" Avoidance "

5 months ago with 2 notes
There is an idea of beauty here, and beauty in art is immeasurably difficult. This sculpture could be kitsch, but isn’t. Somehow, Schütte manages to undermine the form, giving it a twist. I stand there and think, how dare he?(x)

// favorite artists » Thomas Schutte



7 months ago with 12 notes
It is tempting to view the Quays as artists out of step with their times, overly attracted to the antique and the arcane. Yet in their own quirky way they seem eminently postmodern, not the least for their avoidance of narrative logic. Like many members of their artistic generation — the American painter Philip Taaffe comes to mind — the Quays also seem to view the past as unfinished and full of potential. (x) // favorite artists » The Brothers Quay
It is tempting to view the Quays as artists out of step with their times, overly attracted to the antique and the arcane. Yet in their own quirky way they seem eminently postmodern, not the least for their avoidance of narrative logic. Like many members of their artistic generation — the American painter Philip Taaffe comes to mind — the Quays also seem to view the past as unfinished and full of potential. (x)

// favorite artists » The Brothers Quay



7 months ago with 7 notes
Frankenthaler looked at everything—hard— and drew her own conclusions. In 1952 she painted Mountains and Sea.  It confidently defined her personal style - a visual feast and exploration of thin abstract color - it was painted with the memory of a recent trip to Nova Scotia “in her arms.”  A young artist inspired by Pollock, she had outdone him by the age of 23. Morris Louis, visiting her studio in 1953, found in her work one of his greatest inspirations - “the bridge between Pollock and what is possible,” he said.  (x)// favorite artists » Helen Frankenthaler

Frankenthaler looked at everything—hard— and drew her own conclusions. In 1952 she painted Mountains and Sea.  It confidently defined her personal style - a visual feast and exploration of thin abstract color - it was painted with the memory of a recent trip to Nova Scotia “in her arms.”  A young artist inspired by Pollock, she had outdone him by the age of 23. Morris Louis, visiting her studio in 1953, found in her work one of his greatest inspirations - “the bridge between Pollock and what is possible,” he said.  (x)
// favorite artists » Helen Frankenthaler



7 months ago with 1 note
Louis spills his paint on unsized and unprimed cotton duck canvas, leaving the pigment almost everywhere thin enough…for the eye to sense the threadedness and wovenness of the fabric underneath. But “underneath” is the wrong word. The fabric being soaked in paint rather than merely covered by it, becomes paint in itself, color in itself. (x) // favorite artists » Morris Louis
Louis spills his paint on unsized and unprimed cotton duck canvas, leaving the pigment almost everywhere thin enough…for the eye to sense the threadedness and wovenness of the fabric underneath. But “underneath” is the wrong word. The fabric being soaked in paint rather than merely covered by it, becomes paint in itself, color in itself. (x)

// favorite artists » Morris Louis



8 months ago with 7 notes
The archivist in him is very present; the taxonomist too. But there is mortality and the fragility of nature in this room. Of course there is also a more human, if numinous reckoning too. We are well aware of the poignant story of Christ’s joyous arrival in Jerusalem, before the agony on Golgotha. This is Kiefer after all… (x)// favorite artists » Anselm Kiefer

The archivist in him is very present; the taxonomist too. But there is mortality and the fragility of nature in this room. Of course there is also a more human, if numinous reckoning too. We are well aware of the poignant story of Christ’s joyous arrival in Jerusalem, before the agony on Golgotha. This is Kiefer after all… (x)
// favorite artists » Anselm Kiefer



8 months ago with 33 notes
Now, Henry Darger. A wrecked and broken-hearted man, who wrote a huge narrative saga for nobody but himself to read; and then illustrated it with 300 scroll-like, narrative watercolours for nobody but himself to see. Born in 1892, an orphan by 1905, he  was institutionalized at the age of 13, apparently because a doctor had written: “Little Henry’s heart is not in the right place.” (x)// favorite artists » Henry Darger

Now, Henry Darger. A wrecked and broken-hearted man, who wrote a huge narrative saga for nobody but himself to read; and then illustrated it with 300 scroll-like, narrative watercolours for nobody but himself to see. Born in 1892, an orphan by 1905, he  was institutionalized at the age of 13, apparently because a doctor had written: “Little Henry’s heart is not in the right place.” (x)
// favorite artists » Henry Darger



