Response to Machiavelli 2003-2005
This series of paintings highlights the role that morality does (or does not) play in our political discourse. Machiavelli proposed in his book, The Prince, that the “ends justify the means;” this series of paintings responds to that premise, offering a moral perspective on political issues. The paintings are based in the words of some of history’s greatest social and political philosophers, including Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mencius, Meister Eckhart, Baal Shem Tov, the Sufi masters of Islam and many others.
After reading about these issues, I use both figurative and abstract images to explore them in paint. Broken and slatted wood supports (metaphor, perhaps, for the abysmal state of politics today?) are contrasted with beautiful color, mysterious glyphs and the almost cartoon-like representation of a populace that is strangled by the pretensions and emotional immaturity of its leadership.
The Response to Machiavelli figurative works explore the real political energy behind the advertisements, slick language and demagoguing B.S. As Clausewitz noted, politics is war by another name, and Machiavelli, more than our fevered dreams of “getting along” or “finding a middle,” defines politics from the beginning of human time, until today. Click on the image to see a set of the figurative pieces.
The Response to Machiavelli abstrac works explore the potential, thus far mostly unrealized, for politics to play a positive role in the lives of members of the whole polis, instead of simply bought by and run for the wealthiest, who are able to game the system with massive donations to politicians and their parties. Click on the image to see the abstract possibility of a politics that works for all people!