Simon Hantaï on his painting:
The canvas is the scissors for me... Pliage [folding]. Face up to what has happened in painting, to painting. At the limit, at the opposite extreme--scissors and the dipping stick. Line form color united in one thing. The canvas ceases to be a projection screen and cuts within itself.
This comes from the Pompidou's excellent retrospective catalog.
One response to the retrospective here.
John Zurier's approach:
Around 1994, I became interested in the color grey and the Japanese concept of "killed colors." This involves the elimination of color by darkening it or thinning it down so that it hovers almost at the extreme limit of visibility. This is how I came to monochrome--not out of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. I like the idea that in Japanese painting monochrome painting is the closest thing to emptiness.
From a profile of gallerist Gavin Brown:
When Brown started out, in the midst of the early-’90s-art-market downturn, he found the climate invigorating. “With the money gone, nothing is at stake; anyone can do what they want,” he remarked toThe New York Times in 1994. These days, he said, “everyone is aware of how much is at stake, and no one wants to make a false move. I mean, $37 million for a Richter painting—$37 million! There’s a collective insanity in many parts of our world, and the art money is just another expression of it.”
The limits and reserves within painting interest me because they show that painting can negotiate and embody its absences. I approach this paradox through a variety of forms. In each case, the basic materials provide a working set of limitations. These limitations offer the work a specific form and minimize arbitrary intrusions that I am tempted to make.
