From a cinematic perspective: An examination of new paintings
One of the predominant qualities inherent in Modernist literature is the way in which writers depict scenes from a cinematic point of view. It is as though they are describing the action, the sets, and the characters from the end of a camera lens. One is taken into the middle of action and given a glimpse of the scene. The focus may cut to an individual and then jump to an entire street view.
When viewing Peter Bradtke’s new paintings, I am reminded of the cinematic sensibility present in much of the Modernist novels and stories I have read. Though the artist’s works are not modernist, aesthetically, they do call up some Modernist philosophical points of reference. For example, when Faulkner moves from scene to scene in The Sound and the Fury, an unprepared reader may be left dumbfounded. However, Faulkner jumped from scene to scene immediately shifting the perspective and focus of a particular time and place. He brought us into the middle of action. Sometimes the author specifically focused on an individual or single moment; other times, he led us through seemingly disengaged scenarios in search of resolution. Bradtke, in his recent body of work, brings his viewer into the middle of a moment. Sometimes, we are given details of the set, hints of the action; other times, we are given only an instant, a single frame with specific details focusing entirely on the subject while everything else remains in the periphery. Bradtke says he tries to make what he refers to as “clear cuts, like one sees in Hitchcock films where the camera moves suddenly, in a rapid way, only if there was something special to capture. That changes the drama. Hitchcock did this in an economic way that resulted in an indirect twist. You don’t see it directly.”
In many ways, Bradtke’s philosophic and painterly principles are best exemplified in his painting No. 134, 1988. Because cinematic focus, proportion and effect are omnipresent elements in the artist’s subject matter, Bradtke’s portrayal of the subject peering intently through the reel of a film serves as an affirmation of not only his obsessive study of film stills as inspirations for his paintings, but also his exploration of light: not daylight, but night light. For Bradtke, nighttime and the light one finds shining at night are essential to his oeuvre.
The night color in No. 134, a color, which remains a constant throughout the body of new work, is the blue light. The artist’s palette is wide-ranging in most of the paintings, however, each is awash in a blue that reinforces the idea of nighttime. For Bradtke, blue calls up the color of night itself. He states: “Blue is one of my favorite colors. It’s not black and white like films made during the forties and fifties, but it’s not so much color either. I think the night is more blue for me than black and white.”
The overt sharpness of the figure’s face – partially hidden by the reel – and his crisp, penetrating eyes that gaze past the viewer imply tension, perhaps even fear. Whatever the psychological impact of the piece, one cannot help but notice the intensity with which the artist portrays his subject.
By implementing tight, carefully orchestrated brush strokes, Bradtke captures the front portion of the figure’s face illuminating his features for a moment as though he had just stepped into a ray of light. His hair is more loosely rendered, while the rest of his features gradiate into a haze.
The film reel through which the figure looks, though clear in form, does not mark its presence through distinctive detail. Instead, Bradtke clarifies the reel’s details through intimation by using loose, languid strokes to capture its ridged, metallic surface as light bounces off the edges.
In contrast to No. 134, which focuses specifically on its subject, No. 141, 1989, which is the right half of a diptych, focuses on the subject, a face in profile, within the context of an urban street.The profile is sharp in detail. It is as if the camera is right upon the face with the background becoming more and more diluted as it recedes into the distance. However, Bradtke gives us some detail with which to augment the setting.
The artist dominates his palette with his “night blue” as he paints night-lights into the scene. Prominently depicted in the near background is an almost neon looking automobile, all aglow with blue light of night and the reflection of nocturnal urban lights. Though the face in profile is the prominent subject, the car in the near background shares the subjective front seat – in terms of its particularly contrasting palette.Reminiscent of a film still, No. 141 reflects the artist’s interest in film staging and the specific placement of subject. “I know very exactly where I want figures (in my paintings). There is no sketching … yet there is still room for surprise”, he says. In No. 95, 1985, Bradtke’s precise placement of the figures within the frame reflects the artist’s cinematic perspective as he renders the piece from a vantage point above and to the side of the figures. Only a camera would normally “see” from this angle. The viewer is invited to view only – the artist does not put us in the scene. Instead he lets us observe the action as a camera would. Like a director moving actors around a set, Bradtke is deliberate about the angle of vision within the frame of his painting.
As the male figure in the foreground walks away from the reclining female figure, she is bathed in light. Conversely, the male is portrayed in a subtle shadow. It is the drama of contrast between light and dark with which Bradtke provokes his audience. Light and shadow dictate the mood and, coupled with the artist’s film-like point of view, enhance the prevailing sense of mystery that permeates each of the artist’s paintings.
Drama dominates the scene as Bradtke depicts a still life in No. 118, 1987. The artist’s portrayal of light and its reflection on the subjects in the painting tease the viewer as one is left to question the source of the light that shines on the telephone, the ashtray and the champagne glass. Bradtke also uses a vantage point one would expect to find only behind a camera lense. The planar table on which the subjects rest appears slightly off center, floating against two vertical planes that recede into space. The background planes offer a sense of passage as light carefully emerges from the point where the two planes meet within the frame.
The telephone in the foreground shines crisply at the top and center, but then becomes more loosely rendered as the eye moves down to the edge of the frame. The reflection of light in the champagne glass is captured in a loosely rendered fashion, which shows evidence of the artist’s hand. His brush strokes are clearly visible as he paints light into the glass, shadow into the tabletop, and intimates the presence of smoke and ashes around the cigarette that rests in the ashtray.
One is immediately aware of the presence of some person in No. 118, yet only the evidence of his or her presence remains. With the floating planes and uncertain light and shadow, Bradtke sets up the scene for a surprise entry or hurried exit.
With No. 118, as with most of his recent paintings, Bradtke’s dramatic subject matter and provocative painterly style keeps us on the edge of our seats, unsettled, as we wait for the next scene to alleviate our tension or shatter our nerves.
By Wade Wilson