irony – Jan Coenen art

irony, imagination or reality?

Irony is a joking lie that means something of a truth, or vice versa, a truth that stands for a lie. Even without a mocking tone, there can be irony, provided it is clear that the intention is the opposite of what is claimed. Visual art is therefore ironic in itself if it is a representation of reality.

From the Renaissance onwards, painting has strived to capture reality without ever being able to be reality, an ironic illusion. Modern painting, which started with impressionism and expressionism, continued to deviate from reality, precisely in order to get closer to the essence of reality. Artists such as Duchamp with his urinal and Warhol with soup cans and Brillo boxes, countless photographers and other artists emphasized the irony of art by showing pieces of reality when they meant art.

When push comes to shove, all visual art is irony because there is always something to see other than the obvious, otherwise it wouldn’t be art. Art is only art when it goes beyond the boundaries of what art is and that makes it irony.

brushes

Since the analogue images are flooded by the digital and digital coloring pencils have become available with which everything is possible, the relationship of the artist with his brush has been in doubt. The brush, previously the vital tool of the painter, has become an anachronism, it is the unemployed phallus of the hitherto dominant male painter, an ironic image. For the artist it is a kind of body part, an extension of the body like the blind man’s stick

The brushes, originally made from animal hair, represent the painter’s acrobatic balancing, they are the legs with which the artist walks, the tails we would have liked to wag and the stocking feet that glide across the dance floor. They are elegant, graceful and cuddly, the extension of the painter’s hand through which the ideas take shape, although they are sometimes obstinate and idiosyncratic and it is a lifelong task for the painter to master the brush.

controversy body mind

Everyone, but certainly the artist, benefits from a playful spirit, from putting things into perspective, from seeking adventure, from overestimating one’s own possibilities, from overcoming shame. Irony, provided it does not degenerate into elitist sneers, is indispensable for this, an essential element that we must cherish, because it gives us the freedom that is conditional for creativity.

Irony

I am a thinking brain

Living in a mammal body

A home with lots of pain

I am a set of neurons

Amazing as the jungle

My staying is in vain

Look, I am all illusion

Deciding without me

Nothing more to gain

Let me leave my body

Please help me to escape