MARK LANG: DOCUMENTS

‘documents’

MARK LANG

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‘documents’

MARK LANG

“The “Document” series are paintings based on historic photographs of various groups of people. These photos were originally intended to document particular groups, rather than to function as “art” per se. I’m interested in representing these images through painting, which serves another purpose, namely to reflect on various human and historic themes relating to the groups of people depicted.

In a way, the photos can be likened to fossils, preserving detailed and accurate traces of people from the past by way of a chemical process. The paintings, on the other hand, are more like handmade reconstructions based on the fossils. That is, the photo is a document based on a fact, and the painting is a fiction based on the document.

This fiction is useful in interpreting the originals from a contemporary perspective. It allows us to examine the past, and explore how our reading of the past is a reconstruction based on our current understanding. For example, making large-scale colour paintings after small black and white photos brings the images to life in a way which helps carry them into the present. However, the true colours of the time are only accessible through artifacts and paintings from the period, so the colour in the paintings is necessarily an imagined reconstruction.

Rather than taking a random sampling of photos from the past, I’ve selected a particular set of images which highlight a variety of interesting issues or themes. Exhibiting the images together in a new context allows for various kinds of comparisons, and shows that there are ideas and meanings present in these images that were not intended by the original photographers. This selection provides an interpretation of the past that examines some issues which have a through-line into the present and still affect our culture today.

We see the past in a different way than the people who experienced it, and we can only reconstruct that past based on the documentation left to us. This reconstruction is necessarily a kind of fiction, but it can help us find meaning in the documents, showing the effect of history on the current human condition, and on how the present will have an effect on the future.”

- Mark Lang

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This photograph was taken in 1910 not long before the First World War, and shows nine European kings assembled for the funeral of King Edward VII. (L to R standing: King Haakon of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium; seated L to R: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom, and King Frederick VIII of Denmark) Lang looked up all of these kings separately to find paintings of them that would give me an indication of the colour of their uniforms and sashes, although some may ultimately be inaccurate. He opened up the area around them slightly and invented the colours of the room. These kings were almost all related, either by blood or marriage, in the manner of most royalty.

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Document (Kings), 2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 5

This photo was taken around 1900 and shows a group of Russian wrestlers, only one of whom the artist could find a name for, and that is Gustav Fristensky. He is the man standing at the right wearing what looks like the sash and belt of a champion. The image is posted on many physical culture sites and blogs on the Internet.

The one Lang initially found it on was called “The Art of Manliness”. The blogger was promoting the notion that all men should develop their physical strength. He could not find a reliable credit for who took the photograph.

Once again, Lang took a step back, opening up the space around the figures, inventing the colour and adding a few props. He turned the backdrop into an “ancient Greek” scene referencing the classical ideal of masculine beauty. He added the old time weights and kettlebells.

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Document (Strongmen), 2018, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 7

This is a photo of Harriet Tubman with several people she helped free from slavery. Some of them are members of her own family. It was taken by William H. Cheney in 1887.(from L to R: Harriet Tubman, Gertie Davis, Nelson Davis, Lee Cheney, “Pop� Alexander, Walter Green, Sarah Parker and Dora Stewart) Tubman is one of the most famous abolitionists of her time. She was involved with the underground railroad and helped many people escape from slavery. This photo is posted in many places online, often with the figure of Dora Stewart cropped out on the right. There is another similar photo taken at the same time with the figures in slightly different poses.

The artist opened up the space around the figures a bit, made up the colour, and added a landscape element on the upper left as a reference to Canada, the end of the underground railroad for many.

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Document (refugees), 2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 9

This photo was taken sometime between 1866 and 1894 at the atelier of the sculptor Pierre-Jules Cavelier, who is the white bearded gentleman in the center. Lang couldn’t identify the identity of the students or the model.

Mark Lang expanded the foreground, made up the colour, added a prop on the right, and slightly changed the expression on the face of the model. Lang thinks the fellow seated on the floor in the foreground may be a model as well because he is holding a dumbell, but for some reason he got to keep his clothing.

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Document (Muse), 2018, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 11

This photo of Chinese workers was taken in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s by Phillip Timms. This is the version Mark Lang used as a source for his painting, which he found on Wikimedia Commons. Lang later found out that it had been cropped and flopped. The original is in the Vancouver Public Library Archive. On the archive web page it is suggested that these men are possibly mill workers, although Lang took them to be railway workers.

Before he found the original version Mark Lang had already finished most of the painting. He had expanded the space slightly out to the sides and improvised the left and right hand sides of the cropped figures along with the colour. He was happy to see that the parts he made up are fairly close to what can be seen in the full version. Lang also added the shovel, pickaxe and barrel. He had assumed they were posed in front of a railway station or shed, but it turns out to have been a post office.

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Document (workers), 2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 13

This is a photograph of a Lakota delegation in New York City taken in 1858 (from L to R, top row: Nathaniel P. Brown, Akipa, Wakam Hinape or Charles Renville, Ampatutokacha, Mazakatemani; bottom row: Wa Mdi Upi Data, Mazasha, Upi Iyahdeya, Thomas M. Williamson). The photo is in the Peabody Museum collection at Harvard. According to the Peabody website, the man on the left was a trader and brother to the Indian agent, and the one on the right was a missionary. There are many photos of delegations of indigenous peoples, many of which show the various tribes in more or less traditional garb. Lang chose this one because he found it interesting how the delegates are literally dressed halfway into each culture, their own and the European, sandwiched between men involved in commerce and religion.

For this image, Lang opened up the space around the figures, invented the floor pattern and the position of the feet, and added the stool to the left with the top hat. He did some research to find colour details for some of the more traditional clothing, as well as Lakota footwear, but simply made up the colour for the more western clothing.

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Document (delegates), 2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 15

This photo shows a group of women known as “The Harvard Computers” with their boss Edward Charles Pickering. It was taken in 1913, six years before women were allowed to vote in the United States. They were sometimes referred to as Pickering’s Harem. Apparently, he had a limited budget and needed capable workers to do a large amount of astronomical computation. He hired women because they could do the work and he could get them a bit cheaper than men.

The only change Mark Lang made in this case was to create a little more space around the figures and of course to make up the colours.

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Document (computers), 2018/2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 17

This photo is from the City of Toronto archives. It was taken in December of 1928 at the “Toronto Regiment Christmas tea”. It appears to be taken in front of some sort of institution, perhaps a children’s hospital (one of the children’s arms seems to be in a sling). Presumably the clowns are members of the Toronto Regiment doing a good deed by entertaining the children.

The artist changed things only slightly in this image, this time coming in a bit closer to the figures, inventing the colours and making up details that were unclear.

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Document (Entertainers), 2018/2019, Oil on Canvas. 48” x 60” 19

Published by DURAN | MASHAAL www.duranmashaalgallery.com 20