"Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists"
About this Quote
De Kooning turns the romantic myth of the solitary genius into something closer to an unglamorous fact of studio life: the moment you commit to a mark, you enter the archive. His phrasing is almost bluntly procedural - "fills a certain area", "circumscribes it" - stripping art of mystic inspiration and treating it like an irreversible decision in space. That practical language is the point. History, he implies, is not bestowed later by museums or critics; it's manufactured in real time through choices that can be seen, copied, resisted, or corrected by whoever comes next.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the idea that art is an unfiltered expression of "personal feelings". Feelings might start the work, but they don't get the last word. The canvas is a public arena, even before it's public. Once a form exists, it becomes a reference - a problem posed to other artists. De Kooning, coming out of Abstract Expressionism, knew how quickly a "personal" style hardens into a movement, and how movements become recipes. His line acknowledges that every gesture carries consequences: it can open a door (new spatial logic, a new kind of figure/ground fight) or close one by becoming mannerism.
"Acts from or upon other artists" captures the push-pull of influence without romance. You work through what you've seen, and your work pushes back on what others will dare to do. In that sense, de Kooning isn't describing fame; he's describing inevitability. Art doesn't escape history. It produces it, one bordered shape at a time.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the idea that art is an unfiltered expression of "personal feelings". Feelings might start the work, but they don't get the last word. The canvas is a public arena, even before it's public. Once a form exists, it becomes a reference - a problem posed to other artists. De Kooning, coming out of Abstract Expressionism, knew how quickly a "personal" style hardens into a movement, and how movements become recipes. His line acknowledges that every gesture carries consequences: it can open a door (new spatial logic, a new kind of figure/ground fight) or close one by becoming mannerism.
"Acts from or upon other artists" captures the push-pull of influence without romance. You work through what you've seen, and your work pushes back on what others will dare to do. In that sense, de Kooning isn't describing fame; he's describing inevitability. Art doesn't escape history. It produces it, one bordered shape at a time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Willem
Add to List
