Wayne Thiebaud's Passion for Art History Shines in 'Art Comes from Art'

There are two important things to note about van Gogh’s experiments in art. The first is the variety of methods, ideas, and resources he applied. Since he struggled with many aspects of painting, I believe that variation was important to his eventually finding a style that would work for him—one that would take advantage of his strengths and dimini

The artist creates a faithful reproduction of nature. Our methods are similar: While he places his picture upon a canvas, I place mine within. He places the oak upon a canvas and gives it its natural surroundings. I do the same. To bring his picture forth, he concentrates upon it to the exclusion of all else that would tend to draw him away from hi

David Hockney would stress, with his characteristic directness, the importance of this process of reception and transmission: In one gallery they actually had a notice which said, ‘No Sketching.’ How obnoxious! I said, ‘How do you think these things got on the walls if there was no sketching?’ Hockney’s telling point is that it is not enough merely

Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.