Well-respected painter Vincent Desiderio delivered to a packed room of students and visitors the fifth annual Eugene Leake Visiting Artist's Lecture, entitled "Aspects of Narrativity: Vincent Desiderio Paintings 1977-2006." Desiderio, who is one of the most prominent contemporary representational painters, discussed his influences and the development of his aesthetic. Desiderio is known for his massive representational paintings that explore notions of history, art history, aesthetics and the human condition. Desiderio was born in Philadelphia and studied at Haverford College and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Having received numerous awards and had works acquired by museums around the world, he currently teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
In his lecture, Desiderio explained his departure from his early influences, abstract expressionists like De Kooning and Gorky, and his entrance into the realm of "premodernism" This rejection of Modernism and embrace of its seeming opposite is, as Desiderio recognizes, more in tune with the postmodernists that thrived while he was developing as a artist during the 1970s and 1980s. One of Desiderio's goals in his postmodern creations is to achieve what he calls the "floating quality" that he sees as characteristic of Italian Renaissance art. Desiderio was quick to note that he does not believe he has achieved this quality in his career yet, except perhaps once or twice.
In the subsequent slide show of his paintings, Desiderio examined the stylistic and philosophic evolutions of his creations. In his early career, Desiderio created expressionistic works reminiscent of his early influences in Post-War American art, but then abruptly shifted directions to experiment with representionalism and a more a realistic style. Desiderio's motive, he explained, was less a concern with style than with content. Eventually, Desiderio became more and more intrigued with the artistic process, and technique became one of his chief concerns.
Desiderio's most interesting and identifiable works are his massive triptychs that display three seemingly disjointed and unrelated images. Desiderio described the logic behind such works: a quasi-Freudian notion about the importance of dreams and memory. These triptychs, Desiderio explained, show his concern for narrativity. For Desiderio, narrativity is not about telling a story in the traditional sense, but rather a series of images that create some cohesive idea, however opaque. Desiderio traced this method to its foundations in the history of art, aesthetic theory and psychoanalysis.
One's of Desiderio's most important influences is his son, who at a young age suffered from a stroke and now remains mentally and physically disabled. The paintings of his son are poignantly intense, as they capture the pain and love of both the subject and artist. Desiderio recalled the way his son's tragedy rid him of his cynicism and helped him to appreciate the value of life and, consequentially, art.
Desiderio art is continuing to develop positively, as evidenced by his brilliant Cockaigne, ameticulously rendered image about the excess of both our contemporary society in general and the art world in particular. Desiderio's creations contradict the erroneous proclamation that art is dead after modernism. It is very much alive.
