FLYP Media takes you inside of Brice Marden's studio to discuss his views on painting. See the full story on Brice Marden at www.flypmedia.com/issues/28/#5/1
For those who don't "get" Marden's work it might be helpful to consider - how much do you "get" of a piece for string quartet? Can you enjoy the intertwining of melodies, timbres, textures, harmonies, variations, cadences, shifting of meter, progression, modulation? Or can you only appreciate music that tells a story by being sung? Also, go stand in the same room with the paintings. RU-vid is like a badly printed postage stamp version of the work. Only good for those already familiar.
For me, I think it’s not that I don’t understand them, it’s just that I don’t really like them. That could change of course. Obviously some people like his work.
@@phillipschmidtpottery Thanks for the comment. Yes, of course. We don't like everything, or enjoy things at every stage of our lives. I don't often feel a need to "understand" a particular abstract painting when looking at it. Paintings like Marden's are not telling stories, that's why I used the analogy of music in my post 9 years ago. Narratives about the process of making the paintings can be helpful, just as knowing something about a Beethoven quartet can help us to enjoy it more when listening. But necessary?
These paintings are as much a joy to experience as walking in the woods, meandering along the different paths more or less obscured by nature's reclamation, taking in the qualities that present themselves with each new step, learning to appreciate the subtle interplay between continuity and change.
I am no fan of Brice Marden's, but his words on art are enlightening. "I don't understand...Well, of course you don't understand! It's complicated!". Great art is always complicated; you have to learn alot to be able to understand just a little...
What I take from him is his use of surface to hide and reveal both at the same time. That what lies beneath the surface is another surface and both of these visually connect. That when seeing this one understands that dominate and subordinate are interchangeable. Then there is a moment where these two things cancel out and the process (for me) repeats itself. I like that. The tradition of Bay Area Figurative finds particularly in Deibencorn inquiry there. Yes modern European dialect but can be found elsewhere particularly in Africa. I would argue it originated there.
The lines are what is beautiful. Un-contrived, coming in and out of focus, the handle he has of colors and knowing where to stop and start. These are awesome, derivative of his own research.
He is just a marvelous painter . If you can’t appreciate his work most likely you don’t get much out of nature other than the photos you have seen in National Geographic . Or have the ability to truly appreciate something hand made beyond its novelty.. Sorry to be so harsh.
I think art, in order to be really great, has to have naysayers. If everyone likes it, it’s probably too vanilla to be great. I honestly don’t like the little of his work I have seen. After listening to him speak, his words are interesting to me, just not his paintings. Doesn’t mean his paintings are bad.
I really like this way of looking at a painting - an embodied , vibrationel synkimaesthetic expression. for me very much like a Silent piece of Music that can make your bodyheartmind sing and Dance and wonder - for me a painting Can be a way of intensifying presence - a cantillation of Life 🎵💜🎶
To continue my thought from above, I have over the years not liked some work and as my knowledge grew come to find out what i was looking before has now become good work, including my own work. That's why i keep all my work and that kind in a special place which i review every now and then.
Love this work and everything that he says....as he says, we change but paintings stay the same...ha...just realise I said almost exactly the same thing two years ago...so nothing's changed.
I think an artist may make rules for himself but not for others. So one could say, "I don't believe in making rules for art", or "There are no general rules to art," but not say "You can't have rules." So I agree Marden is making an assumption there. But many people love abstract art and enjoy hearing people talk about it. It's a free country after all, which is why it's so fitting that abstract expressionism was an American movement.
Also to quote artist Michael Simpson, 'A painting is never finished.' To which abstract/'figurative' painter Cecily Brown would completely concur; and I'm reckoning Brice Marden would too. Brown stated, 'inevitably when you push it you loose it.' In other words, like a good party it is important to know when to leave; otherwise everything goes down hill very quickly ! 2:16 I love.
Personally I love contrast ,for instance the Van Gogh chair ,is full of contrast ,Leonardo said a painting should have ten elements ,near and far ,motion and rest ,light and dark ,solidity and form ,colour and position .I have always remembered these ten contrasts and try to use them in my painting ,the eye can become easily bored of repetition .
knowing it's complicated is probably the first step...(or gaining the ability to juxtapose the effect from viewing it as both simple and complex)...too many people think abstract art is "simple" in the degrading sense, which to me is a great injustice.
