01/06/2011 – Day 2

Morning on the way to work on the M train

On the train, artist across the way has sketchbook. I feel like just sitting here and letting time pass by. Tried to read the book on Richter. Too philosophical, not in that frame of mind. No energy to do calligraphy this morning. Tonight will be the first night I really return to the studio and test the process of picking up directly where I left off.

Evening in the studio

Picking up where I left off was not hard from a technical point especially because I have a clear goal in mind. To accomplish this 10″ x 1″ cyan gradient from 10% to 100% following the print out I have. So it’s certainly an easier process to jump back into. Feels more “work” like. There’s not any sort of quasis magical mystical mystery that I’m waiting to happen in the work and the process. I’m not trying to create an “aha” moment. Which on some level I was always looking for, waiting for, when I was working with Frank [Frank O'Cain], less so with Paul [Paul Ching-Bor]. At least the 3rd year with Paul. Now it’s more ordinary. Nothing special. Certainly I’m impatient to get it done. But, I just keep reminding myself to get back to focusing on the technical aspect. In this case the relationship of the tones to each other. I can see that as I get tired it becomes hard to maintain focus and concentration and I get a little bouncy and impatient. I start fighting with myself to get back to focus more. I would like to have more energy and to be able to work longer and focus easier. I wanted to finish the cyan band tonight but I didn’t. A little disappointing but at the same time I am committed to taking this slow so I am willing to accept that it is not done and walk away no without it being done. More than anything I don’t want to rush and over do things and get burned out.

Jack Mottram in The Hearld writes:

Explosion of work on the Richter scale
Next come the abstracts of the 1980s, huge works full of eye-popping colour, with paint spread in dense layers only to be removed, revealing the progression from blank canvas to completed work. These are not just abstract paintings, but a commentary on abstract painting. Richter has no time for the boozy heroics of Jackson Pollock; instead, he has developed a series of actions and processes to produce abstract images emphasised by his layering and removal of paint.{Read More…}

There are layers of satire, too, with Richter undermining the anarchic, intense stereotypes of abstract expressionism with his precise manipulation of surfaces, and pointing wryly to the blurring of his paintings from photographs each time he scrapes his squeegee across a canvas to form a hard-edged line. {Read More…}

Gerhard Richter / Derwisch 12.3.97 / 1997 / 12.6 cm x 17.9 cm / Watercolour on paper / www.gerhard-richter.com

I did not know Richter worked with watercolor. The watercolor abstracts are interesting, seem lighter and more playful than his oil abstracts.

The 2001 Retrospective at MOMA displayed how diverse Richter’s paintings are. His early work is of blurred figurative paintings, both with and without colour followed by seductive abstract paintings, with a colour palette that is either brilliant or subdued. His surprisingly diverse range of work has received prolonged discussion from critics, especially due to Richter’s disregard for “traditional” stylistic progression and his use of photographs. [Read more...]