Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
Robert Casper's technique illustrates this. He begins with two or three
patches of color, shifting and altering them until they form a viable plastic
composition. At first his painting is relatively loose and simple but it must be
plastic; only then can he add to it. Speaking of this early stage Picasso said:
If you take a picture by Cézanne (and this is even more clearly visible in
the watercolors), the moment he begins to place a stroke of paint on it,
the painting is already there |40|.
A painter must be sensitive to his own instincts as to what is needed next.
At the same time he analyzes each addition in terms of proportions and the
balancing of forces and movements. Casper does not begin with a plan and
impose it on the canvas. (If a painting follows a plan it becomes ossified and
cannot go beyond the initial idea.) Nor does he represent what he sees.
Representation only gives suggestions. He adds a new plane only if the whole
canvas seems to call for it. He uses trial-and-error to reject possibilities which are
not immediately called for. Cézanne said of his own process:
There mustn't be a single link too loose, not a crevice through which may
escape the emotion, the light, the truth. I advance, you understand, all of
my canvas at one time - together. I bring together in the same spirit, the
same faith, all that is scattered ... I take from left, from right, here, there,
everywhere, tones, colors, shades. I fix them, I bring them together. They
make lines. They become objects, rocks, trees, without my thinking about
it. They take on volume. They acquire value |41|.
When Casper adds a new element it calls for changes elsewhere on the
canvas. He reworks continuously. His painting may repeatedly dissolve and
transform itself in unexpected ways. But at each stage it must function as a whole
organism. (4) Only then can he add to it. If a painting goes awry and loses its
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