Writings
MYSTICISM AND FORMALISM
IN MODERN ART
The Feeling of Seeing
Every morning while working toward this exhibition, I started my day in the studio by making a sketch from a Cézanne painting. On that same piece of paper, I would write down notes and thoughts about seeing. Painters like Cézanne, Matisse, and Hofmann have nourished me for years—not only through their paintings, but through their written words and ideas. They are my constant companions at the easel. This essay grew directly out of those morning sketches and notes. It is simply an attempt to share how their way of seeing continues to guide my own practice.
STAN
BRODSKY
Brodsky’s title suggests an analogy to poetry in the form of an ode. Abstraction has often been likened to landscape or to music and much of Brodsky’s work has been influenced by places he has visited. And he does often actually listen to music while painting. But Brodsky’s “Ode to Color” encourages me to attempt a different way of describing its effect. Ode to Color is “pure” and not derivative of anything outside of its own life. Brodsky says his most recent paintings are the outward expression of his inner feelings. For …
GEORGES
BRAQUE
Braque’s paintings of a simple farm plough are a surprising motif in modern painting. In 1967 Jean Grenier wrote, “ The world of agricultural equipment and tools aroused very deep feeling in him. How close he was to the earth!”. He kept photographs of farm ploughs tacked to his studio door. Braque was known to have had a very workman’s like attitude towards the craft of painting. I can imagine him in the studio drawing, painting, mulling, and it was possible a bit romantically for him like ...