I came to the conclusion that despite the painter and collector in me, the films were fantastic, and I added them to The Top Five. I never did find that Mondrian quote.
Earlier that day….
What I had found was a partial Gauguin quote, not a Mondrian quote as the search criteria and Google summary suggested. However, the misrepresented sentence got me thinking: Evans’ source material AND finished “work of art” are the same thing - neither is an object nor a photograph, but digital code translated into colored pixels of light. As Google inadvertently implied that Mondrian said: let nature be nature, let paint be paint, and let a computer screen remain a computer screen. The images were lifted FROM a digital source and remained digital throughout their manipulation and presentation. I’m always a little peeved when I see “still shots” from an art film for sale as photographs.
Minutes earlier….
Eventually my Google search for “piet mondrian advice quote” yielded the following result:
2 hours earlier...
I started googling to find a quote or some reference to a story someone told me years ago about the artistic process. From my recollection, I was told Piet Mondrian said something like this: “Before I paint, I have to forget all the negative things critics say about my work. I know I’m going to have a good day if I can also forget the positive things critics say. If however, I can forget my own opinion of the work, I will have a phenomenal day”. I’m sure the words were different, Piet Mondrian may not have been the one to say it OR it may not have been said at all. But I googled every combination of words I could think of.
The day before…
I ran into some trouble “seeing” the recent Cliff Evans show at Stephan Stoyanov Gallery. I "see" art with various glasses (artist, critic, collector, spectator). Certainly everything in my head forms my opinions, but what I collect isn’t necessarily “recommendable”, what instructs my own painting often isn’t worth buying, and as I’m finding my own voice as a writer/critic, I can’t just read articles that agree with me. My problem viewing this show was that one film looks nearly exactly like a painting of a freeway overpasses I did a few years ago, and the other is the exact type of art that I avoid collecting – the kind that gives you a headache. In trying not to let that very personal baggage interfere with my “is this good?” perspective, I tried to literally forget myself…