DAN RAMIREZ

Like much of my work in the early eighties this series of paintings is a continuation of the images that developed out of my interest in Wittgenstein (limits of language), metaphor, and the French composer Olivier Messiaen(music, spiritual contemplation). 

As I began to move away from the trapezoid shape I began to explore the possibilities of combining graph systems (in this case sheet music) to produce a metaphor that could elucidate and embody from an ontological standpoint, the emotional and intellectual process involved in creating a painting. 

These panels are an eclectic approach that use the staff ledger lines from music notation, a reproduction of two earlier paintings (Contemplation of the Father,1978 and TL-P 6.421, 1976-77), the transition of a vertical element (black bar) appropriated from the 1978 painting, and linear components that attempt to connect the various transitions in space along with the metamorphosis in scale that takes place from panel to panel.

The primary title of the Five panel painting (Contemplation of the Father) is borrowed from the title of the first contemplation of the piano compositions entitled “Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus” composed by Olivier Messiaen. Each panel also has a separate title indicating the various modes of the attempt to create a visual metaphor for the transitions that takes place.

TC1: Variation #1 - Contemplation of the Father

1985-4 Olivier Messiaen Variation