The artist’s role is to discover the art which is unique to him [or her] and then purge that art of all effects that do not serve its ends.
(Carl Andre, catalogue of Whitechapel Art Gallery retrospective).
general news
Quote of the Week
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
(Albert Einstein)
Quote of the Week
It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.
(Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road in Leaves of Grass)
Quote of the Week
Sense, the tortoise, usually overtakes nonsense, the hare, even in this not quite perfect world.
(Clement Greenberg in Modernism with a Vengeance, p140)
Quote of the week
The Ecole des Beaux-Arts seduced the weak with school triumphs and popular successes, and destroyed them in the end, while it identified, repelled, and strengthened the vigorous by forcing them to struggle with reality and to find their own way.
(Lorenz Eitner, in An Outline of 19th Century European Painting)
Type – a visual history of typefaces and graphic styles
Recently added to the Library are two amazing books about typography, published by Taschen. These beautiful volumes are a collection of type specimens, initial letters, decorative lettering, engravings, borders and ornaments. Volume 1 covers 1628 – 1900 and Volume 2 explores 1901 – 1938.
When you borrow the book you also gain online access to over 2000 high resolution, downloadable images , which are great for building up your own archive of reference material. An ID and password are required and these will be given to you when you borrow the book.
Quote of the Week
The making of superior art is arduous, usually.
(Clement Greenberg, Modernism and Postmodernism, Late Writings, p32)
Quote of the Week
The other – the others!
Millions of them are left to sink. They are asphixiated, starved, tortured, reduced to silence. Yet, at great risk, a few men and women refuse to bow down in front of hypocrisy, pseudo-truths, inflated authority. Loud or silent, their testimony sends endless echoes around the world.
(Dominique de Menil, Statement at the first Rothko Chapel Awards for Commitment to Truth and Freedom, 1981)
Quote of the week
We lose weeks like buttons, like pencils.
(Dave Eggars, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
Quote of the Week
It is most often by way of errors, false starts, overrun objectives, and much groping and fumbling in general that great and original art arrives.
(Clement Greenberg, Affirmations and Refusals, p277)
