Andoe the artist deserves our appreciation but Andoe the man?
BASED on his memoir Jubileety<$>, artist Joe Andoe has led what is surely one of the most impossibly frustrating lives ever.The man is incapable of saying no and seems somewhat amazed that he is still alive and upright. But despite his personal life, he has won great acclaim in the art world.
Andoe’s utterly American, barren landscapes and portraits have found permanent homes in New York’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others and, over the last 25 years, his solo shows have spanned the globe.
But first, from the beginning: a coming of age centred on cars, fields and how much alcohol you could scavenge on a Saturday night merges into car crashes, construction jobs, unpredictable friends, college, painting, a heat-of-the-moment marriage proposal followed by a resigned acceptance, children, a move to New York, drugs, violence, money made and lost, fame and international recognition.
And it continues. Interspersed among details of his massive consumption of substances, Andoe opens the lid on the women in his life, all of whom seem determined to bury him. None really seem to notice that he’s an artist, except when the paintings are seen as potential winnings in a divorce settlement. And all the women are subject to hysterical fits of anger, mostly ignore him and suffer a general malaise. But the sex was great. Surprise, surprise. Basically, it all rings true, if exaggerated and idealised for effect. Every artist wants to be the real deal — the true artist born of a messy mix of suffering, grime, and addictions — and Andoe is no exception.
Unfortunately, in reading the book, we understand the mess and its dated romantic appeal, but not the artist swept up in it. We envision artists as whole creatures — life affecting art and vice versa. But if there is a point to Jubileity<$>, it is the exact opposite: In Andoe, the two lives are not on speaking terms.
Even though the book is about his life and not his work, 13 reprints of his paintings are spread throughout. The paintings serve as an antidote to the life that surrounds them and offer a powerful stillness and sense of location.
Andoe the painter seems to come from a spot of calm, vital energy. Seeing his work next to his life made his entanglement in entirely controllable circumstances all the more maddening because of the control evident when he closes the studio door and puts brush to canvas. Andoe the artist deserves our attention and appreciation. Andoe the man? I’m not sure we needed to meet him.
