I’ve been aware of a particular Richard Diebenkorn painting for almost since I’ve been making art with any seriousness. That painting is a pair of scissors that was painted – I’ve been lead to believe with leftover paint on a palette. Part of a studio process that really involved clean up and a desire not to waste anything.
On top of that it’s a great painting. The painting shown in this blog post is not the one Bernard Martin (at VCU in 1982) would show me – at least not in my mind, the one above is from 1959 and about the same size (10.5 x 13) but it fits the bill about what I want to open up into discussion today.
The idea I’m currently interested in is the time in-between making art objects.
I’m thinking of pieces of art that are like interstitial graphics for TV shows. They are a transitional idea that is not fully formed but is interesting in it’s own right. (On TV think of the stills that are shown before the commercials on the Letterman Show) Another way of looking at this idea of in-between time images is to compare them to Robert Wilson and David Byrne’s Knee Plays. The Knee Plays were a series of twelve brief interludes intended to connect the larger scenes of The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down and provide time for set changes.
In my studio practice it has become a way to extend paint and to create a couple of images a year that are at one time unplanned and not overly thought through. I use these images to plan future ideas and to use the studio as a more experimental place.
I don’t think of these as sketchbook paintings or even sketch book work – is more than that – but also at the same time maybe it’s a little bit less as well. I like the way that this idea doesn’t really fit into anyplace really while at the same time fitting practically everywhere.
I’m my mind this would be a perfect idea for a show that would last about a week or just an evening.
Two things to note:
I believe that this story that Bernard Martin told my painting class is true, and I have not been able to find a story that confirms it.
The above painting is: Richard Diebenkorn, Scissors, 1959. Oil on canvas. 10 1/2 x 13 inches. Collection of Richard Grant and Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant.