John Murray classes week of August 12, 2013

The figure/ground dicotomy.

I have been thinking a lot about figure/ground issues and felt it would be a

good time to have the class consider and investigate the strange and illusionistic

world of this phenomena.

As the critic, Clement Greenberg said; “All painting is flat”.

Meanwhile he went on to ceaselessly promote the, at times highly

layered and spacially complex work, of Jackson Pollack. 

As soon as one makes a mark on a canvas the mind begins to see a hollow space

behind and around the gesture.

The only way around this phenomenon is to coat the canvas in a thick flat layer of paint.

This is essentially what color field painters do.

The cost of truth to the flatness of the picture plane requires one to give up most spacial play.

Modernism and its true believers aside, I feel that the illusion of space generally adds to the

power of a picture, as long as that is not its only conceit, I say let it rip!

Think about what you're doing a bit. One must have awareness to be a good artist.

Here is a picture I did last week that investigates these issues for me.

See you next week, John.