Preston Paintings

An American History Painting: A synthesis of Howard Zinn and Norman Bryson.

Over the course of this semester I have read both Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and Norman Bryson’s Word and Image. These texts were used in conjunction to help me create my own definition of what American history painting should be. After brooding over these theories I painted four paintings. The first in the series, entitled e pluribus unum, depicted a bald eagle with red, white and blue strips across its mid section. The layers of application and subtraction of paint and collage found the form of a dead chick spread upon the pavement, cooking in the sun. I saw this painting as a starting point. I felt it should resonate its spirit through the other paintings. My goal was to tell a more truthful history of America. A history that does not fuel the epic myth of America-a history without heroes and philosophizers, a history with a place for the African slave, the poor white, the southern belle, the exploited blues man, the Indian, the Chinese, the cannibalistic colonist, the extinct buffalo, the lover, the corrupt politician, and the artist.

A large part of developing this personal definition for history painting was to decide how to paint the pictures. What should they look like? How should they be organized? Rather than follow the tradition of American history painting and subscribe to genre or scene renderings I found registers, reminiscent of medieval compositions to be the optimal mode of organizing my paintings. I pulled this idea from the first chapter of Bryson’s book, “Discourse, figure.” In that chapter Bryson explores the relationship of The East Window of Christchurch Cathedral, Canterbury to that of discourse. In order for the viewer to comprehend the stained glass it is necessary to understand the words and symbols within it. Those symbols and words are dependant on those of the Scripture, thus supporting “Meaning” in the image. In Contrast another image in the same church, Rendering of the Tribute Money by Masaccio represents “Being.” Masaccio’s painting is responsible more for creating a reality for the viewer to relate to rather than conveying a distinct message. In Bryson’s words, “…it might seem that the terms ‘discursive’ and ‘figural’ repeat that opposition: that the Canterbury window, where discourse subjugated figure, has subordinated Life to Text, whereas the Masaccio, with its goal of ‘appearance’ and no longer meaning’, appeals to ‘universal visual experience’. I aimed to combine both figure and discourse in my paintings, creating an image that is responsibly meaningful to history and ambiguous enough to be interpreted.

Another aspect of realizing a history painting is to answer to history, a process that forces one to ask more questions than they answer. In reading the Zinn text I came to the realization that American history is cycled. I found myself reading again and again the same story with different faces and names. I felt it more conducive to the theories of Bryson and the terms of history to develop icons and symbols that represent events and people throughout American history. I adopted the formula, “Theory + Antithesis = Synthesis.” To present an object and its opposite to stimulate the viewer to develop a synthesis.

By taking on this project I became forever intertwined with the juggling of discourse and figure. The goal now is to make paintings that are universal enough to speak to large audiences and still be weighted by distinct authorship. The artist can no longer just sit back and expel on the canvas. The artist is now and will always be responsible for the shape of the culture they are apart of. I feel this experience has permanently altered my mode of working; never again can I paint a banal landscape.