The following quotes are from the book on Auerbach by Robert Hughes."Not until the very end did I get the courage to make some things bigger and others smaller than they were; to get the right expression of the whole thing...when I had done it, I recognised somehow that I had cut through my habits, I had made some shapes that seemed to conjure up a coherent, plastic fact: I had done my own painting. I didn't know whether I would ever be able to do it again, but at least I knew what it felt like."
"Nothing can be left out...but you have to bury the irrelevant in the picture, somehow". (To do this, he gradually realised paint would have to relate to drawing in a different way).
"In a good painting, everything is painted with the pressure of a grander agenda behind it, but sometimes the agenda isn't clear to the artist until the very end. It gives the secret unity... The problem is always to identify it."
"I cannot conceive of a way of working inwhich you make an armature and then put things on it. It's exactly those decisions about size, gesture and so forth that one wants to leave until last".
Image: Gabrielle Jones, "Grounded" 2008, 110 x 83cm
Cool quote! I'm so impressed that you can post something so poignant, something that gets right to the heart of the matter - for me, very timely. I'm off to scour my copy for more goodies like this. Thanks for your generous comment too. I think we're both rather enjoying this 'review' thing, hey! Putting it into words really internalises the experience. At least that's how it is for me.
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