A clear-cut definition of realism is a matter for dispute.

an Artist" Dam, 4:30 pm March Bloomfield Township Library, Telegraph at Lone Pine Road Bloomfield Township. 7 612 1954 Registrations to The Creative Council 185 Stout Detroit 49210, by Mercha

Cranbrook UB

For every age and culture, realism has associations. identifications and interpretations that are relevant. The belief that realism is a purely objective rendering of the real or actual object is no longer applicable. The shattering of explicit rules offers a redefinition of the term realism and the outcome offers an unprecedented freedom of expression.

(Judith Weiner is an instructor in the humanities at Lawrence Institute of Technology.)