Materiality, - I think the penny dropped! + Review of Pierre Bonnard

An excellent one to one tutorial time with Prof. Swindell today, in which I think, I'm beginning to understand the some of the notions of materiality....  So far through my degree, I've always been thinking in terms of the materiality of the object that I'm trying to represent, the primary source if you like.  What happened today was that a kind of epiphany occurred in my thinking, which thanks to Prof. Swindell's guidance, helped me to realise that the materiality lay in the complex combination of the medium itself, together with the substrate onto which the medium is applied.  Materiality is also concerned with the feelings that a painting (or artwork) can induce, and it is here especially that it is linked with phenomenology, which is about the whole of our senses as human beings. "

According to Stanford Encyclopoedia of Philosophy; 

"Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object."  (16 Nov 2003).  plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ (Retreived 14/03/2015).

A classic example of an exploration of materiality therefore might be the work of Augsberg perhaps?It was also suggested that I look to the works of Pierre Bonnard, and so the following is a brief review and a personal aide memoir.

His works sit closely to Edouard Vuillard's.  They actually shared a studio area through 1890 and in their earlier friend-ship they formed the 'Nabis' group. (Nabis is a hebrew word, meaning teachers or Prophets).

Pierre Bonnard - Self Portrait, (circa 1889), tempera on canvas, private collection,
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bonnard#mediaviewer/File:Bonnard74.JPG on 3/3/2015

Pierre Bonnard’s paintings are sometimes described as emanating luminous qualities. This may have been propagated by his short stay with Gauguin in Pont Aven, in the south of France, early on in his career,  where his study of light and its effects upon colour, could well have been influenced by the brightness of the Sun in that hot, mediterranean environment.  There does appear to be a very colourful use of light and his painterly approach does give some warmth to almost all his works which I find very appealing.   An  excellent reference is to be found by Denise Sutton, Encyclopedia Britannica at  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/73136/Pierre-Bonnard - (retrieved 06/03/2015)

Pierre Bonnard, Nude Against the Light,
c. 1908 Oil on canvas.
 Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Bonnard's father originally had designs on his son becoming a Lawyer like himself. Indeed, he complied with his Father's wishes after leaving first school and studied law in Paris.  However, during this time he also developed a love of painting and also enrolled in night school classes to pursue this, as a serious past-time when not studying law.  He developed his artistic capabilities to such extent that he won a competition, which was to design a poster for a brand of France-champagne an this naturally lead him to pursue his artistic calling rather than that of a lawyer.

After meeting a number of his contemporaries at art school, including Edouard Vuillard, they all seemed to share a love of Gauguin, together with the works of Cezanne.  This common interest allowed them to develop a strong bond, which appeared to remain with them, - especially between Bonnard and Vuillard, for the rest of their lives.

"Drawing is feeling, colour, an act of reason" were his own words to describe light and form emerge from the play of colour masses, without the assistance of values or shadows.  It is from statements such as these, that directly links these paintings to Materiality and Phenomenology, as described an cited at the beginning of this blog edition.

Further references to Pierre Bonnard can be found at;
http://www.oil-painting-techniques.com/analysis-pierre-bonnard.html, Retrieved 06/03/2015