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| Study after Velazquez - 1953 |
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Velázquez found the perfect balance between the ideal illustration which he was required to produce, and the overwhelming emotion he aroused in the spectator.
An illustrational form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas a non-illustrational form works first upon sensation and then slowly leaks back into the fact.
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| The Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror, 1967 |
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| Triptych, 1972 |
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Picasso was one of that genius caste which includes Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and above all Velázquez.
Picasso was the first person to produce figurative paintings which overturned the rules of appearance; he suggested appearance without using the usual codes, without respecting the representational truth of form, but using a breath of irrationality instead, to make representation stronger and more direct; so that form could pass directly from the eye to the stomach without going through the brain.
The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure; it’s a little like making love, the physical act of love.
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| Study for Self Portrait, 1982 |
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I don’t think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and luck.
I paint for myself. I don’t know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy myself.
I need the city; I need to know there are people around me strolling, arguing, fucking-living, and yet I go out very rarely; I stay here in my cage.
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| Male Nude before Mirror, 1990 |
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All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at the same time they want to be free. But nobody is free.
I should have been, I don’t know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity and chance.
Painting gave meaning to my life which without it would not have had.
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