On My Recent Figurative Kinetic Paintings

Leonardn, Vol. 16, No.2, pp. 115-116. 1983 Printed in Great Britain 0024-094X/83%3.00+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd. ON MY RECENT FIGURATIVE KINETIC PAINTINGS John Goodyear" In 1977. after 10 years as a sculptor. 1 began making kinetic hammer strikes a blow at a block ofsomethingwhich fragments, paintings again. The simplest canvas and wood constructions of regroups itself and is struck again. The hand beckoning was 1965 became the structural model for the new work. A wooden given a central portion which does not moveand an index finger grid suspended from above in front ofa painted canvas serves to which does. This event functioned as a continuity. (The partially block the image behind it. When the grid is set in mechanism shows off cyclic events rather than progressive motion. gliding back and forth in front of the image. different aspects of the image appear sequentiall!. The image is plotted into tour '7ones' repeating across the canvas. and the grid obscures one lone at a time making possible an animation of the image-almost ;I cinematic etfect without built-in lighting. lenses or motors. (Motors came into the larger works in 1979.) The works were done in black and white to diltrrentiate them from the highly colored piecesofthe earl! 1960s[ I]. The colored works had been more complex and multi-la\ ered. creating a 3dimensional field of shifting chance color relationship\. l h e new black and white pieces of the 1970s began to isolate and del'ine w a \ s of seeing discrete shapes mo\e around on the camas. This '\ irtual' motion could make elements mo\ cup and down. diagonallv. and even back. into an imagined space. through a simple lateral mo\ement of the grid. These investigations Mere carried out in a non-figurative manner on canva\es measuring 90 . 90 cin. 'Four ncgatites' (f;ig. I ) suggested subject matter. although none had been intended.The shift to tigurati\,c works. 'l'he Blow'(tig. 2)and 'Beckoning'. iii 1979. constitute a mo\e toward representing small events. A t i e . I , '/.birr Viyuriiw',ucri.licon cunvtr\ tint111 nod. YO . Yf/, 1.5 f III. 197A .Scypcncc'\ A (rop lc/rj, R (horrom Ic/tj. C'(rop r/ghr/ undl) (ho/lo/il~ i q h ! ) . (l'holo: .lo.scph C ' I r l l c ~ , ~ Fi,y, 2. 'ThaHIOW'.ucri,li(,on cunvu.,ontl ~wiotl. YO x YO x I.5c.m. 1978. Two \c~yui~ni'c'\ .\h~iwn.(Collecrion n/Mr. undM,s. Gordon Kou/man. Newrnn. Mass., Cl.S.A.) *Artist. R.D.2. 1.ambertville. NJ 08530. U.S.A. (Received 15 .lunc 1981) 115 116 John Goodyear ones.) The hand was mistaken by some viewers for a rabbit with a large moving ear. This kind of mistake in identification was caused by the large scale required by separating alternating motifs into zones. On the positive side. the possibility arose that subjects (or objects) could transform themselves by adding or deleting clues to their identification. At this point. a larger format seemed t o be required. A final hand-gesture painting ofthe same size was completed early in 1979.The aim ofthe pointing index finger changed angle in a repetitive motion. This was meant to suggest the gesture signifying 'shame on you'. Both pieces depend on movement to create the meanings 'come here' and 'shame'. In this sense the works are closer to dance than to painting. A trip to Europe in the Spring of 1979 brought me to the Louvre where I was struck with the 'frozen' motion of many old master paintings. I t is as though these works were taken by imaginary cameras, stopping time at the apex ofan event. How curiously the arch of doorway, a tree trunk can echo the momentary position of an arm or leg! The stationary is set into visual undulation with the moveable: the moveable is trapped into a timeless quietude. A commission from Educational Testing Services in Princeton, New Jersey. Summer 1979, for a large work suggested Piero Della Francesca's mural depicting 'The Story of' the True Cross'. Re-named 'The Test' or 'The Test of...