I like his work. But could he write an artist statement? Based on this interview I'd say yes but it wouldn't be that enlightening. I've heard this thinking so much, it just bores me now. But he's good.
Sometimes the one interviewing wants the right answer to a wrong question. Lets be fair. I have to say your comment has some merit, very little but some. However i don't believe it falls under "LESS ABILITY". Some visual Artist have, "the gift to gab", (if you will allow me to use that worn out cliche), Other Artist are quite people who don't have the gift to gab. Over all it comes down to this, one is either tuned in or not tuned in.
@claureic Of course he's going to tell someone (with defensive pompousity, of course) that they don't understand, and that it's complicated. What would you expect him to say? Tell the truth, which is that it's not complicated, there is nothing particular to understand, and that any damn fool can be a fraud and do it? Of course not. He is not going to undermine the delusion which others hold which is what gives him an income source. These people are frauds, but they are not terribly stupid.
I am tired of bullshit comments. Learn about art history. Tachisme, Art Informel, Lyrical Abstraction, Neo Plasticism. Great paintings are not made to be a subjective opinion. They are objective notions of exploring visual language.
abstract expressionism the movement is over, no one can do it anymore and those that try are stupid, just ripping off the originals, but there do happen to be some artists from 2nd 3rd maybe 4th generation ab ex that are still alive, and some of them still make good paintings, like brice marden. sorry to say that art is like history or english: something you need to study to understand, it's complicated and infinitely variable, so don't get mad just because you don't get it
Ok and why does it need to express anything. can it not be enjoyed for the visual language. Why should we be so obsessed with the notion of an idea, a feeling, a memory, a coherent gesture. Grey matter is much more interesting. Metacognition is important. Keep an open mind and you may learn something.
so your line of critique in a time where education has been made into an out of reach luxury, is that this is fraudulent, because elitism. what a lovely person you are.
I'm sorry but this is terrible, whomever said Emperor's new clothes, absolutely agree. if this guy gets some sort of existential validation from painting squiggles then super, but to expect others to revere it is self indulgent at best
I really like his art, his ideas, but how he raises his voice, to drown out the comment of the other person (twice in this short clip), says a lot about his character.
@willybuitenwerf Of course there is something common. The fact that you can live in any country, and be a member of any race or group of people, anywhere in the world and still be a no-talent fraud.
@GAGANHEIM There is no "best" in the arts. Any of the arts. There is only personal preference. My perspective is that "abstract expressionism" is an oxymoron; it does not actually express anything. Any no-talent fraud can do it, as evidenced by the sheer amount of it. Then again, it is only my perspective. Your own mileage may vary.
+de Hugo any famous painter is is good at marketing, has someone marketing them or is part of a group. The work is stagnate and uninspiring inmo. but we all like what we like.
Just like Christianity, right? Need to go to theologian school before ever speaking about God. People just aren't open-minded enough to experience the grace of God! >.>
That would depend entirely upon whether you are a no-talent hack and a useless fraud whose intent is to try to convince rich idiots to buy your versions of the obscenity of mediocrity, or if you are an actual artist, possessed of great ability who is capable of creating quality, to be purchased by others who are capable of recognizing quality.
read tom wolfe's "the painted word" it is one of the best books at exposing of the "wizard" out there in this modern art world. if you think this art is stupid trust yourselves it is. just nice decoration and may match your sofa. there were reasons some people opposed democracy. they feared it would produce morons. we have a clear example here of that coming true.
I think of all the much-touted modern painters, Marden may well be one of the least interesting and least talented. His entire career has benefitted from being overrated early on. From my perspective, his earlier color field paintings leave plenty of cover to hide behind. No one can see if you can draw, compose, and function as a skilled artist. Well, then be began doing these open wavy line paintings, fully revealing for us all that, in fact, he cannot do any of those things well. There is a similarity to some of deKooning's late line paintings, and yet Marden pales embarrassingly by comparision. No amount of logorrheic explanation, adulation by critics and supporters, or further gum-flapping will ever convince me that this artist has any talent. Because I have eyes and decades of experience looking at art.
