Absurdity, as a concept…can transcend immediate frustration by asking the viewer to question, not only what they are seeing and feeling, but, more importantly, why they are questioning their awakened uneasiness. Hopefully, the dichotomy only increases when one is seduced by the richness of the painting’s surface and the enticing vividness of color…

Arnold Mesches, “Eternal Return.” Acrylic on paper collaged on canvas, 50 x 63 in. 2013.
© Arnold Mesches. Courtesy of the artist.

By combining unlikely juxtapositions, both in painting techniques and disparate imagery, I have tried to re-create the sense of utter instability and sheer insanity that I feel has so often permeated my years. Instead of, as in my salad days, veering toward the overt, I have, for some years now, found myself depicting our time with a sense of unreality bordering on the more unsettling absurd.

Absurdity, as a concept…can transcend immediate frustration by asking the viewer to question, not only what they are seeing and feeling, but, more importantly, why they are questioning their awakened uneasiness. Hopefully, the dichotomy only increases when one is seduced by the richness of the painting’s surface and the enticing vividness of color…

When one insists upon making social comments as their source material, the temptation is to express one’s anger, to vent the fury of one’s reaction to the apparent injustices and continued bloodletting. But, personal anger can be a lonely futility. It never involves others. The world is more complex than this kind of one-sidedness. Absurdity, as a concept, on the other hand, can transcend immediate frustration by asking the viewer to question, not only what they are seeing and feeling, but, more importantly, why they are questioning their awakened uneasiness. Hopefully, the dichotomy only increases when one is seduced by the richness of the painting’s surface and the enticing vividness of color; beauty as an art language to complement the darkness and humor. This is the core of my recent work.

—Arnold Mesches, Gainesville, December 2013

Arnold Mesches has been making and exhibiting paintings since 1945. A 60 year retrospective of his work ran at MDC Museum of Art and Design (Miami) in the Spring of 2013. Paintings from his most recent series, “Shock and Awe” (2011-2012), will be the subject of a solo show opening in April 2014 at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick. Mr. Mesches painting, “Coming Attraction” (2006), is now on view at LOMG’s “Painting Impossible.” (Thru 12/22.)

Editor’s Note:
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