Thesis Title: Between the Interior and the Exterior: Between the Finite and the Infinite A space for the re-enchantment of art Graham John Marchant: BA Hons: MA Fine Art. Exegesis Submitted for PhD 25th September 2011 1 This dissertation contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my dissertation, when deposited in the University Library**, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Graham Marchant, Sydney, 25th September 2012 2 I would like to acknowledge and thank my principal supervisor, Professor Anne Graham for her tireless support, astute guidance and continued encouragement throughout the program. I remain forever grateful to her. I would like to thank Newcastle University for their generosity and support throughout this degree. My thanks to my wife Fiona for everything. 3 Thesis: Order of Chapters Abstract Introduction Chapter 1 Hortus- Conclusus: The Enclosed garden p.13 Chapter 2 Pre- Raphaelite- Connections p.27 The Manuscript Series Chapter 3 Impressionist Gardens p.51 Chapter 4 Monet and Japan p.67 Chapter 5 Claude Monet: The Serial Works p.81 Chapter 6 Graham Marchant: Serial Works P110 Chapter 7 Creating the New Eden p.124 Chapter 8 Looking Through: The geometrical invention of the window p.140 Chapter 9 The Garden as an outside room p.159 Chapter 10 Lucian Freud p.177 Chapter 11 Flowers p.194 p.212 Conclusion p.217 List of illustrations p.229 Source of illustrations p.244 Bibliography 4 Between the Interior and the Exterior Between the Finite and the Infinite A space for the re-enchantment of art Abstract I am an artist and a gardener; the observation of nature, of seasons and of changing light is my subject matter. In this paper I will look at the symbolic depiction of the garden and nature as subject from medieval times to the present day. I intend to make the case that realist depictions of nature, framed by the grid of architecture, have developed out of the same tradition as the abstract grid described by Krauss, as ‘…a model for the antidevelopmental, the antinarrative, the antihistorical’1. My definition of the grid is broader than that of Krauss, I include in the historic formal grid of the enclosed garden in Medieval times, the narrative grid of Friedrich’s doors and windows, the architectural grid of Haussmann’s Paris and Monet’s structural grid’s evident in his serial works. Through the inclusive nature of my approach I will follow a trajectory showing that the depiction of nature through the grids of landscape and garden design and through the domestic grids of windows, doors, balconies and greenhouses, a parallel realist, rather than an abstract, trajectory occurred. In this paper I argue that the realist trajectory that I describe can also induce a sense of a transcendent reality that can articulate fundamental human emotions. The use of the grid structures in the work of the artists that I refer to provides a formwork for looking through, from inside to outside, from surface to space, from finite to infinite, a threshold which allowed for a new realization that ‘...dialectics of inside and outside multiply with countless diversified nuances.’2 I am arguing that through realist depiction’s of nature we might find 1 Krauss, R, ‘Grids’ in Originality of the Avant Garde and Other Modernist Myths, MIT, 1986, p. 22. 2 Bachelard, G. The Poetics of Space, Beacon Press: Boston, 1958, p.216. 5 the ‘...experience of art as a form of enchantment that is useful in rendering a valuable way of knowing the world’ 3. 3 Elkins, J & Morgan, D. Re-Enchantment, Routledge: NY, London, 2009, p.14. 6 Between the Interior and the Exterior Between the Finite and the Infinite A space for the re-enchantment of art Introduction Art is how human beings participate in the divine life at work in nature. Art is the visualization of the invisible inwardness of all things.4 Fig 1, Caspar David Freidrich, The Cross in The Mountains, 1807-8, Oil on canvas. Staatlich Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (Gemaidegalerie). Joseph Koerner describes an illuminating moment, when, while lecturing, he projected an image of Caspar David Friedrich’s The Cross in the Mountains. Koerner described this work as a paradigmatic instrument…(which portrayed 4 Morgan,D. ‘Enchantment Disenchantment, Re-Enchantment’ in Re-Enchantment Routledge, 2009, p.33. 