Glenn Ligon - Post America

Tuesday Night Lectures At The Modern featured a discussion with Glenn Ligon and curator Scott Rothkopf on February 7th. The talk was a great introduction to and preview of Ligon's upcoming exhibit at The Modern in Fort Worth, "AMERICA" which runs February 12 through June 3, 2012.

Viewing Ligon's paintings online is as unjust to the work as trying to understand Rothko's work in that manner. What looks like very minimal surfaces with text worked into the composition are, in fact, beautiful paintings with wonderful brushwork. But beyond the obvious truth that to understand a painting you must "stand under a painting," the takeaways for me from the discussion were as follows:

Ligon's comment about why he focused his paintings in text based work was that, "though I had a facility for painting I knew there had to be more thought involved. The work had to be more about ideas...."

For Ligon those ideas have been about politics, race relations, sexuality and looking beyond the current mindset attributed to these topics toward a point in time, if not the present, where such notions no longer produce tension or worse, violence. It should be so for all of us.

In relation to my own art this reminds me that my thoughts and themes should always be focused on ideas of what matters. That is, what really matters... for eternity. The paintings, sculptures and digital files will fade away. The reason for their creation and the impact that they make are the only lasting reality associated with them. And even those have a limited lifespan if not dedicated to the same purpose for which I was created.

As to the second takeaway from Ligon's lecture, during the Q&A a question was asked about a phrase coined by Ligon which refers to the hope of having moved passed such labels. That phrase was "post-black."

I shall nest my thoughts about his meaning in this regard with references to a book I had, until recently, long meant to read but neglected. That book by C. S. Lewis is
Mere Christianity. Within the argument concerning the existence of God and the question of evolution, Lewis sides not only on the belief in God's existence, but unlike many Christian writers on the side of evolution as a matter of fact as well. The interesting element in this is that when touching on the question of man's next evolutionary step, Lewis made his opinion quite clear. "It has already occurred. It occurred two thousand years ago." But, unlike the expected physical mutations involving bigger brains or what have you, the change was on a spiritual level and unlike any previous evolutionary jump which typically was passed on from parent to offspring is instead, purely voluntary. This change, which starts with the individuals choice to bow their will to the indwelling of The Creator God and continues into the afterlife, whatever that may be, results in creatures in this world and beyond that I would dare emulate Ligon in referring to as...
POST-HUMAN. May it be so for us all.