Stephen Magsig: Downtown Red

This building displays such an unassailable medieval character, that it may appear as an anomaly in the middle of a modern city. Interestingly, except the sidewalk, there a no urban elements in this painting. It’s as if the artist wants to play around a little bit with the viewers, to make them doubt the depicted era. The artist often chooses subjects planned for demolition or that look like it would be the best thing for them in their current condition — this building, though seemingly firm, makes an impression of a giant rotten from the inside, ready to collapse. It’s an ugly and awkward architectural structure: only people would revivify it by their presence; there are no people, and the building remains naked in its deformity — a Quasimodo of the town’s houses. Its funny how easily the wretched image travels from Paris to Detroit.

down town red

Colors are scarce but expressive. The red spreads all over the canvas in different values; it is somewhat oppressive and also industrial. The building has the look of a factory, albeit of an abandoned one. I think that in terms of formal architectural style it can be categorized as Brutalist. It indeed seems brutal and coarse, highly utilitarian and without much consideration for aesthetics. Even the trees hang heavily, like two old-fashioned chignons. The brushwork on the walls adds an element of raggedness, which joins the list of unfavorable features. Yet once again, despite the long list, the structure fails to affect the viewer negatively; personally, I feel neither a threat nor fear. Perhaps the light that illuminates the building contributes to an overall objectively, compensates for the darkness and puts everything in perspective. Horror films are not as much effective when watched in the morning.

It took me some time to figure out that this building resembles a Russian oven-bed — perhaps that was the subconscious reason why I have chosen it, having read so many fairy tales about this once indispensable to the Russian peasant way of life structure. In these tales, the oven can talk, move around and save Ivan the fool from troubles. Story tellers and the people loved it and glorified it for its universal qualities: it served as a resting place, it provided the people with bread and it warmed the hut — the ultimate source of life and leisure. The American oven-bed, though much larger, basically involves similar properties. It looks like a factory, which makes it both a source of food and heat, to which the red of the walls strongly alludes. The two eye-like windows on the second story also suggest personification. Maybe there is too much proletarian bias to this comparison (and maybe not, considering the title). Still, from a certain standpoint, the proletariat of the world has symbolically united in this piece, and without any government involvement.

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Art & Critique

Stephen Magsig: Downtown Red

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