Is a new movement in painting still possible in the 21st century ?
« No » we were told on various occasions of debate.
And yet…
The CONJONCTION movement does exist ! It carries on and completes
the global history of Painting : this advanced painting has been worked out in two stages : first, the « supra-naive figuration » in 2005 which applied the principle of
« passage » ( given up in painting since the time of « supports-surfaces ») to figuration.
Then, in 2007, the concepts of this movement extended and the notion of passage became more complex . This second stage in our assertions brought us to change the name of the movement, now called
: « CONJONCTION ».
CONJONCTION is a MOVEMENT and not the mere pictorial operating
process of two painters stating the same concepts with their own sensibility and personality. It’s a movement in so far as it opens new ways to painting and offers its reflections to other
painters ready to take part in them. Some have begun to work at it.
Who are we
?
Two artists living and working in Bordeaux.
Georges Koutsandréou born on 7 July 1951 : he has painted since he was 17 years old.
Martina Charbonnel born on 24 October 1952 : she has painted since she was 25 years old.
Painting is our vocation. Our creation has always been founded on research and invention, that the history of painting may live and progress.
Martina Charbonnel 208 cible concentrique 8 100x100
In 2008, Georges Koutsandréou brought in a new concept in his painting : the double direction target . This concept is in line with the « Conjonction » movement and gives it further precision.
It’s one of the possible developments of CONJONCTION which Martina Charbonnel has not reproduced however in her own painting .
To understand clearly what follows let us remember that the « CONJONCTION » movement expresses a double passage of the humanoïd figure in two dimensions only.
There’s a first passage when the « figure », as Barnett Newman used to say about his zips : « declares space without sharing it, » as if it passed over the canvas, with a deformation due to the speed of the passage. This first phase of the Movement was expressed by the « figuration supra-naïve » manifest of December 21st, 2004 .
In 2007, the movement was called : « conjonction » from the moment when the « figure » could get into the target ( representing the tunnel effect in two dimensions only ) and also pass through the canvas.
Georges Koutsandréou has now gone further with the concept by adding the notion of « return » thanks to the introduction of a kind of Möbius tape at the target centre :
« As the target represents the tunnel effect in two dimensions to go to the other side, the question is how to come back… Therefore the target centre is changed into an epicentre represented by a « Möbius » tape, slightly twisted or united with a thread, in two dimensions ( with no perspective) : So when our look moves along the epicentre it goes all around it, for a time behind the painting ( between painting and the canvas itself ), then naturally returning along the same side of the tape.
Thus our look goes behind the painting and back in relation to the figure implied in the conjunction of the passages over and through the canvas. »
Perpendicular conjunction of the passages :
We assert that the passage of the figure over the rectangular format is in a perpendicular conjunction with the other passage through the canvas ( in two dimensions) by the target symbolizing a tunnel effect.
At the start of 2005, we published the first assertions of Supranaive Figuration with Internet. Two years later (April 2007), the movement entered a second phase, adding a new concept to the previous ones.
We firstly asserted : While “ declaring” space, the passage of the figure over the rectangular format expresses a third dimension without using perspective.
To the first passage of the figure, we have added a second one by means of a target with tunnel effect.
To understand this new concept requires that we call to mind Kenneth Noland ‘s targets, implying the idea of passage by tunnel effect, i.e: a passage through the canvas towards “another universe” ( conceptually speaking and in scientific anticipation).
Scientists would demonstrate the tunnel effect with the spiral example. A target is a pictorial representation
of a spiral in only two dimensions; It is a way to express depth without the help of perspective.
Supranaive Figuration applies this concept to figuration.
In both pictorial processes we newly express the passage of the figure into “another universe” by means of the tunnel effect target from where the figure is passing “through” the canvas.
In Georges Koutsandréou‘ s new painting tunnel effect targets are oval . The rotating speed of
the tunnel is increased by irregular ellipsoïdal rings...
In Martina Charbonnel’s new artworks, tunnel effect targets are rectangular. Her recent paintings represent a detail of the center of target. A difference of colours between the epicentre and the sides of the centre shows various consistencies of the tunnel walls.
In both cases, there is a perpendicular conjunction of the figural passage over the format with the passage inside the format, through the canvas, so to say, by the tunnel effect target.
That perpendicular CONJUCTION over and through the rectangular format is a fundamantal assertion, which has never been applied to painting, not even abstract painting...
april 2007
In october 2007 Supranaive figuration became CONJONCTION