Jeff Wall, "A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)," 1993, Transparency in lightbox; (2290 x 3770 mm); Tate. Purchased with assistance from the Patrons of New Art through the Tate Gallery Foundation and from the National Art Collections Fund 1995.

BY TAYLOR HOBSON

In a post-modern age in which art of appropriation can seem bogged down by its own complacence in referencing the past, Jeff Wall’s scenes have the ability to make sometimes overt quotations from art history without sacrificing any sense of the artworks’ novelty or innovation.  Not all of his compositions directly reference the works of Old Masters, while other do so to varying degrees. But even the most obvious, like “A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)” from 1993, avoids mere pastiche by building toward the reference, never allowing it to escape the context of its own original composition.

Katsushika Hokusai, "Ejiri in Suruga Province (A Sudden Gust of Wind)," 19th century, (28.1 x 25.4 cm); coloured woodblock print

By maintaining this dominance of his own work over the historical reference, Wall has crafted a unique and organic work of art in which the allusion permeates the image, synthesizing rather than overshadowing.

Jeff Wall, "The Destroyed Room," 1978, Transparency in lightbox, 1590 x 2340 mm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

This talent for infusing Old Masters within his own novel space is most often noted in his works “The Destroyed Room,” based on Delacroix’s “The Death of Sardanapalus,” and “Picture for Women,” which recalls Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.” One might argue that the latter accomplishes the most direct conversation between old and new works, as the sparse decoration of the photograph’s environment helps to focus the viewer’s attention on the interactions of gazes and prominence of the mirror device- keys to the connection with Manet’s painting. Wall’s piece asks the viewer to consider specific aspects of the classic painting in a way that privileges more the discussion of the painting for the past century,  rather than the immediate reaction to Manet’s innovations. The perspective here is of the art historian, not the art collector.

Eugene Delacroix, "Death of Sardanapalus," 1827, oil on canvas, 392 x 496 cm, Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Wall produced his most important work in the 1980’s and 1990’s and is already the subject of several retrospectives, including one at MoMA in 2007. He stands out as occupying a unique space in the art world as a sort of present-day master, a bridge between the canonized modernists and the truly contemporary artists of this century.

His heavy use of allusions to the Old Masters and his prolific writings on art both old and new present Wall as a proponent of culture without firm chronological divisions. Wall’s writing has the gift of naturally invoking Renaissance and Impressionist artworks in a discussion of Dan Graham or On Kawara, as if centuries had not passed between them.

If Wall confined himself to traditional photography, he might not be able to claim such a place.  But these pictures contain a vibrancy that seems to strive for something beyond the simple photographic image.  He achieves this effect partly through the placement of backlights that literally illuminate each scene, an additive element which incidentally blurs the line between art image and art object.

Regardless of the pictures’ size and luminosity, their content alone proves compelling.  The clarity of color and composition in Wall’s works – in particular those that capture the movement of material like papers and milk through air – force the viewer to recognize the highly contrived nature of the scene.  This glaring subversion of the medium’s documentary nature pushes the image outside of the photographic plane.  It almost implies a cinematic continuation of the scene from a single frame. With this momentum, Wall works through the painting and the photograph into a space both entirely recognizable and excitingly new.

Édouard Manet, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" 1882, oil on canvas, 96 cm × 130 cm., Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Jeff Wall is a Canadian artist born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His large-scale, illuminated transparent photographs have been collected most recently in 2007 in the exhibition Jeff Wall, which traveled to New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. His extensive writings on both contemporary and past artists have been collected in several widely available editions, including Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews (Museum of Modern Art, 2007).

Taylor Hobson received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and English from Georgetown University. He has worked in several galleries and museums and now lives in New York City.