8 months ago with 4 notes
I would ask him to give me his definition of drawing. “You don’t know a thing about it,” he would always end up saying. And without fail he would go on to this apologue: that the Muses do their work on their own, each apart from the others, and that they never talk shop. The day’s work over, there are no discussions, no comparisons of their respective labors. “They just dance,” he would shout. (x)// favorite artists » Edgar Degas

I would ask him to give me his definition of drawing. “You don’t know a thing about it,” he would always end up saying. And without fail he would go on to this apologue: that the Muses do their work on their own, each apart from the others, and that they never talk shop. The day’s work over, there are no discussions, no comparisons of their respective labors. “They just dance,” he would shout. (x)
// favorite artists » Edgar Degas



8 months ago with 0 notes
Once, I had a couple of paintings I was working on up on the wall and one leaning against the wall on the floor. The dog came over and peed on it. I wanted to be so mad, but then I was like: “This is so great. I’m mark-making, you’re mark-making…we’re in this together!” (x)// favorite artists » Lisa Sanditz

Once, I had a couple of paintings I was working on up on the wall and one leaning against the wall on the floor. The dog came over and peed on it. I wanted to be so mad, but then I was like: “This is so great. I’m mark-making, you’re mark-making…we’re in this together!” (x)
// favorite artists » Lisa Sanditz



8 months ago with 3 notes
Was Schiele a pornographer? In some sense he surely was making art with the purpose of provoking sexual arousal - in addition to shocking the bourgeoisie - and there were people who purchased his work with that purpose in mind, so the answer is yes. But there have been few pornographers who drew as well as he did. (x)// favorite artists » Egon Schiele

Was Schiele a pornographer? In some sense he surely was making art with the purpose of provoking sexual arousal - in addition to shocking the bourgeoisie - and there were people who purchased his work with that purpose in mind, so the answer is yes. But there have been few pornographers who drew as well as he did. (x)
// favorite artists » Egon Schiele



8 months ago with 14 notes
His angrily drawn image of writhing half-human, half-animal forms, perched atop pedestals and set in claustrophobic spaces, seemed to epitomize the grim spirit of postwar England and established the painter immediately as a master of the macabre. Margaret Thatcher once called him “that man who paints those dreadful pictures.” But then, of course, as Bacon was fond of saying — “You can’t be more horrific than life itself.” (x)// favorite artists » Francis Bacon

His angrily drawn image of writhing half-human, half-animal forms, perched atop pedestals and set in claustrophobic spaces, seemed to epitomize the grim spirit of postwar England and established the painter immediately as a master of the macabre. Margaret Thatcher once called him “that man who paints those dreadful pictures.” But then, of course, as Bacon was fond of saying — “You can’t be more horrific than life itself.” (x)
// favorite artists » Francis Bacon



8 months ago with 7 notes
It is said that at Monet’s funeral, upon finding his coffin draped with the customary black pall, the artist’s friend George Clemenceau snatched away the cloth and replaced it with a multi-coloured shawl, saying “Pas de noir pour Monet.” (x)// favorite artists » Claude Monet

It is said that at Monet’s funeral, upon finding his coffin draped with the customary black pall, the artist’s friend George Clemenceau snatched away the cloth and replaced it with a multi-coloured shawl, saying “Pas de noir pour Monet.” (x)
// favorite artists » Claude Monet



8 months ago with 4 notes
You tell me you belong to a village far away from here?  Then, why in the world do you stay in Paris?  Go and pack up, buy some canvas and colours and go home to your own country.  Paint your house, your tree, your people, just as they are, and bring your pictures back to next year’s Salon.  An artist who belongs to no part of the world is a useless being.  Believe me, and go home. (x)// favorite artists » Jules Bastien-LePage

You tell me you belong to a village far away from here?  Then, why in the world do you stay in Paris?  Go and pack up, buy some canvas and colours and go home to your own country.  Paint your house, your tree, your people, just as they are, and bring your pictures back to next year’s Salon.  An artist who belongs to no part of the world is a useless being.  Believe me, and go home. (x)
// favorite artists » Jules Bastien-LePage