The Art of Curvism and Avant-Garde Art
The Art of Curvism and Avant-Garde Art
The Art of Curvism
December 5, 1999
I am an artist. I make art. The problem with being an artist who makes art is that nobody needs art; everyone can live without art. Consequently, there’s not a great demand for art. As an artist, I have nothing really to trade or barter with, unlike most people in society with their services or products. They usually trade for money and then buy services and products that they need. Quite often there are practical applications of art being of service to society. The world is full of commercial artists. They offer the kind of service and commodity that the commercial economic world can use: commercial art, designer art, pop art, and advertising art.
There is another art world out there involved with the economic commercial system. This world belongs to those with money. It is the world of stock portfolio art, collecting and trading. It usually involves people with wealth buying well-established art that has passed through many hands of other collectors and dealers. Art becomes a luxury only they can afford. It becomes a commodity that represents wealth. They can essentially spend millions of dollars on a worthless painting, which they do not really need, but because they can afford to pay millions of dollars for something that is worthless and useless, it proves to others how rich they are. Weird and strange, isn’t it?
I’m a poor, struggling artist. I’ve never been drawn to commercial art and have never prioritized commercial success as an artist. So why have I spent so much time, money, and energy making art? Well, partly for the pure pleasure of it. Partly as therapy. Partly as a way to tell my story. Partly as a way to relay a message. And partly as a way to give the world a gift. Curvism is the avant-garde art of its time. It is a voice from the outside, in this case, a voice from the wilderness wanting to be heard. A voice asking for help. Curvism seeks help for the living planet and for fairness and justice for all living things on this planet. In a global world economy of capitalistic greed and competitive buying and selling, Curvism seeks to say that not everything is about money or the economy.
Cubism began the twentieth century. It is a male voice. I don’t want to live in the twentieth century any longer. I don’t want to live in a world dominated by the man-made worldview of science, technology, commerce, and capitalistic self-interest. It is a world of injustice and greed.
Curvism speaks in the female voice. The art and philosophy of Curvism is about relationships: the relationship between an individual and the spiritual, the individual to nature and the environment, and the individual to the community. I believe we can live in a world of love and that there are many lessons we can learn by listening to the female voice within ourselves. As an artist I want to be part of this movement of change. This is the reason that I am an artist. This is why I struggle. I believe that love will take care of me. I want to help make this world a better place to live for my children and grandchildren. I believe my art can help change the world. I know all of this sounds idealistic and grand and utopian. Well, I’m glad of it. Isn’t art supposed to be about vision, seeing the world clearly, and envisioning a better world? I’m still a dreamer. I’m still in love. I’m still traveling on this journey.
Avant-garde Art
December 12, 1999
I have worked all my artistic life on the development of Curvism. I first used the word Curvism in 1978 to describe my art and philosophy of art.
I continue to think about the purpose of art and role of the artist. More specifically, I’m thinking about avant-garde art and the role of the avant-garde artist. Even more specifically, I’m thinking about western art and the history of painting. The tradition of avant-garde art started in Europe in the mid 1700’s. It is the tradition of the new art emerging and rebelling against the old art which has been approved, accepted, and supported by the establishment. The art of the avant-garde artist is critical of the establishment and the power and values which dictate and control society at large.
The avant-garde artist brings critical truth to society. Yet, if it is to have any real value for society, avant-garde art should also offer an alternative vision for the future. Avant-garde art should not only be a mirror of society but it should paint a picture of what’s missing, showing a new way into the future. This new art, this new way of seeing the world and its possibilities is the true gift of the avant-garde artist. Inevitably this gift always seems to cost the artist some pain and suffering. It is not easy to be the bearer of bad news, the messenger. It is not easy seeing the truth, first for the artist, and then for society. It’s also difficult for the avant-garde artist to get the attention of the establishment and society.
True artists, the avant-garde artists, seek the truth, not necessarily the truth of knowledge, which is the scientific approach, but rather the truth of wisdom.
This truth is revealed in the metaphorical, the symbolic, the story. The role of the avant-garde artist has been to seek and reveal the spiritual. The spiritual is seldom found in the marketplace of consumerism, power, and money.
Now, at the turn of the century, at the turn of the millennium, the world is one big global free market capitalistic system, where the money and power is concentrated in the control of a small number of faceless international corporations. These corporations offer goods and services to millions of consumers, creating jobs and economic wealth for many. The rich and powerful few control most of the money, the masses, and the world’s natural resources. It is the role of the avant-garde artists (painters, poets, writers, philosophers, humanitarians) to reveal the injustice of a heartless economic power system. It is the role of the avant-garde artist to reveal how ultimately worthless money and power really are. Compared to spiritual wisdom and wealth, materialism is meaningless. The role of the avant-garde artist is to give voice to a higher consciousness and to protect society’s soul.
The avant-garde artist needs to be careful not to sell his own soul to fortune and fame. I always have to question myself about my intentions as an artist and my role as an artist. I am an avant-garde artist and Curvism is the avant-garde art of our time. As an artist, I seek to reveal the spiritual and give voice to the injustice of our cold-hearted capitalistic system. There is not much that I really need materialistically. I just hope to make an honest living with my art.
I see the world beginning to change. It is beginning to move into the symbols of the circle and the ellipse. This change is happening quickly now. There has been some early exploration of the circular and elliptical; early cubist works by Picasso and Braque were done on elliptical canvases. Mondrian painted a few elliptical paintings in his early years. There have been a few other exceptions here and there along the way, but for the most part picture making has used the rectangular-square format. It has only been within the last five years that elliptical pictures have really begun emerging in popular society. This move toward the elliptical and circular is accelerating as we move into the new millennium. Curvism predicted and advocated for this to happen since 1978. Curvism believes this is where we need to go and that the circle and the ellipse are the next windows we need to look through.
The circle and ellipse are spiritual symbols. I am concerned that they are now being appropriated by popular culture and used and abused by corporations. In the last several years there has been a rush by corporations to come up with elliptical, circular, and curved logos. They are now selling themselves as being spiritual commodities, with their logos on all their products. Perhaps we are moving into a more spiritual time. Perhaps the corporations will wake up and find their souls, start being more fair and loving to workers, to those who have not, to the earth’s environment and natural resources. I wish these corporations did have a spiritual soul. If they do have one, I sure don’t see it. I see them mostly acting out of greed. They use the spiritual symbols for economic exploitation, which seems to be the way of the world, of commerce, and consumerism. This was the fate of avant-garde art in the past. The new art challenges the old art and eventually the new art is accepted by society, taken in and consumed, used, abused, manipulated, and distorted, and then becomes the old. Society slowly advances spiritually in spite of the process by which it consumes the new. In the last forty years the tradition of the avant-garde artist has lost its voice. Since then art has mostly been consumer oriented, primarily a commercial consumerist product. Much of the art of modern art has been about the end of avant-garde art.
The voice of Curvism is only now beginning to emerge and to be heard and its vision seen. It addresses societal concerns of our time, clearly criticizing the art of the past 100 years and the continued injustice and emptiness of capitalistic greed. There is a new changing worldview. The world is ready for these changes.
Curvism offers criticism of the old, warning for the present, and hope for the future. Curvism is critical of the square world of the past: it is time for its power to end. Curvism acknowledges the developments and gifts of the square world and warns against the square world manipulating the spiritual world symbols for materialistic greed. Our hope for the future lies in the square world becoming subservient to the spirituality of the circular, elliptical, curved world, where humans seek spiritual wisdom with a consciousness of social justice and environmental wholeness.