In a successful painting everything is integral - all the parts belong to the whole. If you remove an aspect or element you are removing its wholeness.
Richard DiebenkornRead
When I am halfway there with a painting, it can occasionally be thrilling... But it happens very rarely; usually it's agony... I go to great pains to mask the agony. But the struggle is there. It's the invisible enemy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The process of creating art is often filled with both excitement and struggle, where the artist grapples with hidden challenges.
In this quote, Richard Diebenkorn reflects on his experience as an artist, highlighting the dual nature of the creative process. While there are moments of joy and thrill in the halfway completion of a painting, these moments are rare and often overshadowed by the more prevalent feelings of agony and struggle. Diebenkorn emphasizes that this internal conflict is like an invisible enemy that artists constantly face, suggesting that the creative journey is not just about the final product but also about the emotional and psychological hurdles encountered along the way.
Themes
ArtStruggleCreativityPainProcess
In practice
Example use cases
A shared post on social media expressing the challenges of being an artist.
More from Richard Diebenkorn
All quotes βI want a painting to be difficult to do. The more obstacles, obstructions, problems - if they don't overwhelm - the better. I would like to feel that I am involved at any stage of the painting with all its moments, not just this 'now' moment where a superficial grace is so available.
Richard DiebenkornRead
All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression. To call this expression abstract seems to me often to confuse the issue. Abstract means literally to draw from or separate. In this sense every artist is abstract . . . a realistic or non-objective approach makes no difference. The result is what counts.
Richard DiebenkornRead
I don't go into the studio with the idea of 'saying' something. What I do is face the blank canvas and put a few arbitrary marks on it that start me on some sort of dialogue.
Richard DiebenkornRead
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