“…For it is the function of consciousness, not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses but to translate into visible reality the world within us…”
—Carl Gustav Jung
Hilroy Bulgin, Market Conversation, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”
Hilroy Bulgin is a Jamaican Artist, B. Sept. 17th, 1981. He began drawing at an early age on sheet paper provided by his mother, a teacher. He attended Cornwall College High School and studied electrical engineering at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Bulgin, did not attend Art School. He feared that doing so would interfere with his authentic artistic talent. He is fascinated with African masks and the “Dot” paintings of the indigenous peoples of Central Australia (The Papunya Tula art movement). Bulgin has exhibited his art work at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, the Montego Bay Fine Arts Festival, Liguanea Art Festival, and the Mandeville Art Fair. His works are in numerous private collections and are in high demand.
Art Hedge invited Richard Nattoo, the subject of an earlier blog, to comment on Hilroy Bulgin’s work and he has graciously agreed to do so.
For those who aren’t aware Richard has authored a new book: Ian Takes Flight, published by Bookman Express. He is also a winner of the Jamaican Prime Minister’s 2020 Youth Awards for Excellence in the category of Arts and Culture. Congratulations Richard!
Lady in Green Dress, Acrylic on canvas, 12”x16” Child’s First Step, Acrylic on Masonite, 4’x6’
Introducing Hilroy Bulgin, "The “Synthesizer"
In an interview with The Art Hedger, Hilroy gave us some insight into his approach to art and artmaking.
“All my paintings move me based on the intensity of the Divine connectivity with the work itself. That is why a work that seems simple to a particular viewer means a lot to me…This is the part that viewers, when they see certain things on canvas… they draw assumptions that some artists are mad. (LOL).
[My work] … is automatic and sometimes conscious…
My technique is also about my connection with colors, which is not easy to understand. It is a connectivity which is in my head, and translates from my head to my hand to the paint and canvas. I am drawn to aboriginal art because it was developed as a way to tell stories by the Australian aboriginal people; they had no written language, to convey their history…”
Lovers Listening to Music, Acrylic on Canvas, 18” x 20”
Transcending the Naïve” “Primitive” Art Label
Richard Nattoo, our guest commentator
I remember reading some of Carl Jung’s work, which spoke about the realms of the collective unconsciousness and archetypes that exist within the psyche. According to Jung, it is as if all of us are in some way plugged into a mental grid which feeds information into our subconscious. Now I say all that in an effort to decode and understand the brilliant work of Hilroy Bulgin, I am looking at it through a Jungian lens. Bulgin’s painted essences display his sophisticated visual language and vast understanding of color theory. To me, he transcends the Naïve or “Primitive” Art label.
Sacrifice, Acrylic on Canvas, 40”x30”
Hilroy’s work at first glance came across as “macabre cubism;” I found it visceral, crude, felt; its geometric contortions is reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s work.
The figures evoked a type of “knowing.” By knowing I mean the way in which the work looks back at the viewer, as if it was conscious of the fact that it was a painting and was content with that. At a deeper look, however, I began to realize that this knowing was something that the artist seemed to have “taught the artwork itself.” Bulgin’s art creations are imbued with soul, born not from the “mental realm” of the intellect, but from the soul, or the collective unconscious—if you are a Jungian. “The Soul is unknowable intelligence (a paradox). It just Knows.”
Bulgin says it this way:
“It is a connectivity which is in my head, and translates from my head to my hand to the paint and canvas.”
He paints from the Soul with the “it just knows” intellectual energy and intensity that flows from him to his “birthed” works.
“All my paintings move me based on the intensity of the Divine connectivity with the work itself. That is why a work that seems simple to a particular viewer means a lot to me…This is the part that viewers, when they see certain things on canvas… they draw assumptions that some artists are mad. (LOL).
The artist, on one level, understands that the artwork is an extension of himself. Beyond that level is the artist becoming aware that the artwork is informing him of ideas hidden within his own psyche.
However, when the artist sees his work as being conceptualized and executed because of divine connection, then this gives way to a greater awareness in the making process; the artist engages in a creation dance; in this dance a compromise is made of what the artist thinks the work should be and what the artwork itself wants to be. This constant push-and-pull is how the artist “teaches”† the artwork. The artwork has acquired a type of “knowing,” and by allowing it to have a voice, to guide each stroke and to inform the next in the creation phase; it will tell the artist what it wants to be.
†Art Hedge: For more on the “Artist teaching the artwork itself”, see blog Richard Nattoo, “Painter of Emotions and Philosopher of Aesthetics.”
