I never seem to make it over to the New York Studio School’s evening lecture series…and always come across the highlights somewhere after the fact. We have Harry over at Daily Gusto to thank for reminding us of Pat Lipsky‘s talk last week and this example of her lyrical abstractions. Also with Ellen Phelen’s recent comments on beauty still fresh in my mind, it was nice to read this little bit here,

Ms. Lipsky, whose work is mostly abstract and geometrical, gave a cool and elegant defense of painting as the formal practice of creating beauty. She quoted Mark Rothko, saying, “An expression of beauty is an expression of rightness.” {Read more…}

Pat Lipsky, Spiked Red, 1969

(via Daily Gusto)

The are more wonderful recent paintings posted on her website. I am particularly drawn to the cold light of two paintings Dowager and Colbalt.

Yesterday I was riding the train out to Ridgewood, NJ and for a while was reading Phong Bui’s interview with Ellen Phelan in the most recent issue of the Brooklyn Rail, that is until I read the closing paragraph.

Of course it’s hard to talk about sublime without beauty. The two are inseparable. I remember one conversation I had with Peter (Schjeldahl) where I was nattering on about wanting to be able to paint the beauty of the world and he said, “What are you saying? The world is not beautiful. It is a horrible place.” Well I just think if you can just slow down, stop and actually see what’s around you or see the light or any random arrangement that occurs in the world—it’s perfect and beautiful; you just have to notice it. Maybe that’s the Catholic girl in me. {Read More…}

After that I decide to just look out the window and watch the beautiful show of graffiti passing by in front of me.