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 Nathan Mullins

Nathan Mullins is a painter living in Mississippi and teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi.  His work is currently on view in The Beauty of Solitude, a solo show at Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, MD.  Nathan has been teaching and painting since graduating with an MFA from American University in 2015.

RAP: What is your definition of “art” today?

Nathan Mullins: Art is today the same that it has always been. We make objects or markings on surfaces that record our existence with the goal of transcendence.

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

Nathan: Art changes our physical brains through physiological responses to the visual field. Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew in San Luigi dei Francesi alters the viewer.

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

Nathan: I was always drawing, and I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me and provided opportunities for me to study art, for which I’ll always be grateful.

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?

Nathan: It’s impossible to truly see your own time in any objective way, but I’d place my bet on Kerry James Marshall. His show Mastry at the Met back in 2016-17 carried the same or similar physically altering weight that few other art experiences have for me. It was not unlike walking through Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

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

Nathan: Muses will always be there. The others listed, all part of the business side of things, will shift in importance as the world changes, but they’ll still all be there. We still need capital to operate, unfortunately.

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

Nathan: Instagram has for me been an imperfect step toward a kind of democratization of exposure. I’ve gotten shows and sold art through the tool: things that just would not have happened for me in the same way, living in the southern United States away from major art centers. My biggest challenges are securing an income and taking care of my health and the health of my family. If I can’t do that, I can’t make art.

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?

Nathan: In our pluralistic world, there may not seem to be the same sort of driving narrative for the work being made today as fifty years ago, but I don’t think that’s a shattering so much as a revelation that the mirror we were looking at was but one facet of a much more complex reflective surface, like a disco ball. I wake up every morning with a real amount of existential dread over the reemergence of fascism in world powers and the mass extinction event we’re experiencing, but I’ll continue to try to make paintings. Art will still show us both our faults and strengths.

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?

Nathan: Judging is the first thing you do when you come to a work of art. You walk into the gallery or museum and look around. One of the pieces says, “Come on over.” There. You’ve already judged the thing. The rest is just giving the work the time of day.

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

Nathan: Undergrad studies should reawaken the students’ understanding of the visual language they’ve been exposed to their whole life but haven’t been taught to read. It should financially support students seeing as much high-powered work as possible. Grad school is about building a community of peers who can push and support each other.

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?

Nathan: An authentic style isn’t just a thing you can go out and pick up. It’s found by making more art. Did Picasso ever have a style? He had periods during which he made similar marks, but looking at his oeuvre, it seems that “style” was a thing that was ever shifting for him. You can only ever try to make work that feels natural to yourself and hope for the best.

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

Nathan: Museums are the arbiters of “canon,” but the bottom line is always money. The pandemic has been a big blow to galleries, and we’ve seen all kinds of maneuvering to try to keep people engaged. Virtual shows are nice, but they’ll only ever be a weak balm. Galleries are about selling work: important for the artists. Museums should be spaces built around their communities, with a goal of enrichment.

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

Nathan: Figuration is abstraction. It’s not a dichotomy but is instead a spectrum. It’ll push this way or that. I’m seeing a lot of killer work from both ends of that spectrum these days.

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

Nathan: What’s the age cut-off on this definition? I’m sitting at 32, and I’m still trying to figure all this out. The only advice I can offer is to find that core group of artists who you can trust and confide in, whose work you respect. Keep them close. Support their work. Most of the work you make directly out of school is going to be bad. That’s okay.

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

Nathan: We’re machines that experience space and time, so when I walk out of San Marco in Florence as a physically different person because of Fra Angelico, art has modified my experience of space and time. Richard Serra’s spirals force this on you in real time. Bob Dylan gave up making protest songs when he realized that music wouldn’t change the world, but Jeff Tweedy said that “music is my savior.” Art can save individuals. It can’t save us from ourselves.

www.nathanmullins.com