*(I believe this image is newer than the class note).
Class notes from SAIC, 1991
Nancy Plotkin at Artemesia – MUST SEE!
Nancy Plotkin at Artemesia
Painting is Not Depicting
Class notes from SAIC, 10/29/91
Christian Metz
Check into film theory (time).
Iconology and iconography.
“The Banquet Years” – Roger Shattuck – mix of art and ideas.
“I no longer know how to live with everyday objects.” Braque to Shattuck, 1951.
1947 – book by Braque – quotes:
“The artist is not misunderstood, he’s barely recognized. People exploit him without knowing who he is.”
“I cherish the rule that corrects emotion.”
“Limited means engender new forms, invite creation.”
Progress – not extending one’s limits, but working within them.
Visual space separates objects from one another. Tactile space separates us from objects.
A painting is finished when one has effaced the idea. The idea is the launching cradle of the painting.
Dover edition of Braque’s book – $6.00.
***
Turner and Impressionism – “I paint what I see, not what I know.”
Cubists paint not what they see, but what they know. Mind + eye.
G. B. – “Art is a mode of representation.” (?)
Do not imitate what you want to create. CREATE.
The painter does not try to reconstitute an anecdote, but to constitute a pictorial event.
Hershel Chip’s “Theories of Art.”
I am more concerned with being in tune (unison) with nature than copying nature.
Writing is not describing. Painting is not depicting. Likeness is merely an illusion. Something cannot be both true and a likeness – you have to choose.
You cannot have a thing both in mind and before your eyes. Forget about things; consider only relations.
The present – the context (circumstances).
***
Combination of some likeness; some convention (language). Book of meditations reflecting some doubt.
“You cannot always have your hat in your hand. That’s why the hatrack was invented. Painting a nail on which to hang my ideas – that allows me to change them.”
***
Valerie Taglieri – Cloud paintings. Artemesia – 700 N. Carpenter, through Nov. 30th.
***
Distortion of the image through reproduction gives art a new meaning – 80’s.
Ersatz.
Puryear – opposite – craftsmanship, process, diversity of materials.
(Artswager and Deacon) Minimalism led into the ’80s.
Difficult, but direct art – not easy to read. More self-contained than M. More additive, a fusion of smaller things into a whole. They all contain a space. Enclosures.
M – forbidding, couldn’t be possessed, intentionally difficult to read – challenge to viewer. Threatening, non-yielding.
Puryear – work that slows down the process of art making and art viewing. An invitation to viewer. Reserve and discretion.
To Create Form, Find an Equivalent for Life
Class notes from Drawing the Figure in Space with Elizabeth Rupprecht, SAIC, 1991
Purpose: to create form; to find an equivalent for life.
Check out Frank Stella‘s “Working Spaces.” Exploring another area of cubism.
Cut up something and rearrange it within a grid. Implied floorplane.
Look at Hoffman‘s “Golden Wall” in the museum.
Look at Holbein for eyes, mouth. Look at Giacometti.
Nose and ear are often parallel, curved or straight, whatever.
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Project Yourself into the Picture Plane
Class notes from Drawing the Figure in Space class taught by Elizabeth Rupprecht, SAIC, 1991
Look at Paul Klee’s “The Thinking Eye.”
Look at “Point and Line to Plane” – Kandinsky.
When drawing the figure in space, use empathy – project yourself into the picture plane. Move yourself to the center of the picture plane.
Every action demands a reaction: in and concave – out and convex; in and up – out and down.
Implies counter-movement.
Make things bend for the demands of the flat surface.
Like movement in Cezanne’s Madame Cezanne.
In Cezanne’s landscapes, things get bigger as they go back in space – he’s projected himself into the landscape.
Think of Dufy’s scene through a fence.
Check out the view down Michigan Avenue towards the bridge.
Look up Munch again. Look for the catalog with seltzer bottle/bowler hat.
Development of the idea is the most important part – spend most time here. Perceptual or conceptual space?
Look at Odilon Redon in print and drawing room. “The Painter’s Eye.” or Mind. Romare Bearden, Carl Holty.
Wolf Kahn landscapes.
Cimabue – those weird hands!
View a gallery of drawings made in this way from this class.
Cloud People in James and the Giant Peach
Class notes, from Advanced Drawing Studio with Barbara Rossi, SAIC, 1991
Check out the book, “James and the Giant Peach,” by Dahl – children’s book with lots of cloud-people. This is related to a series of paintings and drawings I was doing at the time that involved cloud people.
Class Notes on Color
Class notes, SAIC, 1991
- More transparent colors recede; more opaque colors come forward.
- Unify the painting by using the same yellow, orange, etc.
- Gray colors by using their complements.
Tips for Improving Your Paintings
Class notes from art camp classes with George Liebert and Dan Gustin, Oxbow, MI, summer 1991.
Make a list of verbs and adjectives about your own work.
When struggling with a work, isolate parts of it and do lots of sketches to come up with a better composition.
Class Notes: Some Artists to Look At
See more of George Tooker’s work.
Class notes, SAIC, 1991.
See more work by Nicholas Africano
Notes from Oxbow, 1991:
Notes from Art School – Phillip Garner’s Better Living Catalog
I found some of my notebooks of notes from art school (mostly from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990-92; perhaps a few from prior part-time classes at Austin Community College, 1985-89); I thought I’d type ’em up for posterity.
Continue reading “Notes from Art School – Phillip Garner’s Better Living Catalog”