Beauty in Art:
Fine artists are turn to silk painting as a discipline that entertains a character with a unique niche in the world of fine art. Silk painting remains an area where the creators pursue beauty tirelessly, typically without the "Pink Hair" mentality of the fine art academy. There are a few outstanding characteristics of silk to look for.
1.Painting on silk is like painting on a moving canvas.
2. Painting on silk is technically difficult, long plotting work
3. Painting on silk is less academically and market realized for fine art
purposes outside of antiquity sales and therefore the artists are less
influenced by immediate trends in fine art or converesely more temporal than not.
Silk media is a discipline that academics have not gotten at much. As an academic program, it is a hard sell. It is the art of the long-sufferer, the patience that tries artists souls. Few young people are willing to engage in it. It is ancient and simple, but the technique is complex, lengthy and magical. There is no western Ph. D. program in silk painting, yet. There was a man (a good family friend of mine, Arthur Loeb) who tried teaching it at Harvard University, but there were not enough students interested in taking the class. They would have preferred theory to the stringent discipline of patient action; and so he taught.
Where an action is belabored with great effort, there is esteem for spontaneity. Look for it in the work of your favorite artists. Proof of any skill is to make a hard thing look easy.
Unlike the Western formal academy of art, silk painters so far enjoy seldom any formal recognition or special letters behind their names for their extensive, specific training. Many of the Guild's members have Fine Art degrees, but as many do not. In China and the Far East in general, it is still possible to get a Ph.D. in Silk Painting. Because silk painters can be without the exterior impressions of the academy, silk painters are often free artists in a thematic and stylistic way. Commonly, their approach is undaunted by the sway of current theory, more imbued with aeons old, historic, philosophical and theological import. The personal experience of the medium is generally concentrated in Eastern locations and thought.
In terms of medium being the message, it is nearly impossible to divorce the experience of the medium from the composition, because the execution is so lengthy.
At this time, silk painting still seems to retain a special discrimination in the artworld. How many of us have put down our linseed oil and worked years to manipulate alcohol through thread and push dye with a wisp of the hand, only to be told "Oil painting, they're buying oil painting. The size of an oven door."
Silk painting can be as archival as any other painting save cave drawings and Aboriginal blown or spit pigment pictures. Its compositions have no limit. There is no technical discounting it against any other medium. It is a natural choice for the artist gainfully seeking the most beautiful ends to the creative process.
One thing may be said of the aesthetic of painting on silk against the contemporary art trends of the early 2000's: it hearkens backwards to the hand. The general trends are leaving handwork in favor of technology. Quirk and wit reign supreme over technical accountance. Silk paintings tend to express devotion to the physicality of producing masterful work.
Always ask for care instructions from the original artist.
A silk painting can be steamed or iron pressed free of fold lines. It can be dry cleaned if it does not have colored gutta on it. If it does have colored gutta on it, request care instructions from the artist. A silk without painting can be handwashed in cold water. A silk can be stored folded without the colors transfering onto other parts of the painting unless there is other media on the silk, which I will not address, here. E-mail particular concerns if need be.
A silk painting can be framed like any ordinary painting, but can be hung on dowels, as well. It can also move, turn, follow and direct the flow of humanity within existing architecture. Early in China, silk may have been hung in wide banners across the ceiling of a room, falling and rising as the flow of air was hoped to go. I don't know why that is not done more often, except that often, houses have ceilings that are too low for this. Silk also holds the artful backdrop to the religious ceremonies of many, hanging just flat against a wall.
If curators and archivists were to lay their needs on the table for easy handling of materials and excellence in managability, silk painting would win favor over canvas painting in a heartbeat on many points of comparison. Silk stores in an envelope, cleans in a drycleaner's garment bag, and stretches to frame with grace, ease, and is usually under forty ounces per painting even for large panel.
Some artists are deciding to adhere their silk painting to canvas. This is an odd adjustment that some galleries are requesting in order to "sell" a silk painting as if it were a canvas painting instead of a silk. Gluing the silk down cannot allow the same luminousity of the colors shining out of the thread. Glues change the presentation of color. It is easier to stretch the silk across stretchers, to create the same framable configuration as oil painting, with a simple liner underneath the silk against the bars, usually a piece of flannel, chamois, or velvet. I often use a part lycra fabric called peachskin, and that is usually black or violet, as the undertones do effect the overall painting, depending upon the weave of the silk.
I will write more when I have the time. TTFN ~must paint!
