GREAT MERLIN'S BEARD!

Painting is very simple: stretch canvas over a wooden frame, prime stretched canvas with gesso, use sticks with animal hair glued to their tips to smear pigment around on canvas. For some reason however painting has been able to maintain a uniquely high level of mystification and in some circles is spoken of with a reverence and complexity more in line with alchemy than picture making. There are plenty of painters out there who enjoy this "mystery of painting" and promote it whenever possible. Convinced that while painting they are in fact performing complex experiments, but of course no one ever did turn lead to gold and I'm not sure Merlin James can't convince me otherwise.

James' name is reverently mentioned by a lot of painters here in Chicago, I actually had never heard of him until moving here, the same way a freshman in high school might mention the name of some local bands lead singer. There is an idea that he knows something we don't, that he has a view of a grander world that we are too stupid or inexperienced to see. This idea is furthered by James' work which is described by William Staple in this past Octobers issue of BAT as odd and disturbing as well as inventive and rich. I saw James' show at Sikkema & Jenkins this winter and my reaction was slightly different than Staple's, I saw the work more as a bunch of crap, because it really looks like crap. The small acrylic canvases spread throughout the gallery looked like the end result of a very productive semester in painting 101, you could sense the effort put into the work but nothing really was interesting enough to spend any time with. But there must be a reason it looked this way to me, Merlin James has been around too long to make this kind of work without a purpose, or at least I hope that is the case. Perhaps he, like so many painters, is drawn to the edge of what is aesthetically accepted in an attempt to revitalize his work. Or perhaps there are subtle relationships within the work that I am not yet able to understand, but someday after years of study and internalized contradictions I will be able to convince myself that these paintings are great.

I don't know much about THE Merlin, King Arthur's Merlin, but it seems to me that he might share some similarities with Mr. James. According to my memory Merlin the Magician was the mysterious hermit advisor of King Arthur. Merlin had access to knowledge and powers unknown to normal men, but instead of solely relying on his potions or spells to assist the King he most often used riddles or questions to direct him. It is clear while reading William Staples interview with Merlin James that James is very knowledgeable about both painting and its history. He also seems to be genuinely convinced that painting as a media is able engage an individual for a lifetime. I agree with Staples that his paintings are jarring, whether that is because through their fearlessness and complexity they stand out from most other contemporary painting or because they suck, I'm not sure. I did not like James' work, but I am unable to dismiss it. He has successfully made me wonder if in fact he has been able to see things in a way that I can't. And if art can make you question how you are seeing it must be working on some level. Who knows I may be James' next big fan, then again his paintings are really, really awful.