Page 45 - Studio International - February 1970
P. 45

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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