Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

“Tango-Jazz”
Gregory Kurasov

Cubism is one of those art styles that is very much a child of its era. Its deliberate anti-traditionalist look was the perfect visual for the rapidly evolving modernism of the early Twentieth Century. It was loud and dynamic, like its era, and shattered ideas of what art was or could be. Cubism’s importance and influence to art history cannot be exaggerated.

Like everything avant-garde however, it quickly became outdated. Art evolved and Cubism’s ideas went on to inspire more ground-breaking, more modern movements and styles. Now, when I see a recently-made Cubist artwork, it looks weird and out-of-place. To me, it signals that the artist is trying too hard. I can think of only two times where I thought a current Cubist painting “worked”. One, believe-it-or-not, was an entry at the county fair. The other is here.

This is painting is two people dancing in a stylish nightclub where the men wear tuxedoes and the women are in dresses and heels. Kurasov frames the work with the hot, vivid red of the curtain and piano. For the figures, he uses black and white. This gives them a distinct silhouette that stands out. Kurasov adds small, flashy dabs of red in the figures – his cummerbund & cuff links, her arm band and shoes – that pop off the canvas without looking forced or out of place.

I like what Kurasov is doing with their poses. The man is in a full-frontal pose with his left arm raised. His right arm curls around the woman’s waist. Both are bent at a sharp angle. The woman twists her body so that her torso is turned toward the viewer. Her right arm is raised while her left bends down. This pose causes the two poses to mirror one another. Kurasov then reverses this counter-pose in the legs. There both right legs are straight and the left are bent. The dramatic twist of her body and angles of the couple’s limbs give this work movement. I can see these people dance. And, because I can see it, I can also hear the music. The figures’ clothing and hair imply a setting in the 1920s or ‘30s. I imagine the music is smooth and groovy, played by a high-end band.

The Cubist style enhances this work. The criss-crossing shapes and lines look like shattered glass. They’re flashy and sharp and give the work rhythm and movement. Notice where all these lines and angles meet – right at the couple’s hips and waists, at the man’s hand caressing the woman’s thigh. He grasps her hips and pulls her to him. His gaze is intense. The hot red mimics the heat coming off these people. It’s a sexy painting.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:30 AM

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