Page 35 - Studio International - March 1967

Static 2 1966
Emulsion on canvas
90 1/2 x 90 1/2 in.

How often have you done a painting in one scale and found that And that now your ideas are for paintings on a larger scale?
it was wrong and that you had to begin again? Yes.
Very seldom.
Does the fact that you are working on a larger scale give a feed-
When you're wrong, do you do the discarded painting again on a back to the ideas themselves, so that these are now mostly ideas
Afferent scale? Or do you tend to be bored with the idea once for larger paintings, or is it that, among the ideas which you
you've got the scale wrong the first time? make drawings of, you then carry through those which demand a
No, I do it again. larger scale and tend not to bother with those which would be
done on a smaller scale?
But you are saying that before you've done a drawing you've got No, it's the first one. Paintings breed. You work in
very little idea whether the final thing is going to be big or small? certain groups. I remember before my first American
Yes, that's true. show I started to work on a group of things which all
became small paintings. There was nothing I could do
But you nowadays habitually paint larger than before. Would to change the scale. The ideas demanded small canvases.
you like to re-do your old paintings larger?
No. They are right as they are. Do you want your work to be aggressive towards the spectator?
Do you like it to hurt your eyes?
Meaning that the ideas in your early paintings were ideas for I don't mind either way. But I remember being very
paintings on a smaller scale, necessarily? surprised when people first complained that it hurt their
Necessarily. eyes, because it has never hurt mine.