Thursday, April 11, 2013

Work Destroyed - The Balls!

Looking today at Robert Swain.

Here is one of his paintings. Untitled.
Apparently he did these gradation paintings purely by instinct, not through math or science but by eye. They do have a magical unpredictable quality, they do not lay flat as one might expect either.
Each side of each colour plays with another. Look further and perhaps from a distance to see the parabolas the saturated and then the dark colours create.
New inspiration for the inch mat.

The most enjoyable and vivifying thing I read about him was in the titles of his work. The name, always untitled, the size, the year made, the materials and then frequently instead of private collection or Museum of Modern Art ..... the delightful phrase Work Destroyed and the year it died.
Wool Destroyed would be a good title for a hooked piece wouldn't it?
It takes balls to edit your own production as you go along. 
All that is left of these works are photos.
The one above still survives. Thank goodness. It's inspiring.

Happy hooking and looking.

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