40 Years in Reverse
The pigments, blues, browns, yellows, opened for me another world. The huge painting, thirty feet across the room, pulled me toward this other dimension. It was space, colorful distance, undefined by objective reality. It was a window into a mystery. The huge paintings by Hans Hoffman inspired me to be an abstract expressionist painter. The creativity of these artists who were not bound by objective reality inspired me to journey into this world of expressionism. The colors and dimension of these paintings pulled me, lifted me. I was inspired, educated, by seeing these great works of art. Artistic creations conveyed inspiration, communicating the beauty of God’s placing in us the creative gift, as is in himself as well as the artist whose work I was viewing.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City houses the history of art in America and in the world. The MET, for me as a fourteen year old boy, was truly monumental. New York City has always been the center of art in America. The European artist Albrecht Bierstadt ventured west with his paints to record the vast panoramas of Yosemite and the American wilderness. His massive canvases in the MET of Yosemite embody the history of America. The Hudson River School inspires me as I paint waterscapes of North American scenes. It was Hoffman’s exhibit, however, that was most life changing for me. Hoffman was also a European who pioneered the dimensions and vast panoramas of abstract expressionism. He was very skillful with paint and canvas. I know Hoffman only through his paintings; I have never read his ideas of art. For me his paintings were so powerfully captivating, they drew me into the world of abstract expressionism and I knew I would be there for the rest of my life. I understood the language. Hoffman’s creativity inspired me. I understood that I wanted to work to create abstract art. I wanted to someday decorate museum walls. We are created to be creative. We are created in the image of God, the Creator who never ceases to amaze with his abilities to open up new dimensions. I felt Hoffman inspired me to be more completely the person God made me. We should be creative and use our creative gifts, because it is who we are, made in the image of God. We are created to be creative. Art is good because it is an expression of human creativity
We were brought to New York City by our high school art teacher Warren Mullen. Mr. Mullen was a close friend’s Dad and he was a very beloved teacher by all who studied art in my school. We were so appreciative of Mr. Mullen taking us on these field trips to view some of the greatest art in the world. We felt he respected us; he trusted us enough to take us as a group of forty high school students all the way to Fifth Avenue in New York City to see the MET, the MOMA, the Guggenheim and the Frick. He believed in the benefit of Art and taught art with a passion. We understood his work was not a job, it was his life. He loved art; he signed his name ART. Yes we did betray his trust on occasion, left alone in the big city, but he always remained our friend. His trust extended beyond and included the innate curiosity that high school students will have. I cannot imagine myself not having these experiences that Mr. Mullen gave us. These experiences were truly life changing for me, and I am forever thankful. He allowed us to go to any museum we wanted to see, simply by getting 40 names on a list. There was always a list circulating, and I never missed a single trip the entire four years of high school. Mr. Mullen viewed art from an encompassing understanding of history and technique. He loved it all and with joy adeptly shared his love for art with us, taking us every year to museums in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. Visiting these art museums was inspiring, fun, opening before me understanding of existence, life, history and more.
Visiting Washington D.C. with my mother, brother and sister is one of my earliest memories in life. My mother found great meaning and satisfaction giving us these wonderful experiences. We drove a 50’s Mercury and I remember barely being able to see out the rear window of the car anticipating the city and the museums my mother excitedly shared with us children. Many years later I shared with my mother the experience of seeing the MET and the Frick on Fifth Avenue and she drove us children to New York City to have the experience as a family. This was 1971 or ’72. I consider my mother to have been a very courageous person to
drive the five hours with her three children to New York so that we could see these museums together. She was a very special person. She provided me with art supplies all the years I was growing up. She was diligent to save so that we could have a family vacation every year. This trip to see the MET and the Frick together was her going as far as she could to give us the best upbringing she could possibly provide. I truly feel that I had the best mother there ever was. I think it was my description of the Frick which inspired her to take us on this journey. The Frick is the personal home of a wealthy American who purchased very valuable art and housed it in his luxurious Fifth Avenue property. The personal quiet rooms with Rembrandts and an El Greco to enjoy are unforgettable. There is a garden courtyard with a small fountain, and experience of peaceful, exquisite, artistic luxury second to none. My mother was joyful, discerning, calm and undisturbed as she heroically extended her parenting of us to include walking quietly in the Fifth Avenue home of Mr. Frick. I’ll never forget the dinner we had that day in a very nice small restaurant near the museums. For some reason I thought the man who waited on us was the owner. He treated is very courteously. Kind New Yorkers such as this man help enable visitors to Fifth Avenue have experiences like these to be remembered affectionately for a lifetime. This love for museums my mother gave us is something I have kept all my life.
In the 1980’s, I visted the National Gallery in Washington D.C. to see an exhibit of El Greco. El Greco is considered by some to be the father of expressionism. He painted during the Renaissance and this exhibit displayed many of his pieces from various collections around the world. El Greco is my favorite artist of all. A deeply spiritual person, he was a Franciscan believer in Christ. During the later portion of his career he began to subject his depictions of reality to include a great deal of spiritual meaning. It is this distortion of realism to include the spiritual which some hold to be the beginning of expressionism. He believed that the human soul was best described as a flame of fire, and so, his figures became flame-like, distorted from realism, to portray his spiritual belief. I like El Greco because he used all his ability and training, second to none, to connect the viewer with the historical person or event he portrayed. To visit his exhibit was truly a spiritual experience. I am very thankful for these experiences, these museum visits provided to me by my mother, Mr. Mullen and a culture which values creativity. I was truly inspired, educated, influenced to be the person I am by these visits and I am forever thankful.
On a high school field trip we visited the MOMA in New York City. The Museum of Modern Art is to me synonymous with Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh, my favorite displayed there. On one visit to the MOMA I stood inches away from Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles, the day after it had sold for 2 million dollars. Today this painting is valued at 50 million dollars. The MOMA represents another view of art which is different from the Frick, my mother’s understanding and even Mr. Mullen’s. The MOMA courageously and boldly displays the possibilities of human creativity. The luminous swirls of Van Gogh’s Starry Night foreshadow the deep harmony of colorful motion opened unto us by the courage of Jackson Pollock.
Seeing Jackson Pollock’s works at the MOMA was, like Hoffman’s, life changing for me. Pollock’s courageous creativity redefined reality for all of us. Pollock invented and discovered by removing the limit of what we can do. He was a master of line and motion, a musical poet of flowing paint. He created a mysterious lyrical harmony, a forest of harmonious flowing color, retreating into the depths of his new world. To be Pollockesque is to be like nothing else in uniqueness and exquisite beauty. His art seems to be influenced by some ancient Chinese school, creating something new to awe us in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Pollock’s works inspired me to innovate and discover. Discovering Reversism was for me a milestone. Regardless of what anyone thought, I had truly discovered my own way to paint, and inspiration which I was sure would last me a lifetime.