Robert Flinkman

Robert Flinkman
The Assignation
etching and aquatint on Hahnemuehle paper
16 1/2" X 12"
2015
copyright 2015 Robert Flinkman

September 13th, 2015     Sunday

I've started the painting, The Assignation. I've begun working on the two male figures on the right hand side, everything else will flow from them. Yes, it's going to be an autobiographical work. Funny how people, feelings, thoughts, situations, experiences all can still influence you, even if all them happened so many years ago. Sometimes it's good to strike while the iron is hot, and use the immediacy of the situation for creativity. Other times, sometimes, it helps to let the thoughts and feelings sit, let them be distilled slowly, they are then refined.

I finished Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I certainly appreciate Nietzsche's ideas concerning self-empowerment, independence, self-determination, not conforming to society's norms and celebrating individual creativity. He is certainly critical of the herd mentality, superficiality. One should discard the self-imposed hierarchy and outdated morals and traditions, and find what is best for you as an individual, live according to your own true nature. Unfortunately Nietzsche's ideas concerning women are just outdated. Men and women are equal in all ways. His idea of the Superman rising above the populace reminds me in some ways of Plato's idea of a man or a group of men who, having ascended and have experienced  and have knowledge of the values of the Higher Forms and the Good, can then lead the people forward, knowing the Truth, will act in accordance for the good of all. Whether Plato's ideas of ruling, or Nietzsche's Superman, certainly one would want to believe in the Ideal, that they would want to lead for the good of all. But as we know, human nature can do otherwise, and political power can corrupt. That's why we need laws and checks and balances to maintain a balance and accountability. Certainly Nietzsche was rebelling against the restrictive social norms of his time. He felt oppressed, and wanted to create new morals, new guidelines, a fresh modern approach to live by and go forward.

September 27th, 2015        Sunday
I worked some more on the painting, The Assignation. I've been working on the left side and the area around the woman's body, darker, isolated. The two men together share the warmth, the bed is there. Curious, really, perhaps I may not be aware, but I haven't come across any artwork that show's an affair like this, an extra-marital one. It happens all the time, and this work expresses my own personal experience. It's been certainly written about in literature - but in the visual arts? Perhaps, as I wrote, I may just not be aware. I have a feeling, though, this work, The Assignation, will garner some attention.
Concerning this current painting I'm doing, well, yes, there is Manet's Olympia and The Luncheon on the Grass, both suggest a possibility of adultery, but directly, explicitly, depicting in one picture the one spouse and then the other spouse in the sexual act with his or her lover, it's not shown. Interesting, really, I'll have to look around, see what's out there. 
I'm also reminded of Edvard Munch and his affair with Fru Heiberg [Millie Thaulow], the married woman. Even with his passionate affair with her, his works only alluded to it.
[NOTE : I am specifically referring to Munch's painting, Ashes (1894)]

 

October 9th, 2015   Friday
Worked this morning on The Assignation. I believe I'll have it done before the end of the month, then I'll start on the graphite drawing for the etching and aquatint of the print.
I've been giving more thought as to other artists portraying adultery in painting. I remembered Edvard Munch's painting, Jealousy, 1895, portraying Stanislaw Przybyszewski and Dagny Juel's relationship. I know they had an open relationship, entertaining affairs with other partners. If this is an agreed open relationship, are those affairs then really considered adultery? Legally, perhaps. But if the entire situation is consensual - is it?

 

December 30th, 2015     Wednesday
I saw the film, Carol, yesterday afternoon. What a great film, truly fine performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Todd Haynes directs this work with feeling, the right feeling, understated, restrained, given it takes place in the early, mid-1950s. Funny, it really coincides with my own work, The Assignation. It all speaks to the desire and the struggle for personal self-expression and sexual fulfillment. When blocked, it needs another outlet, quietly and discreetly finding that release. How long can your heart be suppressed, how long  do you have to play the charade? This is a great film, it speaks the truth.....