Some kind of honesty

These quotations speak to an ideology which has been uttered, written, or mused in various forms by countless thinkers about all sorts of art forms for years. Artists like Braque and Picasso broke from traditional perspectival depictions and chose to reject the idea that art should copy nature to instead present multiple simultaneous perspectives in a way that understood and utilized the two-dimensionality of the canvas. In doing so, they were seeking to paint with a new kind of honesty. So too were the Realists through their documentarian approach and focus on “real” life; the Impressionists with their evocative colours and gestural strokes; the Automatists creating without conscious thought by accessing material from the unconscious mind; and the Minimalists, and the Expressionists, and of course, the artists of the high Renaissance and their revival of Platonic theory.

How do we tell the truth through art, and what even is truth? Is it scientific findings on the effects of light on the rods and cones of our retina, data informed applications of colour theory in Pointillism? Is it present in a photorealistic painting of a fruit with the beginnings of rot? Is it the careful rendering of light to evoke a specific feeling? Is it perfect two-point perspective and foreshortening? Is it a bicycle wheel attached to a stool? These varied works are gathered to think about the many modes through which we can be honest, and the many types of truths we value enough to spend the time to share with each other. As we rejoin our communities and remove our masks, it is useful to remember to be tender and careful and open.

Image: Spencer J. Harrison, “Does This Mean You Are Leaving”, “When Are You Coming Back”, & “Are You Ever Coming Back,”1990, acrylic on rag paper
Collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Purchased with the assistance of the AGP Volunteers Committee and the Ministry of Culture and Communications, 1991