Awesome Art

I think I should educate myself on what this style of painting is called – I'm sure it has an official name that I'm unaware of. Was exposed to some of Christian Reese Lassen's paintings today and really wondered what quality they possess in common that makes them revolting and leaves me slightly nauseous. So it was especially surprising that it was an artist who recommended them. They are manipulative, seems the obvious response, but how exactly? The impression I'm left with is similar to having heard music that's too loud: a visual assault. The paintings are shouting at us – and that way we don't have to do any of the work really. It's a lazy kind of art, like lying back and turning on the TV. A finished product requiring no participation, they are being shoved down our throats with their primary colors in Photoshop-filter effect, the impossibly internally illuminated glowing objects and the eternal mystical twilight reflections. They capture the viewer against his will and leave him suspended in anticipation of something great that's about to occur, in a magical all-too-perfect world where the senses are endlessly titillated. These images always depict forces of nature greater than ourselves, and invariably include a celestial body – the God figure – reaching down towards us (from a sky that's anything but blue), towards the horizon, where the two worlds meet. They count on a sense of awe and a desire to escape from reality, holding out the promise of a different world beyond human comprehension – and so would not be out of place in a religious pamphlet for any salvation-preaching faith. What food for the seeking mind!