Unimaginable Happenings: Material Movements in the Plane of Composition

This essay is from the book Deleuze and Contemporary Art which looks at Deleuzian philosophy through the eyes of artists, art critics and theorists, this particular essay is by Barbara Bolt, an Australian artist and author.

The essay (broken into three parts) looks at the Deleuzian idea of a plane of composition and what that means (for Bolt). Then how the plane of materiality invades the plane of composition, which leads into how an image emerges into a different reality, that of sensation. Bolt believes that this produces something more true to life, that by undoing ‘the image’ you come upon something closer to presence and truth.

I chose this particular essay as an attempt to understand Deleuzian ideas at a more grass roots level and in particular from a painter’s point of view. I think this both helped and hindered my understanding of Deleuze. In particular, what I think is useful is the notion of co- emergence and how this is beautifully described by another artists quote within the text from Matisse;

‘There is an impelling proportion of tones that may lead me to change the shape of a figure or to transform my composition. Until I have achieved this proportion in all the parts of a composition I strive towards it and keep on working. Then a moment comes when all the parts have found their definite relationships, and from then on it would be impossible for me to add a stroke to my picture without having to repaint it entirely.’

Although Bolt is using this passage to show the artist throwing a net over chaos to find balance, it also talks of the process of emergence and helps describe the openness of working, while not knowing what the outcome will be until it is arrived upon and simultaneously risking destruction. Roland Barthes talks about this idea in relation to Cy Twombly’s work;

‘The essence of an object has some relation with its destruction: not necessarily what remains after it has been used up, but what is thrown away as being of no use.’

I think Twombly (like Bolt) tries to show materials in their raw state, as materials alone without the weight of meaning associated with them, the elements being, the scratch, the stain and the energy being thrown into space. The ‘surplus’ of these elements emerges into something just revealing itself, forming into a particular quality unique to that particular set of circumstances. This quality and unique internal rationale is for me why some paintings seem alive and interesting.

Bibliography

Barthes, Roland. The Responsibility of Forms. Trans. Richard Howell. London, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Bolt, Barbara. Unimaginable Happenings: Material Movements in the Plane of Composition. Bolt, Barbara. Deluze and Contemporary Art. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. p. 266 - 285.