Page 45 - Studio International - February 1970

Chartres format for painting. It was at that moment the triangle that would overcome the format

that I 'saw' paintings on the huge sheets of and at the same time assert it? Could it
and Jericho steel. Later that year I had some stretchers become a work of art and not a thing ?
made for two triangles and the challenge of
I knew that if I conformed to the triangle I
the triangular format began for me. would end up with either a graphic design or
I must explain that the triangle had no interest an ornamental image. I had to transform
Barnett Newman for me either as a shape in itself or because it the shape into a new kind of totality.
has become stylish to use shaped canvas. After In a sense this was no different a problem
all, I had done the so-called 'shaped canvases' than the rectangle except that the triangle
or what is more correct in my case, 'no-shape' brings back into painting physical perspective
In the spring of 1967, when the steel was being canvases, as far back as 1950. What I wanted with its three vanishing points. How to do a
cut for the four triangles that make up the to do was find out whether or not the triangle painting without getting trapped by its shape
pyramidal half of my Broken Obelisk, I became could function for me pragmatically as an or by the perspective was the challenge here.
intrigued—intrigued is a better word than object and whether it could also act as a It was only when I realized that the triangle
inspired—with the triangle as a possible vehicle for a subject. Could I do a painting on is just a truncated rectangle that I was able
to get away from its vanishing points. I knew
that I must assert its shape, but in doing so I
must make the shape invisible or shape-less.
I realized that after all it is nothing more than
a slice of space, a 'space vehicle', which the
painter gets into and then has to get out of.
It was this drama, my involvement in the
1
Chartres 1969 existence of the triangle as an object and my
Acrylic on canvas need to destroy it as an object, that made it
114x 106 in. possible for me to begin painting them. After
Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
all, format as format can be a trap.
2
Jericho 1969 I called one painting Chartres because of the
Acrylic on canvas strong assertion of my inner structure in
1 f4 x 106 in.
Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York contrast with the outside format and because
3 (overleaf) of the even light in the painting which has for
Broken Obelisk 1966
Conten steel me the evenness of Northern light—a light
Height 312 in. without shadows.
Coll: The Institute of Religion, Houston, Texas The title Jericho explains itself. q
Gift of Dominique and John de Menil

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