Brainstorming about 3 painters

To write about Kitaj, Paula Rego and Basquiat as a group is becoming more and more relevant to my own approach to art in general and painting in particular. These three artists share a hidden profile with which I identify myself. All of them were outsiders (Kitaj retrospective p.9). The three of them developed a kind of subtext in their paintings, hiding messages that can be argued to be intentional or not with just the same intensity. The mind puzzle they build up for the observer has many consequences being the major ones an intimacy and authenticity that is extremely hard to overcome, a general feeling builds up from their work giving the careful observer the sense of a pursuit of identity in each canvas (Kitaj retrospective p.10).
The group of artists from the 20th century I just announced has a narrative and psychological depth that I believe is rare, but the most outstanding thing is that nothing is obvious, certain or random in those stories they create in their paintings.

Paula Rego – Portuguese – Slade – child abuse – Freud’s analysis of Leonardo’s memory – Forgiveness with a smile (general feeling) - Narrative – homesick (saudade) – Regret – Her mom – inside search – connection to literature – pastels – oil on canvas

R. B. Kitaj – American Jew – Royal College – death of his wives – Psychoanalysis (in Tate Liverpool) – texts and manifesto – pain and sadness with the depth of world literature –method while painting (timetable) – Puzzles to unfold his multilayered mind – Structure of the classic painters with the content of the books he reads and the feelings that he can’t deal with

J. M. Basquiat - American mix of many races – untutored (street art) – special child that couldn’t deal with the colour of his skin – Need to prove that he was a master – Critic with a smile – charades that tell the observer a story – aesthetics and ways of expressing psychological textures – subtext and the need to be talked about not just as a quick and intense light but as a genius.

Connections with Davinci and Psychoanalysis – Dumas (What do they mean by psychological paintings?

Psychology and Art – therapy, analysis, interpretation, historic power to change and influence the way sexual issues were dealt within art, unconscious messages, subtexts, archetypes (would I enjoy reading Yung?), Davinci, the role of the observer as an annalist, the artist mental health (“Klimt’s friend”, Van Gogh, Dali…)

POMO and the orgasmic painting