By Dr. Horace “Saturn” Moonbeam, Interplanetary Jazz Correspondent
I have examined the paintings of Ralph Rumpelton and have reached an unsettling conclusion:
Rumpelton is not painting pictures. He is transmitting signals.
This places him in the same general artistic universe as Sun Ra.
Sun Ra understood that music did not necessarily have to behave like music. A melody could disappear. A rhythm could wander off. An orchestra could sound as though it had just received instructions from Saturn. The important question was not whether the music obeyed the rules, but whether it opened a door.
Rumpelton does this visually.
His figures sometimes appear to have arrived before the background, his colors refuse to remain in their assigned territories, and his brushwork occasionally suggests that the painting has developed its own gravitational field.
This is not incompetence.
Nor, I hasten to add, is it competence.
It is Rumpelton.
Sun Ra once looked beyond Earth for his inspiration. Rumpelton appears to look beyond conventional painting. Both understand that the straight line between point A and point B is terribly overrated.
I recommend viewing a Rumpelton while listening to Sun Ra at sufficient volume.
If the painting begins to move, do not be alarmed.
If Sun Ra begins to criticize the painting, listen carefully.
And if the painting begins criticizing Sun Ra, leave the room immediately.
You have witnessed the birth of a new art movement.
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