"There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth we inherit from abstract art. That painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, therefore we habitually analyze its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is 'impure'. It is the adjustment of 'impurities' which forces its continuity. We are image-makers and image-ridden. There are no wiggly or straight lines..."
We all need to be free. There is something overwhelming about the attempt to conquer something you previously viewed as The Desirable, to turn things up on the side like that is the task of only the seekers of loneliness. And yet there remains the reality that it just needs to be carried out.
Just as a painter becomes weary of the repetitiveness of style, so also do I see my own inhumanity at an inability towards the most basic feelings of empathy. Philip Guston had to become a cartoon to challenge confinement. What will you and I become?
Philip Guston, ‘Untitled (Cherries)’ (1980).
Philip Guston, 'Painting, Smoking, Eating' (1973)
Philip Guston, 'Multiplied' (1972).
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