“The painter is always simultaneously in the community of painters, of the present and of the past.” Interesting article, worth reading to the end!
via Richard Diebenkorn and the Problems of Modern Painting | New Republic
Celia Cook
Celia Cook sets out to destination unknown, finding form through an intricate blending geometry, symmetry, colour and illusion. The journey is unplanned, and images are created through a process of invention and intuition. Check out the website for more from Celia Cook
Mehran Elminia
“Sometimes doing 24 hours continual painting, the artist’s brush becomes a complete extension of his inner soul. His declared aim is to arrive at a state of ecstasy where all knowledge of the past is absent and he can achieve a total symbiosis with the moment. The visual complexity, richness of brush strokes and vibrant colours draw us in gradually so that it is possible for the viewer to attain an almost trance like state as we, little by little, enter the artist’s visual universe. The endless brush strokes create a further effect of staring into a spider’s web and losing oneself in a new and rarefied world.”
Judith Foosaner
Judith Foosaner’s unique combine works begin with black and white linear drawings on paper, which are then cut, rearranged, and collaged onto the canvas. Guided by the lines, Foosaner applies paint to the collaged surface, resulting in complex compositions that enter into a new formal relationship. In a choreographic gesture, the works investigate line, surface, and movement. The work of Judith Foosaner encapsulates energy and fervor as line and form dance across the surface of the composition, resulting in dynamic and gestural abstractions.
via Breaking and Entering: Solo exhibition by Bay Area artist Judith Foosaner at Brian Gross Fine Art.
Jenny Saville
“…Painting is my natural language. I feel in my own universe when I’m painting. But, in Britain, there has been a drive in art schools to describe and to rationalise what it is that you’re making, and that is a death knell to painting. Painting doesn’t operate like that. It works on all the irrational things. If you stand in front of Willem de Kooning’s Woman, I, you can’t unravel with words how that works on you. In America, painting is embraced, perhaps because one of the last great moments of painting was in New York, with de Kooning and Pollock.”
William Baziotes
Weinstein Gallery – Surrealism: New Worlds – William Baziotes.
The Butterflies of Leonardo da Vinci, Oil on canvas, 1942
Roberto Matta – artnet Magazine
Roberto Matta, L’homme descend du signe, 1975, Courtesy The Pace Gallery
Roberto Matta at Pace Gallery by Donald Kuspit – artnet Magazine
In the prevailing philosophy of the Orient, the immeasurable (i.e. that which cannot be named, described, or understood through any form of reason) is regarded as the primary reality. . . . To Western society, as it derives from the Greeks, measure, with all that this word implies, is the very essence of reality, or at least the key to this essence, in the East measure has now come to be regarded commonly as being in some way false and deceitful. …more
via artnet Magazine
Martin Creed: ‘I don’t know what art is’
“I don’t know what art is. It’s a magic thing because it’s to do with feelings people have when they see something. If the work is successful, it’s because of some magic quality it has.”
via Martin Creed: ‘I don’t know what art is’ | Art and design | The Guardian.
a definition of formalism
Term for any approach to the arts, whether theoretical, critical or historical, that emphasizes the autonomy or primacy of formal qualities. In the case of painting, these qualities are usually understood to be compositional elements such as line, value, colour and texture: they can be distinguished from technique on the one hand and content on the other. read full description
Tyeb Mehta
Untitled (Mahishasura), Acrylic on canvas, 1996
Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2012.
The revered painter Tyeb Mehta spent the majority of his life contemplating the human condition; his subjects sometimes illustrating his disillusioned vision of the modern day world. Heavily inspired by ancient mythology and Hindu literature… Mehta fuses ancient imagery with simplicity of form, colour and line, resulting in powerfully modern works full of fresh vitality. Stylistic devices evident in the present work – such as the simultaneity of perspective and figures, the juxtaposition of linear and volumed representation, and varying frontal and profiled angles of vision…
via artdaily.org (Most important work by Tyeb Mehta from his groundbreaking Mahishasura series to lead Christie’s sale)
painting abstract 