| |
|
|
John Mccarthy Biography:
Biographical information for John Mccarthy can be found below. The artist may choose what information to display. Sometimes the artist chooses not to display personal information to the general public.
Age
|
49
|
| |
| Gender |
Male
|
| |
| Status |
Single
|
| |
| Children |
1
|
| |
| Religion |
Roman Catholic |
| |
| Education |
Undergraduate Degree |
| |
| Hobbies / Interests |
History of Art, tennis, hiking |
| |
| Favorite Artistic Medium |
Painting Oil
|
| |
| Favorite Arthistory Movement |
Neo-Expressionism - (1970 - 1990)
|
| |
| Favorite Visual Artist |
Gerhard Richter
|
| |
| Favorite Work of Art |
Im Wald by Georg Baselitz
|
| |
| Biggest Artistic Inspiration |
Mortality.
|
| |
| Why Did You Become An Artist |
Immortality. |
| |
| Your Personal Biography |
'To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist,'--Jasper Johns
Unlike Jackson Pollock, John McCarthy believes in the 'happy accident.' That does not mean that his bursts of thrown-paint are not controlled. Like Gerhard Richter, McCarthy too has a clear plastic visor of athleticism that he sees through when constructing his action paintings. Whereas Mr. Richter layers went paint and then drags a hard plastic straight edge over the paint, revealing hidden colors - McCarthy usually lays down multiple base layers of paint, then directs the paint at the canvas directly from the tube. More recent paintings such as 'Satanic Verse,' Blood & Thunder' and 'Shine Over Babylon' use a pre-mixed palate that is jettisoned towards the canvas. The result is stunning because a kaleidescope of colors mixes upon impact on the gessoed canvas. A rich tapestry of wet paint that looks more like a paint-river than a brushstroke.
John McCarthy studied art at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. An autodidact, he survived a private plane crash in Isla Grande, Puerto Rico on October 25, 2004 and has been painting full-time ever since.
John is the great grand nephew of Fred McCarthy, aka 'John Todd' (1877-1957)who was a noted Broadway performer, the voice of 'Tonto,' the Native American on 'The Lone Ranger' radio series and the voice/diction coach for Shelly Winters.
|
| |
| |
| Artist Statement |
"Chaos for me breeds images." -- Francis Bacon
JFM Theory: Chaos is the ultimate order.
The energy embodied in John McCarthy's art springs from a chaos that exists at a level that far surpasses the categories of abstract expressionism and other forms of so-called "accidental art."
It is a place where the meaningful and the meaningless can playfully co-exist; where reason and the illogical exist side by side; where the details are always superior to the whole; where chaos is the ultimate order, where a lightning bolt of paint ignites texture and impasto in an electric explosion of conscious thought and anxious action. It represents a separate multiverse - where opposing sides forever reverse, replace each other and merge.
Conversely, the rules of the world can also be seen as reversals, betrayals, plot twists, double identities, traps, time warps, black holes, rebellions in consciousness, metamorphoses and the big bang.
McCarthy's paintings are shards of broken-glass paint that re-define a cubist view of chaos theory. They are atomic or subatomic explosions of colors like nothing that has come before. Look closely at the rivers of color represented in his action painting and see if you can decipher how they are produced.
Just as Zeus' lightning bolts were a gift from The Cyclops, John's art is a byproduct of the subconsious and conscious minds, a blitzkrieg of paint unleashed onto a yielding canvas. The "King of Pitched paint" could match swords with Zeus when it comes to bullwhipping a line of paint to its mark - there is even a "thwacking" sound effect as he paints - Fx that aren't science fiction in origin, but the organic aftermath is a creation - complete with cosmic goo - that mimics our own universe's origins.
The lust for gratification through creating and destroying and leads to a stubborn repetition of crash and redux - like a Tsunami wave from Katsushika Hokusai. Chaos overflows and only the foam remains. But in McCarthy's case, there is more sand than sea - and a Smithsonian photographer has compared his works to those of Anselm Kiefer - because of their use of rain, sand and seashells mixed with the paint. Many of his works are purposely rain-dimpled - put out into the rain deliberately while wet - giving his oevre (including "Ephemeral Camel Head" and the triptych "Purple") an other-wordly texture that no other artist can claim.
But the most fascinating thing about McCarthy as an artist is the way in which he adheres to his absurd logic, while simultaneously presenting the meaning and the meaninglessness of his art. The reason is this baseball-pitcher-like painter, this graphic trompe l'oeil of lines has the innate ability to recall the great power of art he has seen in the past - where the viewer contributes the meaning most significant to oneself.
This kind of art has the power to change the world in an instant - to re-open the old, sacred circuit that exists in all of us - because although art is the ultimate unknown paradigm - when it is done right - it always triggers an immediate, primeval visual response.
|
| |
|
|
