Contemporary Abstract Painting and Spiritual Experience: An Investigation Through Practice

This statement from James Elkins concerning the "buried spiritual content of modern and postmodern art" helps demonstrate the current relevance of this investigation and the need for further exploration into this area of experience. As this PhD is practice-based it is concerned not with the chronicling and interpretation of the spiritual content of past and present artists but rather with finding (through practice) methods for contemporary abstract painting to explore the now problematic area of the spiritual which do not rely on previous modernist models and can move forward within a largely secular culture taking into account what Elkins has elsewhere called "postmodern complications" (Elkins, J. 2004: 109).

The investigation is approached over 3 chapters. Before an outline of the reasoning behind them it is appropriate for a brief reflection on the problems that occurred in even framing the research title and the use of the term 'spiritual'. Numerous titles were considered but the problem was whether or how to use the word spiritual. It was concluded that for the purposes of this research a revised definition of the word spiritual is the most appropriate term to be used as this indicates a history and scope which many other terms simply cannot. What I came to understand was that my own anxiety over the use of this term reflected a larger concern - the 'problem' which many modem, western, highly secular cultures have with the term spiritual. It should be clear from this point that the problem of the spiritual exists primarily within these types of cultures where the secular co-exists with the spiritual. It is to this type of culture, where scientific advancement and reason have brought the religious worldview into question, that this investigation is targeted. Should the belief held by some within the scientific and secular community that ultimately reason and enlightenment will erode all religion, eventually be proven correct, then an investigation such as this will have an even wider purpose.

It should also be clear from this point that when using terms such as transcendental, numinous or sublime I do in fact mean spiritual. Inchapter 3 (section six) this investigation cautiously defines the spiritual as an encounter with a profound sense of 'meaningfulness' in the absence of a rational or conceptual framework with which to define this experience and it is important to bear this in mind throughout. Spirituality is not necessarily tied to religion although it may be encountered via this path but this is only one way of experiencing the spiritual. The psychologist and writer David Tacey provides another useful definition,

So although the spiritual can be separated from religion (as within this investigation) anyone attempting to raise the issue of the spiritual in a largely secular culture will still encounter difficulties. It would seem that the spiritual runs counter to a number of deep seated beliefs and assumptions of the secular mind and is viewed as incompatible with a materialist, rationalist and scientific/technological outlook. It may even be that when the idea of the spiritual is removed from an accompanying religious system it becomes more troublesome. At this point any sense of certainty is removed and one is forced to confront an experience rather than a set of established beliefs. This is borne out across a number of disciplines and returning to David Tacey working within the field of psychology, he has identified a problem he defines as a "spiritual complex" triggered by contact with the spiritual (in this case identified as the numinous)

There is no reason to assume the art world would be any different. Although there have been many differing theoretical interpretative systems for modem and postmodern art often these have been essentially materialist and unsympathetic to spiritual concerns. Just as David Tacey has pinpointed a "spiritual complex" which lies at the heart of secular culture, James Elkins has encountered something similar in the world of art. In 2009 he published a book called Re-enchantment which stemmed from a conference concerning religion and art. In it Elkins tells of his attempt to invite leading art world figures to the conference saying, So the size of the task becomes apparent. On the one hand secularists do not wish to hear of the spiritual, it has been passed beyond and is now either openly derided or ignored. On the other hand to the followers of organized religion any attempt to rework the concept of the spiritual is often seen as a direct challenge to their specific religious belief system. This is the difficulty of the task but there are many who do not fall in either of these camps but who quietly may recognize that spiritual experience may still be possible and desirable (even essential) within a secular, rationalist dominated culture. This is the "buried spiritual content of modem and postmodem art" and of our culture. In the coming pages it is argued that it is with a certain type of postmodem thought that gaps or opportunities begin to emerge for a renewed and reworked approach to spiritual dimensions which may allow for a less dismissive or reductive approach and this investigation will explore methods by which abstract painting can explore such a spiritual content in a contemporary context.