Burton Dickerson, A Blog

When I used to teach figure drawing, I would occasionly set up the advanced students toward the rear of the class, easel and all., and call for a one hour pose from the model, I would join the students and paint furiously for one hour. The ” lovely lady ” on page six is a one hour pose, painted on paper. with ” vigor “, same with the black and white figure. Speed is good ? !

In response to a previous question, I have been imposing rectangles, grids,etc. on my abstract paintings for many years, as have others before me. Hans Hoffman, the pioneer of abstract expressionism in the early 50 used to plant a big red rectangle right in the middle of his wild abstractions. I think the artist is trying to place a little order within the chaos… to suggest that even in the seeming capriciousness of nature, we detect a sense of geometry- straight line, circles, patterns. imposed by man. How about that line of….? D

Use of Creative Ideas: If it can be put to music, don’t paint it ! If it can be written, don’t paint it ! If it can be photographed, don”t paint it! If you can dance to it, don’t paint it ! If you can’t do anything with it, paint it ! D

  For those of us who still believe that painting remains relevent and vital  in the 21st century ( believe me, many artists have moved away from that old  19th century activity and into new technology )  we do well to look back into the development of Cubism and the various paths it pursued into the 20th century. Look at the works of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque,  Ferdinand Leger, Juan Gris.  Each took a seperate path out of Cubism and developed their own "turf" . Incidently, I have never heard a clear definition of  Cubism. I have  heard it described in nauseating detail… but not by definition. Odd that no great art movement has lead the way from the 20th century into the 21st as yet.  D

I’ll be making observations here from time to time, direct comments to the burtondickerson.com forum