Brian Dupont

@briandupont

An artist making paintings out of intense personal necessity, often by hand. briandupont.com

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Brian Dupont@briandupont· 14d

Stolen from someone who’s funnier than me on the internet.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 14d

#Drawing as disintegration, #collage process across the surface to mirror the dissolution of Tyrone Slothrop. Exeunt the Mindless Pleasures drawing series, 73 drawings for 73 chapters in Gravity’s Rainbow, without correspondence between the two… #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Mindless Pleasures 73
12” x 9”
Mixed media, collage, collage transfer, and epoxy on paper

Text, reading orientation at top: H O H N E R

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 15d

#Drawing for a silver screen; returning to film stock as source material in #GravitysRainbow. Filmmaker as alchemist, the artist as a measure of and against culture. Mindless Pleasures 72 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Text (as measured), descending vertical registers:

Center: V O N G Ö L L

Proper left edge, partially erased: T A R K O V S K Y

Gerhardt von Göll (also known as "Der Springer" or the Knight from chess), symbolizing his lateral movement, strategic cunning, and ability to bypass standard boundaries) is a fictional German film director in Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow. He uses his cinematic influence and black-market connections to manipulate reality and manufacture artificial events in post-World War II Europe.

He is an ambitious expressionist filmmaker whose fictional masterwork is titled Alpdrücken who interacts directly with protagonist Tyrone Slothrop, engages heavily in the chaotic black market of the Zone, and is tied to the actress Greta Erdmann and her daughter Bianca. He embodies Pynchon’s recurring exploration of the blurring lines between illusion, media, and recorded history—the idea that "the reel" dictates "the real".

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 17d

Corporate structure as landscape, scientific development as a means of control. Mindless Pleasures 71 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #drawing #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Text in reading register, descending:

(Overlapping) I. G. F A R B E N
P O K L E R
H A B E R

In Gravity’s Rainbow, the real-life German chemical conglomerate IG Farben represents the ultimate fusion of corporate power, military technology, and total control over human life. Pynchon uses the massive industrial cartel to explore how corporate monopolies and modern chemistry drive history, war, and human destruction; it transcends national borders and regular politics, surviving the collapse of the Nazi regime by seamlessly shifting its corporate and technological ambitions into the postwar era.

Franz Pökler is a fictional German rocket scientist trapped in compromise, isolation, and the horrors of the V-2 program. He works on the A4/V-2 rocket technology, slowly trading his human empathy and morals for technical complicity under the Nazi regime.

Fritz Jakob Haber (December 1868 - 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. This invention is important for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber-Bosch process, and that this food supports nearly half the world's population.

Haber, a known German nationalist, is also considered the "father of chemical warfare" for his years of pioneering work developing and weaponizing chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War I. He first proposed the use of the heavier-than-air chlorine gas as a weapon to break the trench deadlock during the Second Battle of Ypres. His work was later used, without his direct involvement to develop the Zyklon B pesticide used for the killing of more than 1 million Jews in gas chambers in the greater context of the Holocaust.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 19d

The decay of mechanical notation; returning to #drawing as an exploration of #film. Mindless Pleasures 70 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

No text; technical transcription of film measures progressively overlaid with gesture & erasure

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 20d

#Drawing as manifest, tracking voyages and passings. Mindless Pleasures 69 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Text, descending in reading orientation from top:

A N U B I S

1 9 4 5 (proper-left registration, stenciled)

THANATZ

(Script, partially obscured) Margherita Erdmann

(Script, obscured ,from center) Bianca

(Script, obscured & layered, from center) Ilse

In Gravity's Rainbow, the Anubis is a luxurious yacht sailing on the canals and waterways of northern Germany (such as the Spree-Oder Canal and Oder Haff) during the chaotic final days of World War II. Named after the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead, the ship serves as a floating den for wealthy hedonists, aristocrats, and sensualists desperate to escape responsibility and the collapsing world order. The sequence on the Anubis culminates in a nightmarish, hallucinatory climax where Slothrop witnesses Bianca fall or jump overboard, right before he himself is struck and knocked into the stormy waters, accelerating his personal disintegration and scattering pilgrimage through the Zone.

