Joseph Cohen

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A lover of the arts at an early age, Joseph Cohen has worked tirelessly to examine, and express the human condition. With a background in both philosophy and art, Joseph has been fortunate enough to be mentored by leading figures in both disciplines. Studies in philosophy have allowed Joseph to work closely with the late Dr. Robert Solomon, and Dr. Robert Neimeyer. His travels around the world led him to the founder of the COBRA group, the late Karel Appel, who would become Joseph’s first mentor. Departing from Appel’s manners of abstraction, while continuing to embrace his forceful directness, Joseph’s evolution led him to Concrete Painting. Joseph’s constant dialogue and close relationship with the current leader of the Concrete Painting Movement, Joseph Marioni, has allowed him to forge a new path for Concrete Painting. Currently, the artist is preparing for the Martignano International Residency for Artists in Southern Italy at the beginning of 2011, where he will be making work on-site for three museum exhibitions.

The “Propositions” that I offer are philosophical inquiries into both the nature of painting and human perception. This systematic development of titling my works was partly influenced from my studies of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s application of the Geometrical Method of philosophy in which propositions and axioms are used to present philosophical truth. Aligned with the Concrete Painting Movement, I employ the tenets that state a painting should be autonomous, and that a pictorial element has no other significance than “itself” and therefore the picture has no other significance than “itself.” Concrete paintings do not attempt to represent nor abstract from anything in this world, and are directly paintings about paint’s ability to exist as color and physical matter. Mining the rich history of painting, I scrutinize every characteristic and property of paint. The founders of the Concrete Movement along with contemporary concrete painters such as Robert Ryman and Joseph Marioni inform my paintings. Whereas their emphasis resides predominantly on surface, support, and the chromatic nature of paint, my paintings explore new possibilities of the medium by means of the paint serving as surface and/or support while also addressing the physical body of the medium in an attempt to add to the conversation of art.

My materials are found objects and it is precisely the act of reclamation that crystallizes their permutations. Operating within the context of contemporary time, my materials cannot help but comment on their relationship of existence with what is now being referred to as the “Green Movement.” By reclaiming “oops paint” (paint returned to home improvement stores) to serve as my “found palette,” I am able to employ a gamut of hues and finishes initially procured for their ability to enhance interior and exterior spaces. Utilizing the physicality of the medium, I paint hundreds upon hundreds of layers, which shifts the aboutness of the work to focus more on the physical nature of the medium rather than the chromatic nature. The last paint I apply is a constant ultra-pure white because white light is the confluence of the entire spectrum and thus dissolves any hierarchy that may exist if an isolated color were to be the last layer applied. I invert mediums in my “Propositions,” and use decorative paint for its physicality, not its color. I utilize commercial and exotic-woods as supports which I invert as well. Hardwood flooring is painted in a vertical orientation contrasting with plywood and/or paneling which I paint horizontally raised from the floor.

Paint is used as both a sensual viscous matter that can flow, drip, and carry a brushstroke’s gesture, yet it is also used mechanically, geometrically, and at times governed by the laws of gravity. Of great importance is the act of embracing the human hand and the physical activity of painting. Like Jonathan Lasker, I am deeply involved with the textures of a medium capable of universalizing so much lost intimacy. I am enthralled by the myriad conversations that can be created with the painterly act of sedimentation and the topography that results as a historical record. My process is akin to an odyssey, expounding on an incessant engagement with paint, support, and the production of new surfaces. Suggesting a relationship to sculpture, the work affords the viewer numerous perspectives that, if examined, develop one’s initial perception. The operative nature of our fast paced society brings about a barrage of visual imagery that competes for our attention and in turn produces a numbing effect. My work calls for a slowing down, thus allowing a respite in which one may contemplate.