ISBN 978-0-9824090-0-8, 5.125 x 7.5 inches, 64 pages, $10
Co-published with Wittenborn Art Books
Available for purchase at www.soberscovepress.com
Discount Information available upon request
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Excerpt from
THE FIRST DAY–APRIL 21, 1950:
LASSAW: I would consider a work finished when I sense a
“togetherness,” a participation of all parts as in an organism.
This does not mean that I entirely understand what I have cre-
ated. To me, a work is at first, quite unknown. In time, more
and more enters into consciousness. It would be better to con-
sider a work of art as a process that is started by the artist. In
that way of thinking, a sculpture or painting is never finished,
but only begin. If successful, the work starts to live a life of its
own, a work of art begins to work.
ERNST: My work consists of two separate stages of develop-
ment. I consider a painting almost “finished” when I am half
finished with it, when I have reached what seems to be the
greatest measure of surprise. The rest of the action is discipli-
nary on my part. When I see that I am beginning to destroy the
surprise—the basic element of that surprise—then it is time
for me to stop.
POUSSETTE-DART: For me it is “finished” when it is inevitable
within itself. But I don’t think I can explain anything about
my painting, just as I can’t explain anything about a flower or
a child. When is anything “beautiful” or finished? I can’t dis-
cuss things about my paintings. The true thing I am after goes
on and on and I never can completely grasp it.
LIPTON: I think that we require time and intimacy and
aloneness.
BIALA: I never know when it is “finished.” I only know there
comes a time when I have to stop.
NEWMAN: I think the idea of a “finished” picture is a fiction.
I think a man spends his whole life-time painting one picture
or working on one piece of sculpture. The question of stopping
is really a decision of moral considerations. To what extent are
you intoxicated by the actual act, so that you are beguiled by
it? To what extent are you charmed by its inner life? And to
what extent do you then really approach the intention or
desire that is really outside of it. The decision is always made
when the piece has something in it that you wanted.
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