(Miklos) Thanatz is a complex, minor character, representing themes of sadomasochism, the worship of technology, and the psychological fallout of the Nazi regime. He is tied to the novel's central obsession with the V-2 rocket via his marriage to the volatile actress Margherita (Greta) Erdmann, with whom he ran a touring sado-masochistic pornography and performance show that entertained SS troops and rocket technicians during World War II. Thanatz worked at the Nordhausen rocket facilities alongside Lieutenant Weissmann (Captain Blicero) and grew to fetishize the Rocket itself as a religious or sexual object.

Later in the "Zone," Thanatz spends time with a community of concentration camp survivors who replicate Nazi hierarchies. He develops a philosophy he calls "sado-anarchism," theorizing that true sadomasochism subverts standard institutional control because authoritarian systems rely on regulated submission and dominance to survive.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 20d

Irregular subway encounter on the platform…

Massive temporary hydraulic jacks/ pylons, wrapped with caution tape and inflated foam tubes, looking like a ramshackle attempt to take the load from a neighboring column.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 21d

#Drawing as a futile exercise of mapping space defined only as a series of psychological relationships. The Zone (Pynchon/ Tarkovsky) as shifting field where architecture and geography are not fixed and cartography is impossible. #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Mindless Pleasures 68

12” x 9”
Mixed media, #collage, collage transfer, and epoxy on paper

Remaining text (top-left corner): 3.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 26d

#Painting for the #Oddysey, naming as a shift in territory. TERMINUS 45” x 27.5” Oil/ painstick, wax, and alkyd on epoxy and enamel on wood panel. #art #contrmporarypainting #abstractpainting

Text in descending vertical registers, from proper right edge:

O D Y S S E U S

(Small, at center) I TT HH ACA (divisions indicating the poem section and relative length of that section, 1-3)

U L Y S S E S

(Small - stenciled capitals, obscured)

D E D A L U S

T E L E G O N U S

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 27d

#Painting for the #Oddysey, text as a study of translation. TRAVERSE Oil, paintstick, alkyd and wax on marker, epoxy and enamel on aluminum composite panel. 34 1/2” x 26” #art #contemporarypainting #abstractpainting

Text in reading orientation, proper right to proper left,

F I R S T

SING TO M(E)

TELL ME

the first line of the poem as translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1961…

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending.”

… and Emily Wilson, 2017

“Tell me about a complicated man.”

Error in transcription is my own,

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 27d

#Drawing for the rocket as geography and state. Mindless Pleasures 67 12” x 9” Mixed media and on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Text, vertical register from center: R A K E T E N

Text, vertical register, proper left edge: S T A D T

German: "Rocket-City"; created in the Mittelwerke by Ernst Ölsch (under Speer)

Brian Dupont@briandupont· 28d

#Drawing of #Pynchon’s Khirgiz light as metaphor for blinding revelation and the opposing descent into darkness; a study light shifting across the architecture of the zone. Mindless Pleasures 66 12” x 9” Mixed media and collage on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Text, top edge as light creating the horizon:

K H R G H Z

The "Kirghiz Light" refers to a mystical, blinding vision from Thomas Pynchon's postmodern novel Gravity's Rainbow. In the book, the Soviet spy Tchitcherine travels to Central Asia searching for this phenomenon, which a local bard describes as a blinding, deafening force that changes a man and takes his sight.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 14

Grisaille #drawing: history obscured, indexed to film. Mindless Pleasures 65 12” x 9” Mixed media and epoxy on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 12

#Drawing for #architecture : process as documentation of ruin and exploration of the Zone (continuing the parallels between Pynchon & Tarkovsky). #art

Mindless Pleasures 64
12” x 9”
Mixed media, collage transfer, and epoxy on paper

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 12

#Drawing as a study of the still image as a measure of time. #Collage transfer process corresponds to the degradation of film stock. #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Mindless Pleasures 63
12” x 9”
Mixed media and collage transfer on paper

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 11

#Drawing for #Tarkovsky’s composers. Are there Pleasures 62 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Text: underlying script obscured by layers of paint, initials stenciled (fragmented/ distorted).