7 a) disenchantment of the world.5 Friedrich’s work created great debate, was this a sacred icon or a secular work of art? Koerner suggests that, ‘ … this uncertainty reflects a distinctly modern condition: in the wake of the Reformation and Enlightenment…the private experience of art and nature replaces organized religion as a site of spiritual transcendence’ 6. What interests me is the fact that this disenchantment, which eventually resulted in a secularization of art, was replaced by a new order of geometry and balance. This was also exemplified by Friedrich, whose later work ‘... reflect [-ed] an absolute difference between inside and out, light and dark, body and soul… restore [-ing] an equilibrium between light and shadow, interior and out of doors, while also retaining the oil painting’s plot about entrapment and yearning for release.’ 7 Friedrich replaced the grid of the cross and the altar with images of windows, thresholds and doorways. The landscape, which initially occurred behind the cross, was now viewed through a more domestic grid. A more abstract grid, as discussed by Rosalind Krauss eventually succeeded this domestic grid: ‘ Flattened, geometrized, and ordered. It is antinatural, antimimetic, antireal. It is what art looks like when it turns its back on nature. In the flatness that results from its coordinates, the grid is the means of crowding out the dimensions the dimensions of the real and replacing them with the lateral spread of a single surface.’8 In this paper I argue that another trajectory also occurred in which the architectural grid of Koerner continued through the use of the grid of doorways, windows and thresholds in art. These structures provided a space for looking through, from inside to outside, a threshold or liminal space which 5 Koerner,J. The Reformation of the Image, University of Chicago Press, 2004, p.11 6 Ibid., p.9. 7 Koerner,J. Caspar David Friedrich and The Subject of Landscape, (Reaktion Books Ltd: London, 2009, p.296. 8 Krauss, R. The Originality of the Avant- Garde,, p.9. 8 allowed for a new realization that ‘...dialectics of inside and outside multiply with countless diversified nuances.’ 9 This is a magical space and in a sense I am arguing for the re-enchantment of art ‘...we might think of the experience of art as a form of enchantment that is useful in rendering a valuable way of knowing the world.’10 I propose that this engagement with nature, this looking through, from inside to out, from dark to light, from body to soul retains the long held plot about entrapment and release11…Koerner describes Friedrich’s subject as the hidden object of belief indicating that Friedrich attempted to ‘...create landscape painting as a new kind of religious icon, one resolutely in and of the secular world yet reaching beyond, transcendentally.’ 12 This reaching beyond has a long history perhaps best described by Raphael (1483-1520) as ...’ “a certain idea“ transcending experience.’13 I propose to explore the work of artists, whose work, through the use of these architectural and formal structures, has exemplified this re-enchantment. I underpin this proposition with a brief history of the works and movements that provide the foundation for my works in this territory. The scope of the topic is vast, and rather than provide an overall chronology I have concentrated on issues, which coincide with, my interests and which are relevant to my studio work. As David Morgan states there is ‘...no comprehensive, seamlessly resolved, or normative model for how to think about art theory and religion.’14 However I intend to trace a particular trajectory that I hope will offer some insight into the ideas and practicalities with which some artists have approached and developed this topic, in particular focussing on the subject of 9 Bachelard, G. The Poetics of Space, p.216. 10 Elkins, J & Morgan, D. Re-Enchantment, p.14. 11 Koerner, K, Caspar David Friedrich, p.297. 12 Ibid., p.300. 13 Prenderville, B, Realism in C20th Painting, Thames and Hudson, 2000, p.8. 14 Elkins & Morgan, Re-enchantment, p.19. 9 the garden and the liminal space between inside and out, between near and far, between surface and space, between the body and the spirit. In Chapter One I examine images of medieval gardens that provide evidence of the geometry and genesis that form the historical precedent for my argument that an inherent spirituality has continued to embody certain art practices throughout time. It is important to examine these images of gardens and their meaning and structure in order understand this deep current that continues to inform so much contemporary practice. In Chapter Two I describe the motivation and practice of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. They were inspired by Romanticism and chose subject matter with a morally uplifting often-religious theme. They were fascinated by medieval culture; they believed the paintings and artefacts of that period possessed a spiritual and creative integrity that had since been lost.