Monday, May 9, 2011

Cut the Crap and Look









"I'm surprised often that you're not looking at the trees with me - and even feel sometimes I am you painting. They call this fusion and say it's disastrous...It's not much fun being nuts - or living among so many amorphous green trees and ideas."



"I think any involvement of any kind is to forget not being alive. Painting is one of those things. I am alive, we are alive, we are not aware of what is coming next. I am afraid of death. Abandonment is death also. I mean: somebody leaves and other people also leave. I never say goodbye to people…."
"It’s (the color white, ) death. It’s hospitals. It’s my terrible nurses. You can add in Melville, ‘Moby Dick’ a chapter on white. White is absolute horror. It is just the worst."


5 comments:

Debu Barve said...

Thank you Paul.

Great that you have also posted her quotes.

She is eternally important.

brian edmonds said...

Her work is top notch. If the same work was by a man she would be talked about in the same breath as De Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, etc. I have yet to see a truly weak painting in her oeuvre. I am sure they are there. No one is immune that is for sure.

A little off subject but in the same realm is the whole East Coast vs. West Coast argument. I think Diebenkorn has suffered from the whole East Coast bias over the years. He is starting to get the recognition he deserves but way to late. Tell me there is a better American painter of the 20th C. He was extremely versatile and the work was stronger for a longer period of time than most of the greats. Sorry for the rant but had to get that one out there.

Paul Behnke said...

Yes, I was disappointed that only one of her paintings was included in the big Ab-Ex show at MoMA this year. Luckily I got to see her VERY strong, Paintings from the Fifties show @ Lennon Weinberg a month or so ago.
Definitely being a woman keeps her from getting her due but also to a lesser extent, the fact that she abandoned NYC for France. And this plays in to your East Coast/ West Coast comment---the powers that be here are and were very NY centric.

Paul Behnke said...

Can I suggest reading Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter?
It just came out. I started it the other day and so far it's really good. More painters need attitudes like hers IMO.

Anonymous said...

Really love your blog...I'll be back more often. Thanks!