The Importance of Painting

I enjoyed this article by Roberta Smith, published in the New York Times on Friday. She quickly gets to the heart of what I sometimes feel, but am unable to articulate, when I look at contemporary conceptual art. Of course, sometimes the purely conceptual works, because the work is not purely conceptual at all. It’s grounded in form and materials in some sense.

Smith criticizes the work in an exhibition entitled “How Soon is Now” at the Bronx Museum of the Arts for being “almost nothing but symptoms reflecting almost nothing but failings.” And a big part of the problem is that, in her words: “an overfamiliarity with Conceptual Art and especially the theories it inspired can leave young artists with no sense of how to make an artwork that holds together as an experience.”

It’s exciting for me as a painter that she isolates the lone paintings in the show as “little oases of personal thought, concentration and effort.”

Her advice to young artists is, “Aspiring artists need to expose themselves to the sheer intensity and variety of art, to learn what they love, what they hate and if they are actually artists at all. Anything is possible when artists set to work knowing they have something they urgently need to say, in a way it hasn’t quite been said before.”

What she proposes is very hard work. But I believe her.

Some inspiration

I have two bulletin boards in my studio that hold a rotating and ever-changing museum of images. The photographs are either my own or gathered from old family albums and antique stores. Most of the images from magazines are from vintage Life and Look from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I also hang up studies and small drawings.

You might recognize the stewardess in the image above.

Here’s a closely held (until now) little secret of mine: I am obsessed with old cigarette ads from vintage magazines. They are relics from a bygone era, and I love the kitschy images of men and women in happy, glamorous locales. Notice the smiling couple in the picture above. You can also see one in the top picture towards the bottom of the cork board. I’m planning a whole series of paintings based on my collection of these ads… some day…

Sneak Preview

This scene features a sneak preview of a future painting. I just finished the drawing, which is olive green oil paint and mineral spirits, on gessoed canvas.

New Painting: “Stewardess”

Stewardess, 2008, oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″

Stewardess, detail

I think it’s OK to call her a stewardess because she was flying the skies in the 1960s, long before the term “flight attendant” was created.

Quotes

“Just as some prefer people who use few words and gestures and leave something to be guessed, so some people are fond of paintings or sculptures which leave them something to guess and ponder about.”

~ E. H. Gombrich

Book Recommendation: Poets on Painters

There are certain books that travel with us throughout our lives. Poets on Painters, edited and introduced by J.D. McClatchy, is one such title for me. The pages of my copy are yellowing, globs of burnt sienna paint are permanently adhered to the back cover, the spine is broken in spots, and the top corner of the front cover is folded over. I often return to the book in particularly contemplative moments, or when I feel I’m in a bit of a rut.

Poets on Painters is a thoughtfully compiled collection of essays, lectures, articles, and catalog introductions all written by poets about paintings and painters. As a collection, the writings successfully illuminate many relationships between the two art forms. Poets, by nature of their form, are able to craft language to describe painting in simple eloquent language. Unlike much art writing of our day, these essays do not suffer from “artspeak,” but rather cut straight to the heart of the matter. (For an engaging discussion on the perils of “artspeak,” start with this post by artist and writer Carol Diehl.)

What I enjoy most about this book is that the essays often focus on poets finding inspiration and meaning from painters. Of course, as a painter, I flip that inspiration around. In some ways, it is easier to learn about form and about painting through the eyes of a poet. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because there is no competition, as there might be between painters. Perhaps because poets just use language so skillfully, they are able to bring about with words what might otherwise be imagined or expressed visually.

The book as a whole is a wonderful read, although I don’t believe I have ever read it cover to cover. I like to read whichever entry strikes me that moment, or go back and look for some wonderful quote that I remember but can’t quite pin down. The gems in the book for me are “Pictures” by Gertrude Stein, “The Relations Between Poetry and Painting” by Wallace Stevens, and “Painters as Writers” by Stephen Spender. The introduction by McClatchy is also excellent.

In addition to highlighting the likenesses of poetry and painting, this book ultimately describes the unique qualities of each particular form. And how they are somewhat unlike one another. Or, perhaps, each useful for conveying different aspects of similar experiences.

In an earlier post, I wrote about some lessons I’ve learned about painting from reading and writing poetry.

Buy the book from Portland’s own Powell’s Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world.