Gregory Amenoff
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Hirschl & Adler modern 1990
By Gregory Amenoff

"THE OLD SCENE PRESENTED ITSELF ONE DAY BEFORE MY EYES FRAMED IN AN OPENING BETWEEN TWO TREES. IT STOOD OUT LIKE A PAINTED CANVAS–THE DEEP BLUE OF A MIDDAY SKY–A SOLITARY TREE, BRILLIANT WITH THE GREEN OF EARLY SUMMER, A FOUNDATION OF BROWN EARTH AND GNARLED ROOTS. THERE WAS NO DETAIL TO VEX THE EYE. THREE SOLID MASSES OF FORM AND COLOR–SKY, FOLIAGE AND EARTH–THE WHOLE BATHED IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF GOLDEN LUMINOSITY. I THREW MY BRUSHES ASIDE; THEY WERE TOO SMALL FOR THE WORK IN HAND. I SQUEEZED OUT BIG CHUNKS OF PURE, MOIST COLOR AND TAKING MY PALETTE KNIFE, I LAID ON BLUE, GREEN, WHITE AND BROWN IN GREAT SWEEPING STROKES.

.....AS I WORKED I SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD AND CLEAN AND STRONG. I SAW NATURE SPRINGING INTO LIFE UPON MY DEAD CANVAS. IT WAS BETTER THAN NATURE, FOR IT WAS VIBRATING WITH THE THRILL OF A NEW CREATION. EXULTANTLY I PAINTED UNTIL THE SUN SANK BELOW THE HORIZON, THEN I RACED AROUND THE FIELD LIKE A COLT LET LOOSE, AND LITERALLY BELLOWED FOR JOY."

--Albert Pinkham Ryder

 

Twenty years ago this Ryder quote struck me like lightning. It seemed to embody all the promise that a commitment to painting could hold. The energy of youth–the strength of the inspired moment–the power in the solitary creative act–and even the simple satisfaction of making an object were subsumed by this passage. These concepts were well suited to my twenty-two-year-old romantic notions of life and art. I lost the quote for many years and only recently rediscovered it.

Looking back at it after twenty years of painting, I find that this passage continues to excite and inspire me. Although nineteenth-century romanticism has little appeal to me today, Ryder’s allusions to the essential artifice of painting seem very relevant and modern. Additionally, Ryder’s words affirm the continuing vitality of Painting, at the most intimate moment in the life of a particular painting–the unencumbered act of making a mark, a brushstroke, a smear on a surface. To that moment I address myself in these painting.

New York, 1990

 







 
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