Carolina QuotesMorris Louis and I were interested in how Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler [famous for her soak-painting technique] were using paint. Of necessity we had to get more interested in the stuff of painting. We talked a lot about whether to size the painting or not to size, how to mix up paint.
Kenneth Noland Carolinian
Source
Kenneth Noland, p. 14
- work
- "Conversation with Karen Wilkin" (1986-1988)
- year
- 1986
- locator
- p. 14
Cite this record
“Morris Louis and I were interested in how Pollock and Helen …” Kenneth Noland. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-39AC91D38C. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/39ac91d38c
More from Kenneth Noland
the possibility of dispersing colors through a given layout naturally appealed to me. The idea of putting a lot of color on the panel surfaces didn't. It would probably have been too strong an effect to live with. I wanted something more woven in. the interstices – that was suggested by I.M. Pei – suited me better because if one chose to look at them the eye would be moved along by the differences in color.
We tend to discount a lot of meaning that goes on in life that's non-verbal. Color can convey a total range of mood and expression, of one's experience in life, without having to give it descriptive or literary qualities.
Until Abstract Expressionism you had to have something to paint about, some kind of subject matter. Even though Kandinsky and Arthur Dove were improvising earlier, it didn't take. They had to have symbols, suggested natural images or geometry, which was something real structurally. That gave them something to paint about. What was new was the idea that something you looked at could be like something you heard.