“Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent.”
—
Lillian Hellman
,
book
Pentimento
Pentimento: A Book of Portraits (1973), Introduction
Context: Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter "repented," changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again. That is all I mean about the people in this book. The paint has aged and I wanted to see what was there for me once, what is there for me now.
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Lillian Hellman 20
American dramatist and screenwriter 1905–1984Related quotes
Frank Stella
(1936) American artist
Quotes, 1960 - 1970
Source: LIFE http://books.google.com/books?id=XUoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49, Vol. 64, nr. 3, 19 January 1968, p. 49
“A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.”
Leopold Stokowski
(1882–1977) British conductor
Addressing an audience at Carnegie Hall, as quoted in The New York Times (11 May 1967); often this is quoted without the humorous final sentence.
Context: A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence.
“Sometimes grown ups don't act their right old age”
Barbara Park
(1947–2013) American juvenile author
“The art of painting is the Art of hollowing out a canvas.”
Georges Seurat
(1859–1891) French painter
from an essay by Roger Fry, in 'The Dial', Camden, New Jersey, September 1926
undated quotes
“The only control that I excercize [in painting] is to not throw too much paint next to the canvas.”
Karel Appel
(1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet
MR1, 177; p. 215
Karel Appel, a gesture of colour' (1992/2009)
Georges Braque
(1882–1963) French painter and sculptor
Quote by Braque, from 'Le Monologue du Peintre', George Charbonnier, Paris 1959
1946 - 1963
Jacoba van Heemskerck
(1876–1923) Dutch painter
translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(original version, written by Jacoba in German:)Ich arbeite sehr viel und denke sehr viel. Ich möchte so gern versuchen, auf Glas zu mahlen. .. ..bitte fragen sie ihn dann [Herr Taut] ob es transparante Farbe gibt, womit man gleich auf Glas malen kann. .. ..ich möchte eine neue Technik haben, dass der Künstler so direkt das Glas verwenden kann statt Leinwand. Wenn man die Farben leuchtend geistlich haben will, dann wird es eine Zeit kommen, dass Oelfarben und Leinwand sich dafür nicht mehr eignen.. ..So wenn Sie Zeit haben, fragen Sie dann Herrn Taut ob er meine Idee versteht und vielieich den Weg kennt, den ik gehen müsse.
in a letter to Herwarth Walden, 11 Nov. 1914; as cited by Arend H. Huussen Jr. in Jacoba van Heemskerck, kunstenares van het Expressionisme, Haags Gemeentemuseum The Hague, 1982, p. 19
It was not until April 1918 that Jacoba wrote Walden she had decided to submit a series of designs for stained glass windows for the upcoming 'Sturm' exhibition - in April 1919 she sent him ten stained-glass windows, 'Nrs. 12-26'
1910's
Edward Hopper
(1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker
1941 - 1967
Source: Three Hundred Years of American Painting, Alexander Eliot; New York: Time Inc., 1957, p. 298
