Joel Nessim

‘There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth that we inherit from abstract art: That painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, and therefore we habitually analyze its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is ‘impure.’ It is the adjustment of ‘impurities’ which forces painting’s continuity.’[9]

Heaven is always very dull, just a lot of people lined up. Like trumpets, they’re all lined up. There’s not much to look at. But when they’re going to hell the painter really goes to town.

I see now how it feels to do something new and original. The abstract shit really has taken a deep hold and of course it is really the conservatism of now: ‘Don’t rock the boat, we have come so far.’’[6] But the letter ended with these words all in capital letters:

‘THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO—IT IS ALL BEGINNING!’

Oh yes. Bob Motherwell said— ‘fine paintings but Phil should have left out the objects.’ As they used to say in grammar school, ‘If your Aunt had nuts, she’d be your Uncle.’

When Bill de Kooning saw the show, he said he liked it very much. You know, everybody thought those paintings were about the hooded figures, and the bad conditions in America, and so on, and that was part of it—every artist hopes to give his own interpretation of the world—but they were about something else, too. When de Kooning saw the show, after... See more