>SUPERSTAR | Michael Croft | Artist | Painting

SUPERSTAR


Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas


Range: 275cm square through every integer to 101cm square.


Total number of artworks: 175

 

Michael Croft 2015



SUPERSTAR is intended to be a simulacrum as defined by Baudrillard, a copy with no original, a representation of an object, a semiotic sign, a symbol. It is superficially defined as being a work of art by its crafted method of production, the adhesion of base materials onto canvas to create an illusion of order and/or beauty, and by its pre perceived homeworld – the wall. The geometry and media employed are designed to provoke Suprematist 'primacy of pure feeling' (Malevich).


The rules of Contemporary Art permit me to describe SUPERSTAR as hyperreal, that is, the intent is to create a fictional work of art, a simulation of what could be art. It obviously exists and has real layers of interpretative possibilities, but it is 'impossibly' fictional in the sense of Michael Craig-Martin's 'An Oak Tree' – I am able to assert the parameters and conditions of its existence. It is a reflection of and simultaneously part of Debord's 'Society of Spectacles'.

SUPERSTAR in progress. Oil paint underpainting. Michael Croft Studio.

SUPERSTAR Oil underpainting, work in progress
More images of SUPERSTAR in the studio...


On an objective level, SUPERSTAR is a simple examination of human celebrity, commodity celebrity and cultural (e.g. art work) celebrity. Decadence and the paucity of what's on offer is announced by the rusty Kwik-Sale graphic set on bright white glossy new washing-machine paint; rust symbolizes inevitable deterioration, a Romantic contemplation of mortality, industrial / economic / cultural ruin and decay; consumer choice is indicated by replications of the motif and process.


The Suprematist pursuit in this work for architectural harmony, (elimination of discord), has found perfection in this geometric form: 32 points symmetrically arranged, the ratio between the inner and outer circles' radii to be 0.8971675863… resulting in 90 degree external angles between each point of the star.

SUPERSTAR. Harmony calculation. Michael Croft.

An unanticipated consequence of the mathematical enquiry has been the generation of a sacred space, the Buddhist / Hindu spiritual symbol of Mandala, a Jungian psychiatric Mandala, a graphic expression of the universe and wholeness. (Jung stated that the Mandala is "the psychological expression of the totality of the self..."



Now that you have read this far, words and ideas have been implanted in your mind, you may or may not take them seriously; but maybe you should doubt my authenticity: the words themselves may be authentic, but I might have crafted a fictional back story or marketing copy, to fit into the philosophic-economic formulae of Fine Art’s reason for being, and to promote value beyond mere decoration. I may just simply wish to beguile, to obfuscate, to provoke incredulity and opposition, to bewitch, to madden or intimidate by the writing’s assumption that you know what I know and by its pretentiousness. It may just be that I have never read and truly understood the philosophies of Baudrillard and Debord, choice ideas may have been plucked from the Internet only yesterday, vaguely comprehended and cynically manipulated to form a reasonably plausible connection; I might just be a Neocon artist-businessman who worships Ayn Rand, attempting to add value to objects that I hope to sell to an identified demographic.

“how did I hit upon that, what brought me to it? That questions like these can be raised characterizes all motivation in general” (Husserliana, vol. IV, p. 222; Husserl 1889



Summary

(a)...all the above is BULLCRAP

(b)...maybe not

Realizable value of 175 works of art: $2,637,349.83 (with discounts est.tot. $2,200,000)

YESSIREE!

SUPERSTAR | Michael Croft | Iron oxide, enamel paint on canvas | rust art
Superstar detail.
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 150x150cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 275x275cm Michael Croft
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 150x150cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 250x250cm Michael Croft
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 175x1750cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 225x225cm Michael Croft
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 200x200cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 200x200cm Michael Croft
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 225x225cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 175x175cm Michael Croft
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 250x250cm. Michael Croft. Painting. /art/
SUPERSTAR. Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas. 2015. 150x150cm Michael Croft