Pentimento: definitions and relevance (part 1).

What is interesting about re-reading this section of my thesis are the additional thoughts and issues that spring to mind, and the way in which blog presentation can facilitate such additions. Taking advantage of this, such additions are / will be addended to the main text as follow-up posts.

Opposite to this, the post eBay descriptions, for example, began as a post here, eventually making its way into the thesis itself.

Any additional comments, related links, welcome.

Pentimento: definitions and relevance (part 1).

Chambers English Dictionary (1996) defines it as: ‘Something painted out of a picture that later becomes visible again.’ Wikipedia (2007) currently states that, amongst numerous other meanings, the term ‘…is being used in a modern sense for the fading sign on the sides of buildings. Many times they are painted over with newer ads and the paint wears away to reveal the layers.’ (see follow-up 1)

There are a number of reasons for employing the word ‘pentimento’ within the title of the paper, not least to acknowledge the long relationship between painting and photography. Garner points out that in its early days, before the means of production became widely available, and ‘…since most who had the leisure for such an advanced hobby were educated and sophisticated, they wanted to make photographs that looked like art.’ (2007. p.180) .And by ‘art’ he is referring here specifically to the medium of painting. Thus, it is no coincidence that photography initially co-opted not only subject matter and vocabulary from the medium, but also sought to employ techniques that could be regarded as analogous. For instance: marking the negative prior to printing, or the application of paint onto the surface of the print itself. By such means, early practitioners sought to make evident the hand of the artist and claim the process of photography as more than merely a means of mechanical reproduction, to extend its reach from the realm of science.

And, indeed, photography itself led to further investigations into the means of painting. Degas, for instance, ‘…uses the framing edge to cut through a figure. The notion of a fragment of a continuum that extended beyond the framing edge challenged the classical conception of the painting as a self-contained whole that had it origins in photography.’(Ostrow, 2007, p.180). Rod Slemmons (n.d.) states that Degas’s work was not only influenced by the compositional elements of photography, but that he went as far as to incorporate the ‘limitations’ of the photographic image into his work, drawing on the appearance of the incorrectly exposed print. Indeed, Slemmons notes a continuing reciprical and questioning relationship between photography and painting in his text concerning the exhibition Painting on photography: photography on painting (2005); A relationship that Nelson, in his review of the Depth of Field (2003) exhibition describes as ‘… either overlooked or handled embarrassingly in the past.’(2003) 

Such a relationship is also evident within the confines of Polaroid photography: SX70 Polaroid film heralded an explosion of what is commonly termed ‘SX70 expressionism’, in which the surface of the exposed film is manipulated to create an image reminiscent in style (though rarely content) to expressionist painting.

Paintings of Polaroids have also been produced, most notably by Ellen Harvey, in which the duplication of the white borders of the Polaroid ‘…deftly juxtaposes the idea of the captured instant with the time-consuming act of painting.’(Bowles. 2002). Additionally, Harvey (Accessed: 23/02/07), in a statement about her work Low Tech Special Effects (n.d.) – a series of fourteen paintings (each 22”x26”) each of which depicts a Polaroid photograph - equates both the act of painting and the use of Polaroid film as a nostalgic endeavor: both have been replaced technologically (an notion that will be explored further shortly).

Both meaning and etymology acknowledge a specific and documented relationship between photography and painting, and between the Polaroid and painting; and it is towards painting that I will turn in the closing chapters of the paper. (see follow-up 2)

 Bibliography:

Bowles, Emily (2002). Ellen Harvey at De Chirara. Art in America. October, 2002. Located online at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_10_90/ai_92352675/pg_1 [Accessed 16/04/08].

Garner, Grenchen (2007). Photography and society in the 20th Century. In: Focal Encyclopedia of photography: Digital imaging, theory and applications, History and science. Ed: Peres, Michael. R. Focal Press. St. Louis.

Harvey, Ellen. (2007) Email to S. Cousin re: Polaroids / Paintings / Polaroids. 09/08/07.

Nelson, Robert (2003). Painting and photography in cahoots. The Age. 25/01/2003. Located online at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/24/1042911545773.html [Accessed 15/04/08]

Ostrow, Saul (2007). Photography, fine art photography and the visual arts: 1900 – 2001. In: Focal Encyclopedia of photography: Digital imaging, theory and applications, History and science. Ed: Peres, Michael. R. Focal Press. St. Louis.

pentimento (definition): Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (1996). Located online at: http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main [Accessed: 03/06/05].

pentimento (definition): Located online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento. [Accessed: 29/06/06].

Slemmons, Rod (n.d). The surface of seeing. Located online at: http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2005/05/painting_on_pho.php [Accessed 16/04/08]

that could be regarded as analogous. For instance: marking the negative prior to printing, or the application of paint onto the surface of the print itself. By such means, early practitioners sought to make evident the hand of the artist and claim the process of photography as more than merely a means of mechanical reproduction, to extend its reach from the realm of science.

Update on 10 10 2009 by S. Cousin

Follow-up 1.

This is like the continual layering and peeling and ripping of posters you see on the street, which garners much attention from photographers. On this, I am reminded of a a teacher at Arden College in Manchester telling me of an artist who had posters printed up of himself which he then fly-posted. A week later he would photograph these same posters - ripped, torn, defaced - and create new posters, which he then fly-posted. And a week later would photograph and create new posters fom these ripped, torn, defaced posters...

Also see my previous post: mr coso. Paper People.

Conversely, I am reminded of the banning of advertising hoardings in São Paulo Brazil:

 A city stripped of advertising. No Posters. No flyers. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. No Adshels, no 48-sheets, no nothing.
 It sounds like an Adbusters editorial: an activist's dream. But in São Paulo, Brazil, the dream has become a reality.
(Burgoyne, Patrick. São Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising. 18/06/2007. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070618_505580.htm)

For some good images of this see the work São Paulo No Logo by Tony de Marco on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212/.

Another, similar take on this, is the work Signs without Signification (2003-2007) by Jeff Brouws. See: http://www.jeffbrouws.com/series/typologies_signs.html.

And this is a different 'peeling', a different revealing. No longer image escaping from / through beneath images, poles - and sky.

Update on 10 10 2009 by S. Cousin

Follow-up 2.

The relationship between painting and photography is a complex one, and one that has become more prominent with the widespread use of digital image technology, a technology which has blurred the lines between the photographic image and illustration (painting).

For an interesting article on medium specificity see: Costello, Diarmuid. After medium Specificity Chez Fried: Jeff wall as a painter; Gerhard Richter as a photographer. In: pp75-89.

For more on the relationship between street photography and impressionism, see: Scott, Clive. Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson. 2007. I. B. Tauris. london / New York.

Also see the recent post by Jörg Colberg: Review: The Painting of Modern Life (http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2009/09/review_the_painting_of_modern_life.html. 18/09/2009)