14 Secret Masters of the Universe

Abstract

Andre Stitt & James Cobb’s installation ‘The 14 Secret Masters of The Universe’ is the result of a period of collaborative production and research as artists in residence at Flight Gallery in San Antonio during the Oct-Nov. 2015. Studio work during this time included periods of research at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and the Donald Judd Foundation in Marfa, West Texas. The collaboration involved an ongoing practical and theoretical discourse through large scale painting that explored assumptions about shared histories, artistic collaboration, and how painting in particular can be experienced as an expanded practice. As Ann Ring Peterson has said, ‘..the expanded field of painting still has to overcome the rather fixed expectations of its audience.” (Contemporary Painting in Context, 2013) The painting installation was the result of a collaboration from different arts disciplines. Andre Stitt from a background in performance art and painting and James Cobb from digital graphics. Over an 8 week period the artists researched the work of Donald Judd and Mark Rothko at various locations in Texas. This then became the basis for ten large scale paintings that were eventually edited and installed as a complete work at Flight Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. The final work explored the relation ship of minimalism to architecture and installed works of art using a layering technique derived from photoshop and rendered through paint.