Notes on Action painting (unrefined)

"If a painting is an action the sketch is one action, the painting that follows it another. The second cannot be "better" or more complete than the first. There is just as much in what one lacks as in what the other has."

This passage grabbed me for some reason, I suppose I always thought that sketches were just a piece of a finished work. As I have been sketching more and more recently in preparation for my art department interview, I think it is a wonderful way of looking at it.

"A painting that is an act is inseparable from the biography of the artist. The painting itself is a "moment" in the adulterated mixture of his life—whether "moment" means the actual minutes taken up with spotting the canvas or the entire duration of a lucid drama conducted in sign language. The act-painting is of the same metaphysical substance as the artist's existence. The new painting has broken down every distinction between art and life."

This quote, to me, seems to answer that central question of this terms class, whether you should know the artist's biography before studying their works or vice versa. To me this quote says that since an art work relies completely on the exact moment in the artists life in which the work was created. Therefor it seems that it may be important to know the biography of the artists before studying their works so that you may actually understand the work as well as possible. I do think that if you are looking at a painting to merely enjoy the painting then prior knowledge of the artists life is unnecessary.

"The painter gets away from art through his act of painting; the critic can't get away from it. The critic who goes on judging in terms of schools, styles, from—as if the painter were still concerned with producing a certain kind of object (the work of art), instead of living on the canvas—is bound to seem a stranger."

This also answers a big question I have had about this course, whether it is more important to recognize an artists work by the period and school of work, or rather by their biography. To me this passage says that (in this modern style of art) you have to judge a work by how much the work expresses the artist, not by the relationship of the artist of their schools, style and the closeness of the work.

General note on the reading-

This reading was interesting, it seemed to me to kind of have very large ideas, but when these ideas are broken down they are slightly different than how I interpreted the main idea. I did enjoy the reading, I thought it gave good explanations for artistic reasoning, and good interpretations of the battles and struggles of the modern artist in the art world.

Class notes on reading

This group of artists did not work together, but rather individualistically working in similar directions.

pollock's work is thought of as the end of painting, no where else to go with art.

-brings up pop art

Return to craft in the early 2000's