Upper register: Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov

Ovchinnikov scored Tarkovsky’s early, sweeping epics, blending massive orchestral arrangements with traditional Russian choral elements.Key Films: Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966). Heavily rooted in Russian classical traditions, using booming brass, soaring strings, and vocal chants to match the medieval and wartime settings.

Lower register: Eduard Artemyev

Artemyev collaborated on Tarkovsky's later, metaphysical films and became a pioneer of electronic music in the USSR. He famously used the experimental ANS synthesizer to create ambient, alien, and deeply introspective soundscapes.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 11

#Drawing for a binary division; #Pynchon’s “schwarzgerät” as the payload of the V2 rocket serial number 00000 and the counter-force of Gravity’s Rainbow attempting to raise rocket 00001. Mindless Pleasures 61 12” x 9” Mixed media and collage on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Text:
Vertical register, descending center: 0 0 0 0 0
Proper left edge, reading orientation: 1

Gravity's Rainbow is a 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War Il and centers on the
design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, it features the quest undertaken by several characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device, the Schwarzgerät ('black device'), which is slated to be installed in a rocket with the serial number
"00000".

Slothrop learns of a rocket with the irregular serial number 00000 (Slothrop comments that the numbering system doesn't allow for four zeroes in one serial, let alone five), which features a mysterious component called the S-Gerat (short for Schwarzgerät, 'black device'), made out of the hitherto unknown plastic Imipolex G. It is hinted that Slothrop's prescience of rocket hits is due to being conditioned as an infant by the creator of Imipolex G, Laszlo Jamf. Later, the reality of this story is called into question, as is the very existence of Slothrop's original sexual exploits.

He begins to suspect he is being monitored and adopts the persona (one of many) of "lan Scuffling", a British war correspondent. He escapes from the casino into
"The Zone", the coalescing post-war wasteland of Europe, first to Nice in France and then to Switzerland, searching for the 00000 and S-Gerät.

Slothrop comes to doubt that his search for the S-Gerat is a Grail
quest and finds his paranoia ("the fear that everything is connected"') succumbing to "anti-paranoia" ("the fear that nothing is connected"). He meets members of the Schwarzkommando, a fictional cadre of African rocket technicians, descended from survivors of the Herero genocide of 1904 who were brought to Europe by German colonials.

Despite the efforts of some to save him, Slothrop is repeatedly sidetracked until his persona fragments totally, more than one hundred pages before the novel's end.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 5

Breaking structure: #color chart. Mindless Pleasures 60 12” x 9” Mixed media and collage on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

No text; film frames as experimental ordering, broken by color.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 5

#drawing based on photo documentation, film in a single frame. Tarkovsky Polaroid of Tuscany, 1982. Mindless Pleasures 59 12" ×9" Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Source: Bagno Vignoni, San Quirico d'Orcia, Tuscany, 8-20 August 1979

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 4

Electioneering: #art and remembrance as protest.

FOR PAUL (Thek)

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media on collage on paper

11 1/4" x 8 1/8"

FOR FELIX (González-Torres)

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media on collage on paper

11 3/8" x 7 7/8"

FOR ANA (Mendieta)

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media on collage on paper

11 1/4" x 7 7/8"

FOR DAVID (Wojnarowicz)

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media and collage on paper and vellum

11 1/4" x 7 3/4"

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 4

Continuing protest; #art for the #4thofjuly

MONDAY MORNING DECONSTRUCTION

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media and collage on paper and vellum

15 1/2" x 13 1/8"

SUNDAY MORNING DECONSTRUCTION

Acrylic, epoxy, and mixed media and collage on paper

15 3/8" x 11 5/8"

