Marcus Duchen
It is known that the visual arts, like music, have the power to dispense with speech and reason. Although we have an enormous legacy left by modernity, even today few artists dare to face this aspect head-on. End of the path left by the branch of modern art which, passing through Tachism and Lyrical Abstraction, culminated in Abstract Expressionism. If on the one hand the belief that there are no paths to follow and the decreed death of painting opened us to an infinite range of poetics and concepts, on the other it revealed to us at its limit, in the immense void, a fundamental silence. This seems to me to be the silence in Marcus Duchen's paintings. The devastating silence. Silence that tears down buildings, undoes certainties, crushes reason.
How would you describe/define yourself?
A full-time student for the clarification of a poetics.
When and why did you decide to choose painting designing as a career?
I started drawing very early, still in childhood.
I graduated in arts early. So I didn't have the perception of seeing this as a career", it was just a continuation of my own existence.
What according to you is a favorite part of being a Paint Artist?
I actually never thought about having preferences as an artist. I believe that we have the possibility of reinterpreting our impressions through an expression, which happens to be painting. But it could be any other activity.
Inspiration does not exist. The work is a long and sincere observation of passages in life. Some have the patience to mean it, others don't. I see inspiration as perhaps an extra motivation to continue working. I have no emotional motivation to paint. Painting is a daily chore.
I honestly don't have any kind of "muse.
What inspires you as an Artist? How do you visualize your muses?
I am inspired by the surrounding world, emotions, interpersonal relationships, ancient cultures, microbiological relationships, cells, I leave a link in each work.
What’s your signature painting element? And why?
I make a simple observation every day of what I want to say. I like images that can be summarized and concise.
If I could summarize what I paint, it would be fragments of landscapes with personal aspects. You could say that they are self-portraits transformed into landscapes. A look as if someone were waiting for an immobile object to come alive with some kind of life.
The painting you created are best without any doubt, but who and which things were your inspiration while creating such painting?
Thanks.
I have diverse influences, in all fields.
My background is Architecture, Visual Arts and Art History.
I study philosophers, painters, writers and anyone who has a real possibility of expression.
I like painters like Antoni Tápies...a hero like
Fyodor Dostoevsky... a being like Woody Allen... and ridiculous figures too... like the political panorama, for example.
All of this, of course, does not objectively interfere with the appearance of a work, but it is fun to observe the somewhat tormented way in which things work. Somehow this establishes a process. The fun part is that you don't have to openly say what you think literally. The painting then turns into an amusement park, with hidden and somewhat ridiculous characters.
What’s the best piece of artistic advice you’ve heard? And do you follow it?
That's an interesting question...I've never been given advice.
The vast majority of academic training comes from people who pretend they know more than others. In a way it is part of "academic theater, but there is a hidden importance there. This importance emerges in the activation of interest in subjects that neither the academy nor you know about. Then certain unknown areas emerge for me and for the rest of the academy This would be the main content of the themes treated in painting... sculpture or whatever form of expression was chosen.
As we all know job of a painter is very tough. So how do you keep your mental and physical health fit?
Laughter...
I maintain my physical shape with beer, fast food... and Italian food, of course, never forgetting to drink water as soon as I wake up and wine as soon as I go to bed.
I don't even know if my mental form is being administered..._I don't think so...
But we will always believe in some being from another dimension that will help us in everything that we did not have the competence to take care of that which is mandatory for us...
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in their career and hoping to make it big as a Paint Artist?
Study hard and go to another area.
To whom would you like to give credits of your journey till now?
The credit is all mine.Just thank the sfumato gallery for their immense affection for their effort in exhibiting artists who don't always have some form of exposure. Your service is very important and very well done.
I remain here at your disposal for any type of clarification.
A big hug to everyone and faith in the future.
Deep peace.