Hofmann:
A very great Chinese painter once said the most difficult thing in
a work of art is to know the moment when to stop.
moderator
Motherwell: The question then is, 'How do you know when a work
is finished?'
Baziotes:
I consider my painting finished when my eye goes to a particular
spot on the canvas. But if I put the picture away about thirty
feet on the wall and the movements keep returning to me and the
eye seems to be responding to something living, then it is
finished.
Gottlieb:
I usually ask my wife. ... I think a more interesting question
would be, 'Why does anyone start a painting instead of finishing
it?'
Newman:
I think the idea of a 'finished' picture is a fiction. I think a
man spends his whole lifetime painting one picture or working on
one piece of
sculpture. The question of stopping is really a decision of moral
considerations.
To what extent are you intoxicated by the actual act, so that you
are beguiled by it. To what extent are you charmed by its inner
life'. And to what extent do you then really approach the
intention or desire that is really outside of it. The decision is
always made when the piece has something in it that you wanted.
de Kooning:
I refrain from 'finishing' it. I paint myself out of the picture,
and when I have done that, I either throw it away or keep it. I am
always in the picture somewhere. The amount of space I use I am
always in, I seem to move around in it, and there seems to be a
time when I lose sight of what I wanted to do, and then I am out
of it. If the picture has a countenance, I keep it. If it hasn't,
I throw it away. I am not really very much interested in the
question.
continued
on page 2
