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A Fable of Modern Art

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Ashton's enquiry into the linkages of Modernism's prime suspects is swift and decisive. The paradigm is established early, the dilemna espoused at the birth of modernism by one of its advocates, Balzac, in his novel, 'The Unknown Masterpiece'. Cezanne, Rilke, Kandinsky and old 'sexy pants,' Picasso are combed over and fitted to Ashton's enmeshing tale. A French flick,Jacques Rivette's,'La Belle Noiseuse', of the early 90s made an excellent stab at filming Balzac's novel in contemporary garb. Its drawn out enactment of the creative process has only been surpassed by Tarakovsky. The coincidental advent of these two revisions could be regarded as a railing against the prevailing ethical vaccuum in the visual arts: a time when pastiche and design, and digital morphing have drowned complexity, structure, spatial issues & the hand crafted disciplines - not to venture notions of enchantment or 'spirituality' which post-modern agendas seem bereft of. Perhaps we are already staring from the terrors of the abyss, referred to regularily in the text. The balancing act between abstraction and mimesis, between chaos and surplus information, individual vision and profound feeling of the heart, the role of Nature's laws governing the arts, the emphasis on process above content; Ashton eloquently articulates the crucial growth nodes of Modernism. The ironic footer to this resides in the caption,'Unknown.' Balzac's book is likely 'unknown' as is the aforementioned film, and lastly, Ashton's marvellous analysis, which might spur the art novice with a set of useful questions. For more on art visit>rodmoss.com