ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Mark Kurdziel

Mark Kurdziel is an artist based in Jersey City using oil paint and distemper. His work is a combination of plastic pictorial ideas and personal poetic concerns. He is an Adjunct Professor at The Fashion Institute of Technology where he teaches painting and drawing.  He has been showing his work in New York, Jersey City and South Korea.

RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself... how does it change, and how did it change us?

Mark Kurdziel: Certainly popular music, in my life time, has changed how the world behaves and concepts of good and evil. I am not sure at this time in history painting has that power of persuasion. The form of painting changes. At one point it changed every few years. Did the world change when Abstract Expressionism was replaced by Pop Art? Perhaps a little.

RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?

Mark: As a teenager it became clear that a normal working life did not appeal to me. I dabbled poorly in music and found a home in the Art Class. In College, inspiring painting teachers who defined a life style made me realize this is for me.

RAP: What role does art play today? What are the "great figures" who have recently changed it? Do you feel close to any of these figures?

Mark: People seem to like Art. The Art fairs and sometimes the Galleries are crowded with people who mostly want a day out. Unfortunately Art Fairs are not for contemplation and I am not sure the percentage of Gallery hoppers take a close look. Big Museum shows pack them in. I do not know any great figures today but that could be me.

RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today's art and society interaction model?

Mark: People collect and I have been fortunate to have some very appreciated collectors. They do fill up with your work and you have to be fortunate enough to find more. Not so easy. In South Korea many people consider themselves collectors. There are plenty of Patrons of the Arts, I am not sure if that applies to individual Artists at this time or they just donate to Institutions. Muses always exists, at least for me they have. Life itself is the most amazing Muse.

RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it...? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?

Mark: People are mostly looking at paintings on their phone. I was just informed by my web designer that my old website does not scroll like Instagram. This apparently is a negative.... Until Instagram is replaced by something. Is it the same experience looking at a 7 foot painting in person or on the phone? I do not make my paintings to be viewed on a phone. Media culture is looking for something exciting and immediate. Painting takes a few minutes of attention span trying to absorb something.

RAP: Art as a mirror of man, in this moment of emergency seems to be shattered ...what do these fragments reflect now?... Shadow or light of the moment?

Mark: It is very hard to be optimistic this moment.

RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the work of art; which is the right path when we are in front of a piece of art?

Mark: I think that with anything or anyone it is important to suspend judgement. Let it breath and see what your reaction is before you go to town on it.

RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?

Mark: I think Academies and Art Schools give an Artist a place to relax and develop. If they are lucky they might learn something. What to learn is also the burden of the student as there are so many modes of education. There are so many teachers with different educations. Modernist, Post Modernist, Conceptual, Traditional, Avant Garde.

RAP: Art too has undergone a complex process of globalization; can having an authentic and genuine style be an advantage or a drag for an artist?

Mark: I think one has to be able to hold the wall in a sea of loud images. I find being personal, authentic and genuine is the only way for me to proceed and some respond to it. Most artist have their thumb print. Figurative work seems more excepted these days.

RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?

Mark: This is not something I know. I would love to see the return of the middle class art Galleries in New York and a reduced importance of Art Fairs and website Galleries.

RAP: "Figuration" vs "Abstraction": which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?

Mark: I grew up as an Artist when this was an actual issue with painters really not liking the others choice of form. Many of the older painters I knew studied with Hoffman or Albers and wanted to be figure painters. Consequently the work was vey interesting albeit a bit schizophrenic. I have always enjoyed living in that Artistic schizophrenia. Who knows what will dominate. Probably neither. A better description of the period we live in??? We might have to resurrect Hieronymus Bosch.

RAP: Today we often speak of "emerging artists"; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?

Mark: My advice would be to understand the depth of the form. Learn how to play your instrument at a high level as you try to figure out subject matter. The beauty is in the notes, pictorial space and color vibration that all have multiple functions and add up to the subject matter. The dynamics and culture of serious picture making is a privilege of a journey.

RAP: RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? ...will art save us?

Mark: I find it hard to believe Art will save us. Painting does not have the amplification to compete. Its only power is to connect to human thoughts and emotions and maybe create a better space for a moment. Maybe it can save a person.

www.markkurdziel.com