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Pearls from artists* # 409
Posted by barbararachkoscoloreddust
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Poets can look at a painting and understand it without having it spelled out [and] painters can read poetry… People say, I don’t understand what it means, about John Ashbery’s poetry. Painters would never say that… The idea of “I don’t understand what it means,” looking at abstract painting and saying, “Explain it to me, what does it mean?” You don’t say that, and you don’t ask people to explain music. And so, poets, painters, composers don’t need explanations. Explanations are for other people… burdened by logic.
Elaine de Kooning quoted in Mary Gabriel in Ninth Street Women
Comments are welcome!
Posted in An Artist's Life, Art in general, Art Works in Progress, Inspiration, Pearls from Artists, Quotes, Studio
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Tags: abstract painting, ”Ninth Street Women”, ”what does it mean”, burdened, composers, Elaine de Kooning, explain, explanation, John Ashbery, looking, Mary Gabriel, painters, painting, people, poetry, recent, saying, spelled out, understand, works in progress