FRAGMENT

Acrylic, epoxy, mixed media, and collage on paper

15 3/8" x 12"

CODA

Acrylic, epoxy, mixed media, and collage on paper and vellum

11 1/4" x 10"

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 3

#Drawing of degrading film stock; repetition via process & layers of #collage/ transfer. Mindless Pleasures 58 12” x 9” Mixed media, collage, and collage transfer on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 2

#Abstract #drawing sourced from scientific data. Mindless Pleasures 53 12” x 9” Mixed media and collage transfer on paper #art #abstractart #contemporaryart

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jul 2

Film as a measure of time, #drawing to explore the structure of that duration. (Indirect measures of a shifting zone, thinking of Pynchon & Tarkovsky.) Mindless Pleasures 57 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Text, vertical register at proper right-center:

RT : 163 MIN

The run time of Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’ is listed by various sources as between 161 - 163 minutes.

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 27

#Drawing from strange coincidence; #Reichenbach falls, and the theory of probability & the direction of time presented in the journal Erkenntnis , put forward by Hans Reichenbach (September 26, 1891 – April 9, 1953) Mindless Pleasures 56 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper

Text, descending vertical registers:

FA L L (split horizontally, overlapping the proper left & right edges).

Reichenbach (Centered; pencil, script, erased and covered w/ pastel); overlapped by the date 1956.

E R K E N N T N I S (Proper center-left; partially obscured & overlapped by directional markings)

Erkenntnis is a journal of philosophy that publishes papers in analytic philosophy. Its name is the German word "Erkenntnis",
meaning "knowledge, recognition, insight".
The journal was also linked to organisation of conferences, such as the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, of which it published the papers and accounts of the discussions.

When Hans Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap took charge of Annalen der Philosophie und philosophischen Kritik! in 1930, they renamed it Erkenntnis, 2. under which name it was published from 1930 to 1938. The journal was published by the Gesellschaft für Empirische Philosophie, or the Berlin Circle and the Verein Ernst Mach, Vienna. In the first issue Reichenbach wrote that the editors hoped to gain a better understanding of the nature of all human knowledge through consideration of the procedures and results of a variety of scientific disciplines, while also hoping that philosophy need not remain a series of
"systems" but could reach the state of objective knowledge. The final issue of the first series, Volume 8, No. 1, was published in 1939 and retitled The Journal of Unified
Science (Erkenntnis) (1939-1940) and included as associate editors Philipp Frank, Jørgen Jørgensen, Charles W. Morris, Otto Neurath, and Louis Rougier. The advent of World War II led to the cessation of publication.

The Reichenbach Falls are a spectacular cascade of seven waterfalls near Meiringen, Switzerland. Reaching a total height of 250 meters (820 ft), they are globally famous as the literary site where Sherlock Holmes fought his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, in Arthur Conan Doyle's ‘The Final Problem.’

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 27

#Drawing: film as still-life Mindless Pleasures 55 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 26

#Drawing as an intersection of different fictions: “The Zone” as site described by #Pynchon & #Tarkovsky Mindless Pleasures 54 12” x 9” Mixed media, collage, collage transfer, and epoxy on paper #art #collage

Text

Proper right side, descending; rotating/ layers: Z O N E

Proper left edge, ascending: T A R K OV S K Y

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 25

#Drawing as a confrontation of one’s heros and sources: Pynchon’s V2 rocket as analogue for Twombly’s Vengeance of Achilles. Mindless Pleasures 52 12” x 9” Mixed media on paper #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #GravitysRainbow

Text (top of sheet):
Inverted: V 2
Layered over top: A

Block capitals, faint handwriting (bottom of sheet): E N G E N C E

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 25

Found stripe #painting

Brian Dupont@briandupont· Jun 20

Variations on a theme within the larger Mindless Pleasures #drawing series: film as still-life; negative (sprocket holes) as solid form. #art #contemporaryart #abstractart #artonpaper