Painting & Deconstructionism: A Lyrical Response to Cool Analysis

While deconstructionism is a staring point for explorations in art, it is more of a door frame than a destination.

Men Walking with Tapers. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

An “ism” is an itchy affair, like a sweater one receives for Christmas. On formal occasions, one is obliged to wear it, demonstrating to the aunt who bestowed this itchy gift that it fits and is highly cherished. It otherwise resides in the second drawer of the dresser awaiting deployment when the aunts return.

Thank goodness that art has broken out of its monolithic movements packaging and expresses itself more variously, like a series of boutiques, more eclectic than it has been for some centuries.

Lotus. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

I’m sometimes asked how to describe or classify my art, and a journalist friend suggests “deconstructive” as a revealing term. My painting does deconstruct or break things down, but lyrically, rhythmically, rather than through cool analysis.

Nicolo with Green Backgound. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

Forms, shapes and colors become juggly elements in deconstructionism, but one can extend deconstruction to the sense of time, space and style. I like the medium of oil painting because it carries a dusty, hallowed pedigree, developing ambitions in the late nineteenth century to depict more than a flattering realism.

Figure Bathing after Rembrandt. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

Painting houses the twentieth century artist Pable Picasso, who would double back to raid the nineteenth century, breaking all its trove of delicate works with his violent pastiches and tributes, like a Viking taking swings in a glassware gift shop.

Deconstructionism has less to rebel against in an art world where anything now goes, but instead opens up depiction in painting with an almost baroque flamboyance.

Daphne and Apollo. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

In this approach, painting scrubs depiction down to essential brush strokes, harking back to Cezanne, but freely disagrees with that granddaddy of all painters by not sensibly following and reinforcing contours. Shimmering swaths of solid color come into play.

For me, deconstructionism suggests the power of the brushstroke, the grand sweep of paint, reminiscent of the Chinese ink paintings on silk or paper, in which fewer brush strokes create more energy and tension than many smaller and fussier strokes would.

The Race. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

I’m not sure why, but partial transparency of figures helps to suggest depth or dimension, leaving some objects ghostly or unfinished, suggestive when one partially covers one eye when looking at things, or the sense of a person as he moves about the room.

Living beings don’t strike me as solid like statues or photographs. They keep moving about in time and space, coming and going, casting depth, creating mood and aging.

Travis Squatting by a Pool. Oil on canvas. by Marty McCorkle

Deconstructionism provides a coolly analytical door by which to enter painting. But far from becoming entangled in ethereal principles, an artist, upon entering those hallowed doors, becomes both a kid in a candy store and the swinging viking in the gift shop.

Here is a gallery of  the paintings.