Jake Berthot

Click here to check out a clip of Jake Berthot as he talks about his paintings, making work, and the gaze. Please post a response

below reflecting on the 'method vs system' he mentions and what you think he means by/about 'the gaze'.

Below are some quick examples of his work.

Space- 'on location'

Some examples below highlight the relationship of space to content. Some elements to consider are:

SCALE- Size as it relates to scale is very important. The space within a small paper can be infinitely grand and vice versa. Relationships of elements and marks create this relationship.

Large marks make the space feel small, tiny marks make it feel large. Massive architecture can dwarf the people that inhabit it. By orchestrating these relationships unique space can be created.

MOVEMENT- Space can function as a constant for the passage of time. In a drawing the space can be frozen and the movement of people (etc) can be contrasted against it. Space can be depicted as static, unmoving, fixed as other elements play out within it.

GAZE- Space can be created, not to provide a backdrop for a narrative, but to hold the viewers gaze; a place for it to enter. This allows the viewer to be the active participant and not solely an audience.

Piranesi

David Levine

Gustav Diore, from Dante's Divine Comedy

Arthur Melville

Rackstraw Downes

Space - Cubism

Cubism

A breakthrough in the presentation of space pioneered by Picasso and Braque. The foundation for this pictorial advancement can be found in Cezanne, whom both artists were familiar. Cezanne's multifaceted approach to creating form recalls binocular vision and a plural viewpoint, an important break from the fix singular viewpoint of perspective. In addition the influence of 'primitive' African and Iberian work was especially important. This work stressed a raw simplicity. Coupled with Cezanne's distillation of forms to Cylinder, Sphere, and Cone, we begin to see the approach to cubism. It is a depiction of space liberated from the singular fixed vantage point and complies multiple vantage points simultaneously. This speaks to another form of vision; one freed by the constraints of time. All sides of an object exist at all moments even if we only perceive one vantage point. Because we do not see all sides at the same time, it does not mean they do not exist. This begs the question, which presentation is in fact more accurate. For us to comprehend all sides of a 3 dimensional object simultaneously requires an understanding of the malleability of space/ time on the work surface. Space is able to be bent, fractured, reassembled etc, as is time. In synthetic cubism we saw the development of collage. The process of adding and layering on top.This is an important break from the tradition of pushing space back into the surface, it begins to become cumulative and pushes forward. Here we begin to see the malleability of space.

Cezanne

Cezanne

Picasso

Picasso

Braque

Braque

Braque

Picasso