Interesting recent podcast interview with Desiderio.

Happy New 2017!

Tom,

I’m sorry to hear that you have so few choices in your country. While I agree that it is a luxury to debate about such topics, it’s worth fighting for. And yes, abstract art is a good thing. The Modernists were all about the experience and would have rejected this new era of “photo-collaged illustration” that some call painting. Glad to see that you are open to discussion over in Norway!

Michal,

I’m glad you are encouraged. I think sometimes it’s hard for artists (painters especially) to realize what is at stake. The end goal is not just about the image, it’s about the experience, and making that experience unadulterated. The cyber world (Instagram) is making painting more and more into a “quick fix” experience. Real painters like Morandi might become extinct unless we hold a mirror up to society. Lets slow down and look.

“I think it’s plain as day that the driving force behind his work originates from photography.”

Then why are there so many mistakes in anatomy?

Look carefully at the hands in “Hitchock’s hands.” Do they make any sense? Are they realistic? Compare the sizes of the fingertips — these fingers seem to belong to very different hands. Look carefully at the uppermost hand. Can you find the knuckles of the little finger? How does the little finger relate to the ring finger, in terms of the underlying skeletal structure?

The more you look at those hands, the more drawing errors you will see. And don’t get me started on that ear study! All wrong, all wrong.

And yet I think Desiderio is a truly great painter. The extreme drawing errors in these hands are, in a sense, not errors at all, since the mistakes guarantee that you are not seeing a painted photograph.

I’m encouraged to work even harder on my painting skills,observation and such…thanks to comments like ‘Han Solo’s’.It’s nice to know that there are people who can see the difference.

Han Solo,
Perhaps it’s your childish moniker that’s challenging to people, but I happen to agree with your observations. Mr. Desiderio himself admits that the first image we see in this article is appropriated from a photograph. Maybe not a straight rip-off, but by no means transcendent. His work seems to be (whether or not he cares to admit it) primarily about technical verisimilitude. Which is fine – I love a good illusion. But you’re right when you describe them as cinematic. I’ll go a bit further and say that they’re a bit like stilted dioramas. If I’Liberati doesn’t read like a shallow theatrical stage, complete with a flat backdrop, then one’s depth perception is seriously off. I think he’s technically very gifted, but his images are well this side of transcendent. And, judging by some of his alleged comments below, his thin skin will never allow him to, as you aptly observe, be “willing to take chances.” And to those of you with the juvenile, “what gives you the right to criticize,” “bet you couldn’t do any better” mentality, you’re obviously entitled to your opinions. But go start a fan club and leave the honest valuation of transcendency to others.

Vincent has made himself clear; to paraphrase: “…[the] PRIVILEGE ACCORDED THE SIGN (IMAGE OR DRAMATIC NARRATIVE) OVER THE SEARCHING COMPLEXITIES OF METHOD OR WHAT I CALL THE TECHNICAL NARRATIVE [is a valid point]. BUT TO SAY THAT THE DRIVING FORCE OF MY WORK IS THE PHOTOGRAPH IS ABSURD… SOURCE MATERIAL OF ALL KINDS GOES INTO THE PAINTING OF THESE PICTURES [but] PHOTOGRAPHIC INFORMATION [offers] NOTHING IN TERMS OF VOLUME, TEMPERATURE OR THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE OPTICS OF ILLUMINATION… THE OVERALL CONCEPT (ITS SPACE,THE NIGHT, ITS ILLUMINATION, ITS COLOR , THE TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT, ETC. ARE ALL FROM MY IMAGINATION. THUS I WOULD SAY THAT A GOOD 90% OF THE PAINTING WAS CONSTRUCTED BY MY “MIND’S EYE” FROM MEMORY, AS IT WERE.” That the portrait of Gramsci referenced a photo is self-evident, given that Gramsci died in 1937…

Vincent wrote a brilliant essay on this subject entitled “Toward an Allegorization of Method” for a Skira/Rizzoli book I edited, “The Figure,” out this October. Other contributors include Alexi Worth, who writes about the impact of photography on 19th c. painting. Along with strictly perceptual painters like Scott Noel, various artists, such as Edgar Jerins, Jerry Kearns, and Nicola Verlato, wrote ‘artist methodologies’ in which their use of photography, Photoshop and CGI in the creation of figurative artwork is explained.