Images and Quotations: PART THREE

“Forms take reality for me as I work. In other words, rather than setting out to paint something, I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself, or suggest itself under my brush.”

--Joan Miro from his work Joan Miro, page 211.

Joan Miro, Personnage, 1972

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“I don’t know if I work in order to do something or in order to know why I can’t do what I want to do.”--Alberto Giacometti. From David Sylvester’s study Looking at Giacometti, pages 76-77.

Alberto Giacometti, City Square, 1948

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“I think of my paintings as dramas. … Neither the action or the actors can be anticipated.”--Mark Rothko.
From the study Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record by David Shapiro and Cecile Shapiro.

Mark Rothko, Orange and Yellow, 1956

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“I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let is come through.”--Jackson Pollock.
From the work called Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible, by B. H. Friedman on page 100.

Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950

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“At the time of making a picture, I want not to know what I’m doing; a picture should be made with feelings, not with knowing.”--Hans Hofmann.
From De Kooning’s Spirit of Abstract Expressionism, page 69.

Hans Hofmann, Fermented Soil, 1966

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“What happens on canvas is unpredictable and surprising to me.”
--William Baziotes.
From Ann Eden Gibson’s Issues in Abstract Expressionism, pages 241.
William Baziotes, The Flesh Eaters, 1952

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“that each brush stroke is a decision.” --Robert Motherwell.
From Collected Writing of Robert Motherwell by Stephanie Terenzio, pages 227.

Robert Motherwell, Beau Geste II, 1989

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“My pictures finish themselves.” --Howard Hodgkin.
From Graham-Dixon’s novel Howard Hodgkin, page 214.

Howard Hodgkin, Keep it Quiet, 2000-2001

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“a painting’s different stages betray the painter’s endless trial and error as he ties to arrive at what he feels is definitive, final, completed state.”

--Balthus from his Vanished Splendors, page 55.

Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski), Nude Before A Mirror, 1955

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“I apply myself to seeking out images that I do not know…Indeed, it would be sad to know in advance that which is to come, for the simple reason that it deprives one of the sense of discovery.”--Pierre Alechinsky.
From The Artist Observed: 28 Interviews with Contemporary Artists by John Gruen, page 302.

Pierre Alechinsky, Les Trois Coups, 1993

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“’in my own work the best things just happen—images that I hadn’t anticipated.”
--Francis Bacon.

From Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere by Michael Kimmelman, page 43.

Francis Bacon, Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef, 1954

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“a kind of dialogue between what I think is being born on the canvas, and what I feel, and step by step, I advance and it transforms itself and develops.” --Pierre Soulages.
From Kuthy’s written account Pierre Soulages, page 23.

Pierre Soulages, Painting, April 30th, 1972

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“I find that I can never conceive a painting idea, put it on canvas, and accept it, not that I haven’t tried.” --Richard Diebenkorn.
From Jane Livingston’s work The Art of Richard Diebenkorn, page 72.

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park #54, 1972

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“When one made a move toward the canvas surface, there was a dialectic and the surface gave an answer back, and you gave it an answer back.” --Helen Frankenthaler.

From Barbara Rose’s Frankenthaler, page 36.

Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay, 1963

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“Pop art, op art, flop art, and slop art. I fall into the last tow categories.” --Joan Mitchell.
From Joan Mitchell by Judith E. Bernstock, page 57.

Joan Mitchell, No. 5, 1955

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“the results are the way of discovering what I know and what I don’t.” --Susan Rothenberg.
From Joan Simon’s Susan Rothenberg, page 137.

Susan Rothenberg, Untitled (Horse), 1979