OK, whatever you say. When you write that you often crop images of paintings and don't notice any difference (compositionally and how else?) then I think we're just in different worlds with different eyes. I turn to my lawyer's phone number whenever I see an image of one of my paintings cropped or printed over with words or otherwise altered.
When artists decide to crop their own work after painting, they are expressing the fact that the work is not done until that point and also they are saying in effect that the composition is "created" by the framing or cut edge. Considered first or last, the framing edge is critical to composition. By the way, that's Pollock, not Pollack. I'm sure that was a typo. WC --- On Thu, 10/2/08, Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Marks on Canvas > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 8:08 AM > First - I was thinking about the Jackson Pollack movie -- > that showed him > getting ready for his first big-time show. He rolled a bolt > of canvas out onto > the floor -- painted it -- and then cut it up to make > enough paintings for the > exhibit. So yes -- eventually he was considering the edges > of each painting -- > but only at the end, rather than at the beginning of the > process. > > Then -- I was thinking about the watercolour painters -- > who often don't paint > to the edge of their paper -- so the precise edge is not > determined until the > piece is framed - and sometimes it's framed by someone > other than the artist. > > Finally -- I've seen a lot of paintings that just > seemed to have been begun > somewhere in the middle --with the image of a body, or > head, or flower -- and > then eventually been worked out to the periphera. > > I've also cropped a lot of paintings -- not the actual > ones -- but jpg images > of them -- and haven't noticed that the precise > location of the outer edge > makes all that much difference. > > So yes -- I'm doubting whether Hoffman's dictum is > relevant to any kind of > painting other than his own. > > Same thing with his other famous dictum: "The > pictorial life as a pictorial > reality results from the aggregate of two-and > three-dimensional tensions: a > combination of the effect of simultaneous expansion and > contraction with that > of push and pull." (i.e. -- I would say that the > pictorial reality of > paintings from other schools results from much more) > > *********** > > >Miller, you don't know much about painting or its > history. All through > western art and other art, too, the artist has always paid > attention to the > composition, and the composition ends at the edges of the > canvas, so those > edges are crucial. Hofmann was simply reinforcing that > obvious concern. > Artists who ignored their compositions were either dumb and > happily forgotten > or they were dumb and became stars in the midst of > decandnce. But the viewer > usually knows how the composition functions within the > framing edges of the > canvas, > if they know anything at all about looking at paintings > ...and not many do. > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Click to become a designer and quit your boring job. > http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/Ioyw6ijlSIOWLW66LSuV4bWDP3Upen > NlPk61ezdLb4rYVbCjs2Q1Wc/