“I am drawn to aboriginal art because it was developed as a way to tell stories by the Australian aboriginal people, they had no written language, so in order to convey history and preserve sacred stories, it was placed on artwork.”
After arriving at Bulgin’s explanation of aboriginal paintings, it all made sense to me. Through my lens I see Hilroy diving into the aboriginal human mind and coming away learning about communication from a more cerebral point of view. This knowledge has granted him the eyes to look at color from an ontological perspective, the belief that reality is constructed in the mind of the observer, so human consciousness is “more real” than material reality. Hence the feelings the colors evoke in people is of more importance than the "right” way to apply color. It is less about painting from academic color ideologies and more about how color elicit a full body vibration onto the viewer. These ideas paired with his engineering mind has granted him the power to dress chaos in a uniform.
The charm of Bulgin’s work comes from his ability to engage precision into a dance with fluidity with his use of the Central Aboriginal people’s “Dot Paintings”. He uses the dots on top of the painted mass; by painted mass, I am referring to the figures he paints, whose bodies are completely made up of dots and in other situations where he paints a solid figure and then adds dots over it or to the background. He achieves a kind of controlled “pointillism” in the manner of Lichtenstein (b. 1923). Lichtenstein used dots in his work to create tones in his images similarly to Bulgin. However, I think Bulgin’s approach is a lot freer and cerebral in comparison to Lichtenstein’s, while still having calculated mannerisms. Bulgin’s work has moved beyond Lichtenstein’s and has entered into a conversation with Van Gogh, where color and dots, have “drive energy…” The placement of the dots in some of his works reminds me of magnetic fields, as they radiate inwards and outwards, while appearing random. There is a lot to be learned from Bulgin’s work. His visual conversations bounce like photons and dance with Brownian motion. He speaks the aboriginal language of the collective unconscious.
The Lords Supper, Acrylic on Masonite, 36”x 24’’
Art Hedge
We asked Richard Nattoo to give us his impression on a few of Hilroy’s Bulgin’s paintings. To our pleasant surprise, he chose to gaze at them through a Jungian lens, in addition to his own ideas on viewing and understanding artmaking.
It appears that Bulgin and Jung might have understood each other. Here is a characterization of Jung by Anthony Stevens in Jung: A Very Short Introduction, 1994, Oxford University Press:
“Jung was a man of paradox. In one sense he was an individualist…In another he was the living embodiment of the universal man. He strove to realize in his own life his full potential; but he was determined…to live in an uncompromisingly unique way…Although considering himself a rational scientist, he was willing to give his attention to matters conventionally regarded as irrational or esoteric…”
There is no doubt that Bulgin’s work is uncompromising, deceptively simple and yes, primitive in a Jungian way: as part of the collective unconscious. And a few people may even consider him mad. As Bulgin says here:
“…work that seems simple to a particular viewer means a lot to me…This is the part that viewers, when they see certain things on canvas… they draw assumptions that some artists are mad. (LOL).”
From African masks, central Australian indigenous peoples “Dot Painting” (A style that is not quite 50 years old.) and Cubist sensibilities, Bulgin, creates vibrant paintings that are like tapestries or quilts. Bulgin’s work echoes that of quite a few artists: We see Matisse, Bearden, Basquiat, Kandinsky, Mio̒r and maybe Kapo in his works.
Yes, Bulgin draws heavily from the “Primitives,” peoples whose traditions, rituals, allow them ready access to what Jung calls the collective unconscious. He dives frequently into the murky antediluvian sea of our humanity, the psyche, mind, soul and surfaces with his bountiful and superlative level of creativity. Nattoo is spot on for engaging Jung into the conversation.
Reference:
Dreamings of the desert : Aboriginal dot paintings of the Western Desert by Vivien Johnson
Exhibition displayed the entire collection of Western Desert paintings of the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide. The exhibition and its catalogue mark the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the start of the Western Desert dot painting movement at Papunya in the Northern Territory in 1971. Features an essay by Johnson on the history of western dot art 1971-1996. Pub: 1996, Art Gallery of south Australia, Adelaide
Canvassing identities: reflecting on the acrylic art movement is an Australian Aboriginal settlement, by Francoise Dussart, in Aboriginal History, 2006, vol 30
We at Art Hedge would like to wish you Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, or what every you celebrate. 2020 was quite a year. We wish you all the beset for the upcoming year and stay safe. And as always we would love to hear from you to start a conversation.
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