The Amazing and Chaotic Miracle of Life Art Essay Example

"The Chiefest of Ten Thousand" by Celeste Dupuy-Spencer is not only one of the latest, most fashionable and enigmatic art 'best sellers', equally enjoyed by the specialists and the general public. It is also a quest of one artist for her self-identity through looking closely, critically and sometimes ironically at its national, religious, cultural, and sexual facets. This journey is very personal, even intimate at times, and the visitor feels flattered to be let into the sancta sanctorum of Dupuy-Spencer's inner world. Yet, at the same time, it is also a large-scale space odyssey aiming at finding a global perspective and pinning down what it means to be American, and, even more widely, what it means to be human. This productive tension between the personal and the universal, the mundane and the spiritual, the tenderness and the irony is, probably, what makes Dupuy-Spencer's work so magnetic and sought-after.

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The flow of the installation is not, in fact, a flow, but rather a waterfall of colors, meanings, and emotions, a violent storm of clearly articulated ideas and indistinct moods, slightly smoothed and mitigated by the general atmosphere of the gallery. The gallery itself is a peaceful and thoroughly inviting space: from the ivy-covered entrance where the visitor is overwhelmed by the fairy-tale atmosphere of the place to the ultimate cleanliness of the white walls and the welcoming warmth of the woodwork. The installation with its riot of color breaks into the peace and quiet of the whitewashed walls like a gust of strong wind bringing along both fascination and anxiety. The rich variety of formats, materials, and colors reflects the intimidating inexhaustibility of the subject. Though, the paintings and the drawings seem to be hung at random, this is only an illusion. They are all united by the artist's bold and unequivocal statement: "I'm an American painter. I make paintings about America" (as cited in Wappler, 2018). Mimicking the motley mosaic of American history, culture, and society, Dupuy-Spencer aligns pictures dealing with religion, love, friendship and sex.

Yet, all of these topics are presented as seen through the personal and very intimate lens of the artist: one of the first pictures of the whole installation to be seen by the visitor is "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)" which shows two women engaged in a cunnilingus in cozy, messy surroundings. Thus, the very first thing that Dupuy-Spencer does when introducing her art to the visitor is laying bare her most vulnerable spot - the intimacy, the passion, and the tenderness of her relationship. At the Nino Mier Gallery, "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)" is hung next to another emotional picture, "Don't Lose Your Lover," with which it can be seen to form a unique synergy. "Don't Lose Your Lover" is a visual narrative about a couple fully engulfed by their feeling, so lost in their kiss that the wildfire from which all animals fly in despair and horror does not stop them. Both pictures, no matter how different they are, are telling a love story - one of them on a very personal level and another one in a cosmic metaphoric context. In such a way, Dupuy-Spencer speaks about her most intimate feelings, choosing honesty as a definitive key to any future interpretation. Nino Mier recollects his first visit to Dupuy-Spencer's studio in 2015, saying "There was a real sense of honesty to her work that I responded to" (as cited in Wappler, 2018). This artistic honesty is the binding force behind the installation which turns it into a journey into the mind and the soul of Dupuy-Spencer, but also into the mind and the soul of the viewer.

The style of Dupuy-Spencer's work is as hard to define as the message behind it. Nancy Kay Turner from Riot Material points to the two key influences that have shaped "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)," the abstractionist painter Amy Sillman and the figurative painter Nicole Eisenman with whom the painter studied at Bard College: "her work reflects the influence of Eisenmen's content as well as Sillman's painterly gesture" (Turner). "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)" clearly alludes to Eisenman's "It Is So" in the way it portrays two women making love in a messy, homey room full of scattered personal possessions. Yet, Dupuy-Spencer continues Eisenman's exploration of the topic adding new details that modify the range of possible interpretations, one of the main among them being the skull that is lurking wrapped in some clothes at the very bottom of the picture. A skull is an eternal memento mori symbol. It disrupts the idyllic homey mess of the interior. The overturned glass on the floor, the folds of the carpet, the sliced apple, the cats engaged in their feline pursuits set the picture into motion. The viewer almost expects the painting to start moving. All the details in the picture are manifestations of daily life, mundane, fleeting, finite. The skull is the only motionless spot in the picture staring at the viewer with certain irony and malice. And yet, even this somber and sinister witness is covered by an ordinary piece of clothes which one of the women threw away in the surge of passion: the skull has been conquered by the power of the moment, of life in its spontaneity and immediacy. "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)" is a hymn to life and the skull is only necessary to make it heard.

Conclusion

Margaret Wappler offers an inspired and ingenious characteristic of Dupuy-Spencer's installation in her review for ELLE: "Infused throughout each work is the artist herself, searching for personal connection during a time of social and cultural upheaval" (Wappler). The artist has certainly found this connection with me through her honest search for identity conducted with honesty and imagination on the canvas of "The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2)." This picture is simultaneously intimate and ironic, rhizomatic and focused, provocative and philosophic. It is as motley, chaotic and yet full of meaning as the life itself.

References

Dupuy-Spencer, C. (2018). The Chiefest of Ten Thousand (Sarah 2) [Painting]. The Chiefest of Ten Thousand, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles.

Turner, N. K. (2018, October 10). Celeste Dupuy-Spencer's The Chiefest Of Ten Thousand - Riot Material. Retrieved October 37, 2018, from https://www.riotmaterial.com/celeste-dupuy-spencers-chiefest-of-ten-thousand/

Wappler, M. (2018, September 10). Celeste Dupuy-Spencer's Art Is a Reflection of Her America. ELLE. Retrieved October 27, 2018, from https://www.elle.com/culture/art-design/a23067048/celeste-dupuy-spencer-art-america-exhibit-nino-mier/