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