The classification provides four or more codes placed on four axis (A - formalism, B - matériality, C - involvement body/mind, D - communication). These codes are positionning the artist in the art history. A axis : FORMALISM When looking at the work, what type of formalisation first strikes the eye? Is it more abstract or more figurative, etc ? (on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "realist").A300 : Figures Imaginary Closer to historical "Surrealism" the wildest imaginings become "sur-realist" images (Salvator Dali, René Magritte, Alfred Courmes, …). A370 : Representative works "Expressionist" Outpouring of the turbulent or even violent inner world of an artist who, unlike with "Abstract Expressionism", does it with the many possible ways of depicting the Figure (from the original Expressionism to COBRA, from "Violent painting" to the "Néo-fauves", ...). Action painting The expression frees itself especially through the breadth and/or force of the painter's movements (Willem De Kooning, Antonio Saura, Vladimir Velickovic …).
B axis : MATERIALITY How does the materiality of what is shown come across? (on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "real").B120 : Immateriality by photography (film or digital) any "action", or representation, so long as it is made visible as a statement on any backing (cibachrome, perspex, paper, ...). Here, under B120; in fixed images (film or digital: J.M.Bustamante, Philippe Ramette, Cindy Scherman).
C axis : INVOLVEMENT BODY/ MIND With what body:mind ratio does the artist enter into his work? Classify from the most "intellectual" (e.g."Concept Art"...) to the most "physical" (e.g. "Body Art", ...).C180 : tending towards the corporeal / the senses via expression with a frank sensuality, or even openly sexual either literal (Courbet's "Origin of the world", Lucian Freud, John Kacere, P. Klossowki, David Salle, Gilbert and George, ...), - symbolic (Paul Armand Gette, Andreas Serrano, ...), - humorous (Gilles Barbier "cerveau", Boyd Webb "the globe" , ...), - or "realist" (certain "Body-artists" such as Otto Muehl, Paul Mc Carthy's "installations" , Zoran Naskovski's videos, ...), ...
D axis : COMMUNICATION Does the artist have the deliberate intention to convey a message of any sort through his work? (classified from the most "mystical" to the most "worldly").D140 : via what is meaningful based on the idea that work on what symbolizes forms an intentional message in itself (for example: Daniel Dezeuze's "Stretchers", etc., etc., ...). exploration and variations on a theme or on a single resource (object, material, ...) to make it express the maximum (Cézanne's "Saintes Victoires", Andy Warhol's "Marylins" , Rutault's "methods", "bodies" by J. and D. Chapman, or by Katharina Fritsch, ...) or of a single resource (objects, materials, etc.: G. Titus Carmel's "bananas"; Miralda's "soldiers"; Damien Hirst's "cigarette butts" ...) in order to explore all its facets BAILEY Jeffrey www.jeffrey-bailey.com |