Tag Archives: Cézanne

Originality

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Robert Linsley

Originality, as it happens, is the highest value in the art of our time. Many artists don’t like that—sadly nothing can be done about it. Even Sherrie Levine is original in her critique of the concept, as Howard Singerman, her … Continue reading →

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After Poussin

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Robert Linsley

Following from the preceding post, the overloadedness (if the reader will forgive such an awkward coinage) of Stella’s work is attractive, to me at least, but it does present problems. For one it becomes more difficult than usual to grasp … Continue reading →

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Picasso’s Tricks

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Robert Linsley

I’m always struck by the fact that the most skilled artists, Picasso and Cézanne for two examples, go out of their way to plan pictures that they could carry off straight out, without much preparation. Whereas the average artist has … Continue reading →

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Modernist Method

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Robert Linsley

An example of modernist practice in its purest form might be the paintings of Paul Klee. He starts with a formal idea, a method, a sense of how relationships should play out, and the work is generated from that. Whether … Continue reading →

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Time Passing

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Robert Linsley

Cézanne’s card players have come up before on this blog. I find them puzzling. The subject is boring and the manner is uninspired, even if the pictures do contain lots of typical Cézanne. But maybe time does pass without much … Continue reading →

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Nothing New

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Robert Linsley

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” So begins a novel by Samuel Beckett. In art, novelty can’t stand inspection, because every work has precursors, but works are new not because they are new but because they … Continue reading →

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First and last

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Robert Linsley

In America, “first” means best, and also the leader. Of course, every artist is the last, always coming after the great achievements of the past. In American art, leadership is gained by deploying tropes of “firstness,” by claiming to access … Continue reading →

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Helen Frankenthaler

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Robert Linsley

I was moved by Anne Wagner’s obituary for Helen Frankenthaler in the April 2012 issue of Artforum. Every artist has to make their own canon, never more than today, when almost all artists are educated by art historians. Frankenthaler belongs … Continue reading →

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Planning

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Robert Linsley

In the previous post, with reference to Frank Stella, I mentioned planning. That can be a very pleasurable activity in art—to project an image, then work out how to get it, the procedures, the methods, the materials. Of course, all … Continue reading →

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Once only

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Robert Linsley

There’s a lot more to say about time, and a lot that’s important for art, but I would like to talk about my kind of art. I would call it an additive tradition, running from Pollock through Frankenthaler, Louis and … Continue reading →

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Cézanne’s Watercolors

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Robert Linsley

I have always found Cézanne’s watercolors a puzzle, which is why I don’t tire of them. But just today I think I’ve found a way to see them and to make them useful. Some of them are complete images in … Continue reading →

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Unbounded Areas

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Robert Linsley

In a picture, unbounded areas are interrupted by the picture edge, so their unboundedness is an illusion produced by the artist’s skill in organizing the closed forms within the picture (The Grid and the Rectangle). One has to suggest an … Continue reading →

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Infinity

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Robert Linsley

Infinity is a trope—for all the possibilities not realized, paths not taken, forms not shaped, decisions not made, choices not faced. It appears in art as the illusion of an unbounded area. That’s the good kind of infinity, an emptiness … Continue reading →

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Reductive art history

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Robert Linsley

Today I had a brief conversation with Richard Shiff. We share the view that most art history is quite reductive, that it narrows art to fit abstract theories rather than opening it up to experience. In my opinion, he is … Continue reading →

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