This is how Amina Cain’s novel Indelicacy begins: I THOUGHT THAT BEING in the country would help me write, with its fields and its horses, but I don’t think I was meant for that. For the country, or for help.—Amina Cain Sometimes a short paragraph is enough. Something unique is unfolding, words – this common…
Tag: art history
Running in circles …
… or maybe not? The circle in shape of a vessel resembling a Moon Jar has shown up in several of my recent paintings Moon Jars were originally made during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). They are curvaceous, plain white porcelain jars resembling a full moon. They were made customarily to contain flowers or wine, but…
On speed & stamina
Here is something interesting I just read today: When you paint, you have to be quick. Even if it is not turning out very well, it is always better than going slowly. You must bring the energy of your entire existence into the picture. FRANÇOISE GILOT in “THE WOMAN WHO SAYS NO” (also worth mentioning…
A note on annotations
Pierre Bonnard, I just learned, did not paint in front of his motifs. Instead, he filtered the image, finding a way to make annotations (notes, sketches) that were a trigger for recollections that he wanted to capture on canvas in the studio. His paintings were, in other words, salvages and translations of primary sensations –…
“On Vision and Contemplation”
An Excerpt from “MEMORIES OF STAROBIELSK ESSAYS BETWEEN ART AND HISTORY” by Józef Czapski, translated from the Polish by Alissa Valles, introduction by Irena Grudzińska Gross “We paint only one percent of contemplation.” —CYPRIAN NORWID What is vision? A certain synthetic, singular way of looking at the surrounding world. A moment of such vision always…
Sunday poem
Rereading Frost by Linda Pastan Sometimes I think all the best poems have been written already, and no one has time to read them, so why try to write more? At other times though, I remember how one flower in a meadow already full of flowers somehow adds to the general fireworks effect as you…
Regarding Hendrick Avercamp
Here is the text I planned to talk about in my last post, Michael Glover’s great little essay on Avercamp’s: Winter Landscape with Skaters – hereby recommended! Winter Landscape with Skaters is a 1608 oil on oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. * Many of Glover’s fine essays on art can be found…
Finally some good news:
I’d like to think I can represent all those artists who heroically have kept going and are successful, but are not recognised or acclaimed. —Phyllida Barlow Can it be true, as some say: Old women are replacing young men in the art world We can at least hope! After having been overlooked for decades, the…
Art on art
When your head gets filled with too much theory – try art: A SHORT TALK ON THE END What is the difference between light and lighting? There is an etching called The Three Crosses by Rembrandt. It is a picture of the earth and the sky and Calvary. A moment rains down on them. The…
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May … (cont.)
Still working on my rose-text, today I will show you a contemporary version of the motif: Cy Twombly: The Rose IV (2008). Acrylic on plywood, 252 x 740 cm. Cy Twombly’s The Rose is a cycle of five paintings, numbered I – V, the paintings are variations of each other. Cy Twombly: The Rose V (2008). Acrylic on plywood, 252 x 740…
sub rosa 