Tristan Tondino

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Tristan Tondino (b. July 3, 1961) is an Irrealist painter, born in Montreal, Canada.

Tondino made his living for a time as a scenic artist, art director and screen writer.

In the late-1990s Tondino painted and exhibited a number of works, which he called Irrealist. His work cannot truly be said to have a specific style, although many are Lettrist abstractions.

Tondino's parents were artist/educator Gentile Tondino RCA (1923–2001) and Livia Tondino (1925–2003). Gentile Tondino was his primary early artistic influence.

Tondino studied philosophy at McGill University intent on resolving what he felt were art related problems. He attended a symposium hosted by Nelson Goodman and was greatly influenced by the openness of the philosopher. (McGill Aesthetics Symposium, 1985)

He painted 40 works on a trip to Europe that burned in a car fire on the Amalfi coast in 1987. In the 1990s Tondino began devoting himself more seriously to the creation of artworks. The early works move back and forth from En plein air (e) paintings to works influenced by Willem de Kooning and Pablo Picasso. Despite his contemporary direction, Tondino vehemently renounces any attempt to devalue the artist who makes a commitment to Plein Aire painting. One of his paintings entitled "Zot" includes the statement "giving a painter crap for painting from life is like telling a hooker she/he no longer has the right to make love. It doesn't matter if it's a landscape or a nude."

In 1992, possibly under the influence of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tondino created a series of works in a neo- Abstract Expressionism style; figures, including Seated Nude (1992). Tondino painted nudes regularly in the early-1990s. The biomorphic shapes of his early abstractions seemingly evoke female symbols.

These early works are colorful, free paintings in a direct impasto technique. However as Tondino became more interested in the philosophical and political aspects of art, what emerged was a tendency to Lettrism, hypergraphics. (The use of written word in the painting). Also see works by Isidore Isou. Tondino makes philosophical claims on the more recent paintings.

[edit] Irrealism

Most of Tondino’s predominantly Irrealist paintings have been created after 1999 and were painted on street corners direct to canvas stapled to construction site barriers. One of the first paintings is entitled “a thing is not a thing”. See {Rythms of the World Festival}

There are strong political implications in many of Tondino's works. See "Reality Re-evaluated," Veilina Manolova, The McGill Daily, October 4th, 2004. Vol. 94, Number 9. In another project Tondino painted a Lettrist work that reads "Free Art - brought to you by the generous donations of our corporate sponsors".(2006) The painting entitled "A Gift to the Citizens of Nova Scotia" was offered as a donation to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia AGNS. When the work was refused, Tondino re-entitled the painting "A Gift to the Citizens of Nova Scotia refused by AGNS". The painting was then re-offered. There has been no response. Similar projects were directed at the MOMA and The Metropolitan Museum. Another painting entitled, "Never try to give a Museum a worthless work of Art" (2006) reads "only the gifts made by the rich have value".

Tondino's approach is somewhat odd in that his articles, thought experiments, responses are frequently carried out on paintings and drawings. The most “philosophical” paintings are his Lettrist Abstractions that include statements often in English but not limited to English. Some examples are: “The Rule of the 2”, “A Meaningless Painting”, “Venise n’est pas en Italie”, “A Thing is not a Thing”,"2 Plus 2 is a Drawing, Two Plus Two is a Song' and “Y14”.

A recent painting entitled “The Spirit of the Spirit of Skepticism” is a response to C. Z. Elgin’s Article, “Skepticism Aside”. The painting is a large work in which the artist has constructed a lengthy response to Elgin and hand painted it with a brush on a canvas stapled to a construction site barrier.

Though the approach is odd, there is an argument to be made that this Irrealist painter is doing philosophy.

"Skepticism does not imply “no world version is better than any other”. Not that anything goes but that some things go and some things flop. After all, the judgment regarding which version is better is up to the Demon not us.

We do not know at the beginning what is true but arrive at conclusions by painful trial and error. We may get an A plus on our trips to the moon and splitting of atoms but ultimately flop one day due to some unforeseen thing. It’s up to the Demon to decide.

If you ask me to choose between two Neurosurgeons, one a Skeptic and the other a naïve Realist, I’d pick the one who believes in Universal Health Care. Nobody says it will be easy knowing which way to go into the future. When we make the demon worse, she has a way of answering back, though we may not ever hear her.” Excerpt. Copied with permission from the Author. Source the Original Painting entitled “The Spirit of the Spirit of Skepticism”.