![Valerie Hegarty, Rothko Sunset, 2007, mixed media
Hegarty speaks with Miriam Katz on Abstract Expressionism and the sublime, [via MUSEO]
Katz: So, it’s not just a depiction of something. The painting has actually gone through some kind of experience itself.
HEGARTY: It’s as if I’m asking if the painting is more factual now that it doesn’t just depict an experience, but instead, actually goes through an experience. Last year I began copying iconic Abstract Expressionist paintings, like a Clyfford Still or a Mark Rothko, and I made them look as if they’d been through a fire. People often found them funny because AbEx paintings are already so laden with historical significance and imposed meaning, and my works made that even more explicit, as if they had actually gone through events themselves.
Katz: There’s also the psychological component—AbEx paintings are supposed to set the viewer aflame with their emotive power, and here they are literally being set on fire. There’s this notion of Rothko and Still…
HEGARTY: …Igniting all these ideas.
Katz: And that looking at them provides us with this ultimate experience of the sublime.
HEGARTY: Exactly. A natural disaster is itself a sublime event.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr6vc9fmSW1qa3mqyo1_500.jpg)
Valerie Hegarty, Rothko Sunset, 2007, mixed media
Hegarty speaks with Miriam Katz on Abstract Expressionism and the sublime, [via MUSEO]
Katz: So, it’s not just a depiction of something. The painting has actually gone through some kind of experience itself.
HEGARTY: It’s as if I’m asking if the painting is more factual now that it doesn’t just depict an experience, but instead, actually goes through an experience. Last year I began copying iconic Abstract Expressionist paintings, like a Clyfford Still or a Mark Rothko, and I made them look as if they’d been through a fire. People often found them funny because AbEx paintings are already so laden with historical significance and imposed meaning, and my works made that even more explicit, as if they had actually gone through events themselves.Katz: There’s also the psychological component—AbEx paintings are supposed to set the viewer aflame with their emotive power, and here they are literally being set on fire. There’s this notion of Rothko and Still…
HEGARTY: …Igniting all these ideas.
Katz: And that looking at them provides us with this ultimate experience of the sublime.
HEGARTY: Exactly. A natural disaster is itself a sublime event.
