Painting is "an exercise in continuous clarification: the painter clarifying his idea, but then making sure that that clarity was passed on to the beholder...
"... for Rothko, the painting was never finished with the last brushstroke. That was merely the end of the beginning. The picture continued to form, grow -- 'expand and quicken' ... in the eye of the beholder.
"... And that's also why Rothko was so fearful about letting his paintings go 'out into the world'."
-- Art critic Simon Schama on Mark Rothko, in Power of Art, p420.
If a painting isn't finished with what you think is the last brushstroke, as Rothko would have it, then how do you decide it's time to put down your brush? How do you judge what a viewer might see and "clarify"?
I think you could drive yourself nuts trying to figure this out, because each person looking at a painting sees something different. Even you do, depending on your mood on a particular day and how long ago you did a painting. It comes back to needing to paint for yourself, to work on a piece until you're satisfied, to consider comments from others but not to be too easily swayed to change things. To said: "It's Done! (At least for today.)"
No comments:
Post a Comment