A Tale of Three Paintings
1. Completed(?) in February of this year, the three phases of this painting can seen in this entry from December called New Painting in Progress.
2. Two states of this painting can be seen in the entry title Completion and Negation: Another New Painting in Progress.
3. Five states of this painting can be seen in the entry titled A long and winding road that may not yet be over.
A big change, then a small one
1. It began as another of my Sebastian paintings.
2. Some major fiddling later, the earlier version was nearly obliterated.
3. This round of changes was far less severe, and was more of a balancing and tuning, rather than a radical change
3. detail
I’m happy with where this painting ended up, but I confess that some part of me misses the first version pictured above.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since opening night.
From The Journals of Grace Hartigan, 1951-1955
“Of course I doubt myself all the time, but I must obey my instincts, they are the only things I can trust. I was thinking last night as I sat by the stove reading the journals of last year how suspicious I am of whatever “procedure” I’m involved with at a certain period in painting. When I was working from “master” reproductions I was afraid I’d never do anything original. When I was painting from photographs I was afraid I’d never work from nature again. When the work was more agitated I hated its “expressionism” and wanted more calm. And now that it’s more calm I fear it’s not emotional enough. When I take a long time on a picture and struggle a great deal I hate the agony and suspect I’m over-working. And when it comes easily I fear facility.”
- The Journals of Grace Hartigan, 1951–1955
- The Painter and the Poet: Grace Hartigan and Frank O’Hara
- Rules of Abstraction
HVD 2010
The Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov
Continuing on my New York School reading binge, I recently finished The Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov.
Superbly edited by Mira Schor, this collection of his writing, from published works to more private musing in journals and letters, comes highly recommended.
Fever Charts: On Jack Tworkov
Jack Tworkov: Against Extremes: Five Decades of Painting
Mira Schor and Jason Andrew with Phong Bui
Official site of the Estate of Jack Tworkov
ARTnews, May 1953: Tworkov Paints a Picture
“My hope is to confront the picture without a ready technique or prepared attitude—a condition which is nevertheless never completely attainable; to have no program and, necessarily then, no preconceived style. To paint no Tworkovs.” – Jack Tworkov, from a journal entry dated March 3, 1958
Completion and Negation: Another New Painting in Progress
Below are a couple of photos of another new painting in progress.
Phase 1 – I did the first layer of this painting in the same working session when I did the first layer of another painting (see the entry from last month).
Phase 2 – The main pictorial element is a late example from the Romance Comic series of collages. I added thie and the other layers of[aint in one session. Like the previous painting, it may or may not be complete. Actually, I feel that this one is finished, or at least mostly finished, but it is now making me question the finished status of the one that preceded it.
Detail
Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity
Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity
The Museum of Modern Art
November 8, 2009–January 25, 2010
Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan
Below are a few of the works I found most intriguing at the Hanging Fire exhibition at the Asia Society.
Ali Raza
No Two Burns Are the Same
2009
Burnt paper collage and acrylic on canvas
72″ x 72.5″
Imran Qureshi
Moderate Enlightenment
2007
Gouache on wasli
9″ x 7″
Rashid Rana
Red Carpet 1
2007
Edition 1/5; C-print + DIASEC
95″ x 135″
detail
Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan
Asia Society, New York
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes… Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an explosion into unknown areas.” – Arshile Gorky
Water of the Flowery Mill
1944
Oil on canvas
42.25″ x 48.75″
Diary of a Seducer
1945
Oil on canvas
50″ x 62″
The Betrothal II
1947
Oil o canvas
38″ x 50.75″
Agony
1947
Oil on Canvas
40″ x 50.5″
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
October 21, 2009 – January 10, 2010
2010 Philadelphia Museum of Art
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective celebrates the extraordinary life and work of Arshile Gorky (about 1902–1948), a seminal figure in the movement toward abstraction that transformed American art. This exhibition, which includes about 178 works of art, surveys Gorky’s entire career from the early 1920s until his death by suicide in 1948. The retrospective includes paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings—some of which are being shown for the first time—and reveals Gorky’s development as an artist and the evolution of his singular visual vocabulary and mature painting style.
New Painting in Progress
Here are a couple of photos of one of my new – thus far untitled – paintings in progress.
Phase 1
Phase 2
I’m not sure if it is done yet, but I like where it’s going. I’ll let this one sit until Phase 3 – if there is to be one – makes itself known.
Updated March 8, 2010
Phase 3
After working on this other painting, I decided that the surface seemed too thin or weak, and I worked on this painting once more. I think the palette in this iteration is much richer.
Phase 3, detail
From Black Site to Questioning
Here are two photos of a recently completed painting in the ongoing Sebastian Series.
Phase 1 – 2007 – “Black Site”
Phase 2 – November 2009 – “Questioning”