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spirituality in a work of art. I grew up, with an artist for a father, valuing art as a vessel for spirituality. Of the painters you���ve known in Provincetown, can you say something about discussions you had with them? For many years, Robert Motherwell was a close neighbor. I remember seeing you at the National Arts Club in New York when Motherwell gave a speech following the award of a medal. You were in the front row listening to every difficult syllable he uttered. NM: Motherwell was an immensely intelligent and cultured man. But we never had a serious discussion. We weren���t that close, and there was a kind of a tradition among those painters never to talk about art. If some of the artists got drunk, they occasionally may have had a private argument about art between two of them. There were forums at the Art Association ��� that sort of thing ��� but I don���t remember anything remarkable being said. What mattered was the presence of the artists. Maybe one reason I never got into a discussion about modern art with them is that I always felt such conversations never went anywhere. How far can words carry an artist? To this day, I find most writing about art to be poetic explorations that depart very quickly from the experience of looking at the painting. The writer goes off on some inner collaboration with his or her own experience. The painting becomes like a distant object from which one is receding at a great rate in one���s vehicle of metaphor. I find that terribly tiresome. On the other hand, technical writing about art ��� the nature of the pigments used, and the method of their application ��� while useful, is not going to stop anyone���s traffic. Perhaps there are more painters worth writing about then there are writers worth writing about ��� that���s a large remark, but it comes out of my general impression. HYLAND 24