Statement I

I think that the dialogue between an artist and his/her work is essentially a private one. A translation from a visual to a verbal language reveals the nature of the work only on a certain level. The origins lie in sources which are inaccessible to logic and language—rendering an analytical reconstruction at best incomplete.

My approach to painting is basically intuitional. The process itself serves as a means of eliciting forms from the unconscious. Ideas derived from sketching, from external reality, or flashing through the mind, are “changed upon the blue guitar.” The conscious mind plays a role in decision making, organizing, but cognitive processes alone impose too logical a system. I think it is not possible to deal with just that part of the mind in making art.

The use of gold paint goes back (intermittently) to a visit to the Frick Collection some years ago, and I had been working with it exclusively for several years. More recently, I began using silver paint also. I am primarily concerned with linear, geometric structures, close-valued tonalities, and the textural qualities of surface.

The idea that painting could depict an inner world without reference to external phenomena seemed radically new in the early part of the century. But a similar concept was expressed many centuries before by Plato, who based his theory of beauty on geometrical forms. In the Philebus, he said that what he meant by beauty of shapes was not living creatures or their imitations in art, but rather straight lines, curves and the plane or solid forms that the elements create and which are always beautiful.

Art that attempts to express—as music does—what is inexpressible in any logical way, is one means of interpreting reality. Other aspects of reality are expressed by different modes. But whether the direction lies in figuration or abstraction, the artist must strive to discover the best and most trustful means of expressing that which corresponds to his/her own encounter with reality.

Statement II

What is expressed in painting (as in music also) is essentially non-verbal which makes it mysterious and exciting. Ideas, emotions emerge from a part of the mind not very accessible to logic and language. The analytical part of the mind plays a role too, but this should be a minor one. What triggers the non-verbal ideas and emotions comes from observed reality.

Years ago, I read that Ellsworth Kelly was “inspired” to do a painting, or perhaps it was a series of paintings, by the sight of a kerchief on a girl’s head and that Joseph Albers worked on variations of colors in squares to explore his ideas on color theory. But these paintings were more than experiments with colors. They became a vehicle for something greater.

Artists start somewhere and the process leads to something else. Willhem de Kooning talked of beginning a blank canvas by writing his name. The forms and colors which appeared there gave rise to more complex forms.