What You See, Unseen

26
f
Materiality
nography and urban life. Fitzpatrick’s passionate
work embraces nostalgia for the bygone era of
mid-twentieth century blue-collar experience: of
fistfights and going to the races, dice games and
carnivals, of pretty women and romantic love.
In all these types of painting, the minimalism of
Martin, the expressionism of Brown and the fetishism
of Fitzpatrick, materiality is the single most
important component to consider. It is the material
form of the work that provides the means by
which ideas are embodied. What and how the work
is made are the fundamental considerations in
understanding contemporary art’s effect. This is
true irregardless of content or style. Materiality has
primacy over and informs all other methodological
considerations.
12. Derek Whitehead. The Artist’s
Labor. Contemporary Aesthetics,
Vol. 5, 2007.\
d. Agnes Martin, White Flower, oil on
canvas, 71 7/8” x 72”, 1960.
e. Cecily Brown, The Fugitive Kind, oil
on linen, 229 cm x 190.5 cm, 2000
f. Tony Fitzpatrick, The Other Sister,
mixed media, 10” x 13”, 2005